After the print dyes are set a clear wearlayer is applied to the surface.
The appearance retention of a rotogravure vinyl floor is dependent on the durability
of the clear wearlayer.
Wearlayer: the “make it or break it” area of vinyl flooring.
The wearlayer is absolutely critical to the performance of your vinyl floor –
key to its lasting potential.
The thickness of the wearlayer varies with each vinyl product collection, or series,
and is generally measured in mils.
The thickness of a mil is about the same as a page in your telephone book.
So a 10-mil wearlayer would be comparable in thickness to about 10 pages of your
phone book.
Generally, the more expensive vinyl floors have thicker wearlayers.
Your expectations for how long your vinyl floor will look new and fresh are based
on the wearlayer's performance.
To help you understand wearlayer construction we need to define what the performance
characteristics are that we are looking for in a vinyl floor.
These performance characteristics can be divided into these areas:
- Easy to clean
- Stays looking like-new
- Resists staining from normal household products
- Doesn't show scratches easily
- Easy to clean up spills
The easy to clean characteristic relates to how tough it is to remove soiling and
other marks from the floor's surface.
When a floor begins to look old and drab it is usually caused by hundreds of fine
hairline scratches in the wearlayer.
These fine scratches come from dirt, grit and sand on the wearlayer surface.
However there’s good news. The new generation of vinyl floors has all the
ingredients to resist showing wear and staining. Plus all the beauty, style and
value to certainly put vinyl in the running as a possible flooring for your home.
Those are the basics of vinyl construction and manufacturing.
We hope this information gives you a better understanding of how this stylish and
versatile product is created, and how a well-chosen vinyl floor can help make your
home.