Calhoun, Ga.—The Multilayer Flooring Association (MFA) and SCS Global Services announced a pilot certification for new resilient flooring products in the multilayer format with rigid polymer cores. Focusing on performance and sustainability, and by bundling existing standards, the collaboration has created an all-encompassing platform for safety, quality, performance and sustainability for multilayer flooring.

The motivation for developing the certification resulted from the increasing flood of self-defined multilayer flooring products entering the U.S. marketplace. “The MFA needed a standard to promote the industry at large, providing both manufacturers and end users with an agreed-upon standard for multilayer rigid polymer core flooring,” said Harlan Stone, president of the MFA. “With urgency on our side and working hand in hand with our members and SCS, we achieved the format for certification in record time—one year from start to finish.”

MFA selected SCS—a leader in flooring and sustainability certifications which manages the FloorScore program for the RFCI—to develop this pilot and manage the program. SCS leveraged all synergies to launch and scale the MFA program and collaborated with its members to evaluate and approve independent testing labs to be utilized by manufacturers. “The goal was to develop a program that will communicate integrity, transparency and independence to commercial and residential end users while fostering universal integration of the multilayer flooring standard,” said Stanley Mathuram, P.E., vice president of SCS. “Independent validation from trusted third parties is crucial to its success.”

MFA looked to ASTM to develop the criteria for baseline product attributes. These include rigidity, surface wear layer, backing types and performance requirements. The new ASTM standard F3261-17, published December 2017, is the standard specification for resilient flooring in modular format with rigid polymeric core.

SCS will promote and list all products in its Green Products Guide, ORIGIN (just recognized by USGBC as an open source platform) and Mindful Materials.