February 29/March 7, 2016; Volume 30, Number 18
Beauflor: Proprietary construction, locking system enhance trending large planks
With nearly limitless design possibilities, Beauflor’s Pure plank and tile collection offers easy maintenance, exceptional sound absorption, is 100% recyclable, 100% waterproof and features a polyurethane finish for long-lasting protection. It can easily withstand heavy loads and high traffic areas.
Pure also incorporates DreamClick, a 360° locking system that is one of the strongest in the LVT market. Installation is made seamless with DreamClick’s four-sided identical locks that allow installers to start the installation in any direction, enabling multiple individuals to work simultaneously on the same floor.
In addition, the evolutionary RCB (rigid composite board) base gives stability and rigidity to Pure’s plank and tile, allowing the product to be installed on top of any existing hard floor with little or no subfloor preparation.
Featuring the natural look of wood and stone, Pure designs are available in standard plank size (52 x 8), an XXL plank (72 x 8 and two tile sizes (24 x 24 or 12 x 24), any of which can be clicked together.
Pure is suitable for residential and commercial environments. The collection is offered in a 16 mil wear layer with a lifetime residential and 10-year light commercial warranty and a 22 mil wear layer that carries a lifetime residential warranty and a 10-year heavy commercial warranty.
Karndean Designflooring: A leader in design, performance, innovation
Karndean Designflooring, which has been making luxury vinyl tile since 1973, takes great pride in being a leader—a leader in design, performance and innovation. For innovation, look no further than Karndean’s floating floor solutions:
Karndean LooseLay
The collection boasts Karndean’s renowned realism and quality, along with a cutting-edge installation format. With its unique friction-grip backing and increased dimensional stability, Karndean LooseLay secures firmly in place. It requires little or no adhesives in most applications, making it fast and easy to install. In fact, Karndean LooseLay can be laid over most existing subfloors. It stands apart thanks to its enhanced acoustic benefits.
Where traditional floor coverings like hardwood and laminate are heavy to transport and require underlayment to comply with standards in multi-living applications, Karndean LooseLay offers cost savings by eliminating the need for an acoustic underlayment and time savings with its easy-to-install approach. An embedded acoustic layer reduces noise transmission and bounce, offering an acoustically sound and comfortable living space that is quieter to walk on and is suitable for busy households, multi-family spaces and commercial environments.
Palio Clic
Eight stylish designs in the Palio Clic line are highlighted by clean, contemporary visuals with on-trend colors and a proven locking system. Based in America and Made for America, Karndean prides itself on providing industry-leading customer service. As such, every Karndean product is heavily stocked in the U.S., where orders can be shipped anywhere within a few days.
Metroflor: New marketing push drives LVT story
Metroflor has streamlined and rebranded its portfolio of LVT brands under the tagline “The LVT Specialists,” narrowing the focus to five core brands: Metroflor LVT, Konecto, Engage, the new Engage Genesis and Artistek. Together the brands provide a comprehensive portfolio of LVT products that can accommodate the needs of virtually every flooring environment at all price points.
Dryback LVT products are the primary platform for the Metroflor LVT and Artistek brands. In the floating/clic category’s good-better-best continuum, Konecto with Grip Strip is good, solid clic Engage is better and the new Engage Genesis brand of structural LVT is best. There are synergies throughout the entire product portfolio depending upon application and budget.
The strategy for positioning the Metroflor brand range online has also changed. All logos are refreshed, redesigned and modernized. Previously presented by brand on separate, unlinked websites, the revamped metroflorusa.com guides visitors through the entire portfolio to find the right solution for every installation. For example, depending upon subfloor challenges and budget, a floating floor can provide the good, better or best solution. Konecto with Grip Strip technology is ideal where speed of installation is most important. If subfloor irregularities do not permit Konecto installation, premium Engage Genesis with Isocore technology is an alternative as it can be installed even over ceramic tile without the need to remove the previous flooring elements or fill in grout lines.
Finally, a new advertising campaign highlights “The LVT Specialist” theme in a series of humorous print ads and videos that dramatize the importance of working with a company whose LVT expertise is front and center.
Novalis: A true international specialist
Novalis was one of the first floating LVT manufacturers in the category and produces more floating LVT using the licensed Unilin and Välinge locking system than any other company in the flooring industry.
Novalis began making luxury vinyl flooring in 1984, long before it became the overwhelmingly popular flooring type that it is now. Today, you’ll find luxury vinyl flooring made by Novalis in over 50 countries across six continents in a variety of commercial spaces and homes.
Because every situation is different, Novalis offers many of its designs in both direct glue down and floating installation featuring its branded NovaClic, NovaClic FD and NovaClic 5G locking systems. For example, its NovaFloor residential line clic installation is offered on its Lyndon collection of 12 planks and tiles and its Casa collection of 26 planks and tiles. NovaCore, its new engineered vinyl plank collection offered in eight styles, is also a floating floor.
Floating floor installation is also available on Novalis’ AVA brand of commercial LVT with the DSGN collection of 24 plank styles for corporate, retail and hospitality markets and the STYL collection of 16 plank styles aimed at the multi-family segment.
Novalis also offers quality underlayment and matching trims. In addition, all Novalis products are FloorScore certified.
For more information about Novalis floating floor LVT for residential and commercial, visit novafloor.us.
Raskin: Proven technology offers easy, fast installation
Raskin offers award-winning designs and ease of installation with its highly successful lineup of loose lay flooring, including the original Elevations, Interwoven and Loft.
All of Raskin’s Elevations products include a seven-layer construction featuring its proprietary fiberglass sheet layer; the result is one of the most stable LVT products on the market. Elevations planks and tiles are waterproof and cover most subfloor irregularities. In addition, G88 ceramic-infused coating protects all Elevations products for easy maintenance.
Elevations can be easily installed as a perimeter loose lay or glue down using Raskin’s R88 spray adhesive, which offers anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.
Elevations’ Loose Lay collection includes 18 selections in 7 x 47 wood designs, 13 12 x 24 tile designs and a new stone/wood visual called Tusk, which is notable for its embossing.
Two main issues that often affect woven flooring are fraying during installation and ongoing maintenance. However, Elevations Interwoven is a phthalate-free, woven loose lay tile that is fray proof. The woven top layer is fused together with high heat and pressure on a thick LVT substrate providing a very strong bond.
Loft is Raskin’s best-selling residential line; its round edge can be installed as floating or glue down, with or without grout. Loft is available in 15 SKUs, including 10 planks.
Two collections within Raskin’s new Made in the USA FloorNation brand—Pride and Glory—are loose lay products as well.
Shaw: Floorté leads in technology, design, variety
Introduced in 2015 to tremendous retail acceptance and enhanced in 2016 with additional offerings, Shaw’s Floorté collection is a 100% waterproof enhanced vinyl plank (EVP) boasting an exceptionally durable construction coupled with a wood visual. Floorté is also flexible in nature, meaning the product will not adhere to subfloor imperfections, thus saving the retailer and consumer alike both time and money with fewer subfloor prep requirements.
The collection’s Fold-N-Tap locking system is precision engineered with the most advanced technology possible—making it one of the easiest to use, strongest and most durable products on the market today.
Floorté is available in four unique styles: the popular Classico and Premio collections and now also Alto and Valore—both new for 2016—rounding out the assortment and providing a wider range of options designed to appeal to and attract even more consumers.
The new premium Alto offering takes Floorté to the next level with planks measuring 8 x 72, addressing the consumer trend of longer, wider planks while offering the product benefits Floorté already provides. Alto is available in 16 wood designs in a variety of colors. Valore is a value offering that comes in four colors and plank sizes of 6 x 48.
Floorté is supported at retail through the company’s Resilient Solutions Center display system, which includes a new dedicated Alto component designed to allow the consumer to easily see the product’s size and quality of visual.
USFloors: Moving forward on all fronts in 2016
From securing the third in a trio of patents for its COREtec waterproof luxury vinyl flooring, sub-licensing its technology to two global flooring leaders and growing its options in bamboo and cork, USFloors is expanding the landscape for floating floor installations.
USFloors’ patented COREtec technology features a waterproof core platform that is impervious to wet conditions, a luxury vinyl layer that resists dents, and a commercially rated wear layer for superior scratch and stain resistance.
In January 2016, the U.S. Patent Office issued USFloors its third patent, Patent No. 9,234,357, “Engineered Waterproof Plastic Composite Flooring and Wall Covering Planks.” This patent expands upon the first two patents granted to USFloors, providing the broadest protection to date for COREtec products. The patent covers all engineered flooring products with a plastic composite core and a veneer top layer bonded with a waterproof adhesive, with or without attached cork backing.
Global flooring technology leaders Unilin and Välinge have now partnered with USFloors, with each company gaining the worldwide right to sub-license USFloors’ COREtec patents to their respective licensees. This step expands the worldwide access to the patented COREtec line of waterproof luxury vinyl flooring products.
USFloors also offers more than 80 SKUs in the eco-friendly categories of bamboo and cork. These flooring options provide today’s consumers with an accessible eco-friendly solution for residential and/or commercial applications and are available in fashion-forward designs.