The Knowledge: Adhesive Selection
In this series, we tell you what you need to know to ensure flooring installations live up to high customer expectations.
Previously, the knowledge has dealt with identifying and dealing with the leading cause of floor failure, excess subfloor moisture, as well as the application of a smoothing compound to ensure a perfectly smooth base for floorcoverings.
This time, we pick up where we left off in the last article and cover the importance of selecting an appropriate adhesive for a floorcovering installation, including checking the compatibility of the adhesive with the chosen floorcoverings.
Rationale
The drive to help flooring contractors work to ever higher standards, with greater speed and efficiency, as well as increase the longevity of flooring installations, has led to the development of high performance adhesives with a range of specialist properties.
For this reason, when it comes to selecting an adhesive for an installation, it is always advisable to consider products that have been developed for particular applications and types of floorcoverings.
Vinyl floorcoverings
Standard, wet-lay adhesives are available for installing almost any type of vinyl sheet or tile floorcovering. The contractor simply applies the adhesive evenly over the subfloor using a trowel and allows it to paste slightly before placing the floorcoverings and rolling to ensure good overall contact. This category includes F. Ball’s Styccobond F44 solvent free acrylic emulsion adhesive, which offers high bond strength, strong initial grab and a long open time.
While wet-lay adhesives are fine where an immediate bond is not required, pressure sensitive adhesives are often the best choice for installing vinyl tiles or planks. They form an instant grab upon contact, so contractors don’t need to worry about tiles or planks moving about when they are working, making them ideal for where intricate designs or patterns are being created.
Hybrid adhesives
Hybrid adhesives technology has enabled the development of pressure sensitive adhesives with a range of additional features. For example, as well as offering the characteristics of a pressure sensitive adhesive, F. Ball’s Styccobond F49 Hybrid PS is resistant to water, making it ideal for installing LVTs in damp and humid environments. The adhesive also develops the high bond strength to hold floorcoverings in place in areas exposed to extreme temperature fluctuations (from -20°C to +60°C), which can lead to unsightly tenting and gapping at the edge of floorcoverings, particularly vinyl tiles or planks, over time. This is often the case in conservatories or rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, which are subject to ‘solar gain’.
Textile floorcoverings
F. Ball’s Styccobond F3 is a water-based rubber/resin flooring adhesive, which is suitable for installing a wide range of textile floorcoverings, including hessian, felt, secondary latex and rubber foam backed carpets, as well as cork tiles up to 3.2mm thick. The adhesive offers excellent wet grab, rapidly builds up a high bond strength and is protected against bio-degradation.
Over 50 years since its original launch, Styccobond F3 is still the UK’s most used adhesive for textile floorcoverings.
Wood
Contractors should select a specialist wood adhesive to install wood blocks or planks. Flexible wood floor adhesives, such as F. Ball Styccobond B95, provide an elastic but strong bond, which will accommodate natural movement of wood flooring over its lifetime, ensuring a long lasting, visually attractive floor finish.
Rubber and linoleum
The strong initial tack and high bond strength of specialist rubber floorcovering adhesives make them ideal for securing a wide range of rubber floorcoverings. They have a high film strength to provide good dimensional stability and prevent the rubber floorcovering from moving when subject to heavy traffic.
When working with linoleum floorcoverings, F. Ball recommends the use of an adhesive that provides high initial grab and has been specially designed to adhere linoleum.
To be able to adhere hessian-backed linoleum floorcoverings, an adhesive must be able to ‘wet out’ the backing (i.e. transfer enough adhesive to create a good bond and deliver the instant grab that reduces the sliding of the linoleum when being installed).
Compatibility check
Finally, it is highly recommended that fitters always check the compatibility of particular floorcoverings and adhesives. To do this, you can consult the floorcovering manufacturer’s guidelines. Alternatively, F. Ball produces its own Recommended Adhesives Guide (RAG®), which lists adhesives recommended for use with over 6,000 floorcoverings produced by over 200 manufacturers.
Each recommendation is only included in the guide after a rigorous seven-week testing programme and with the endorsement of the relevant floorcovering manufacturer – with new floorcoverings entering the market each year, ensuring that the guide is up-to-date is an ongoing process.
As a result, F. Ball guarantees that the resulting bond will last the lifetime of the flooring installation, as long as the advised preparation and installation procedures are followed.
A constantly updated version of the RAG® is available on the F. Ball website and as a mobile app, which is free to download from the Apple App store or Google Play.
The guide is also available as a printed A5 booklet; free copies of which can be requested by e-mailing mail@f-ball.co.uk or calling 01538 361633.
F. Ball’s technical service department is on hand Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 5.00pm to answer your questions about subfloor preparation and floorcovering installation and can also arrange site visits to identify and advise on the best course of action for any flooring project.
