Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2021-04-26 Origin: Site
With the development of flooring, more and more people start to choose plastic flooring due to its better water resistant performance. SPC flooring has gone into public sight since 2016. As the upgraded type of LVT and WPC, it is third generation plastic flooring, which is famous with its realistic wood texture and brilliant stability. It has many advantages such as water resistant, scratch resistant, stain resistant, stiff and easy to clean. However, does this mean that SPC flooring will not have quality problems like deforming or buckling during its lifetime?
The answer is not of course. Sometimes you will notice that the SPC flooring will still expand or contract after a long time use. Let us view the expanding SPC flooring firstly:
From this image, it is obviously that the seam of two pieces has expanded and it starts to bend and bulge because there is no extra space to expand.
Maybe you will guess that it is related to environment humidity. Though it tends to 100% waterproof, it will still absorb a very little moisture from ground water or air. Actually it is indeed a reason point that will affect its expanding, but only a little influence. The main reason is relative to the environment temperature. As we know, SPC flooring is mainly made of PVC resin and limestone powder. PVC resin is a kind of thermoplastic, and it will expand when the temperature rise and it will contract when the temperature fall. Thus maybe there is a floor heating under the flooring or the area is always hot weather such as in Thailand and Malaysia.
SPC flooring will also contract as the image shows. It is associate with cold temperature as we said above based on PVC chemical characteristic. The main problem is its connecting part. Some engineered flooring only have T&G, thus it is easily to expand and contract when in humid or dry environment. Different from that, SPC flooring has click lock instead. Commonly it can provide a good pulling strength to make two pieces flooring seamless with each other. Whereas, when there is some problems about click system, it will be easy to break and split.
So in order to avoid this problem, ensure the quality of SPC flooring click system is the most important. How to check its click system performance? Here Protex provides a test for its locking pulling strength.
This is tensile testing machine, which is used mainly to test flooring’s pulling strength and splitting strength. The test method is very simple. The laboratory personnel will put two pieces specimen on it, which has been locked with each other. Then operate the machine to give it a strength constantly until its click lock has been broken and split. Record the strength data. The result can represent its max pulling strength tolerance. Here is one specimen test sheet for your reference:
Specimen: size 1220x178mm, thickness 4.5mm SPC
Environment: Laboratory
Conditions: tensile testing machine
From the sheet, the strength suddenly reduce down to 0 after reaching the top 128N. It is because the click lock has been broken. Thus after laboratory calculation, it can be considered 128N as its max pulling strength. This data is related to many factors such as flooring thickness and click system type(Unilin, Valinge, I4F). Commonly when this data can reach and over 75N, it is good. The thickness is the main point and it will influence the final pulling strength a lot. According to the above data sheet, the specimen thickness is 4.5mm, while when the thickness become 6mm, the pulling strength can reach up to about 400N.
The conclusion is SPC flooring will expand and contract as well. So how to solve it? Next i will list some practical methods to protect the flooring and avoid these problems as much as possible.
It is necessary and important before installing SPC flooring. Otherwise the seam edge of flooring will cause high and low difference, which will lead to click lock broken when walking on it. Adding underlay such as IXPE or EVA can be helpful as well.
A maintenance plan is necessary, especially for residential areas. Remember to clean all moisture and water on the flooring on time. Staying in humid environment for too long time will affect the PVC resin and limestone powder stable performance. What’s more, this will also give you a more tidy home and a better and more comfortable feeling.
Please remember to close the curtain and blinds if SPC flooring is close to laundry and under strong sunlight for too much time. Floor heating should also be paid attention to not turn on with high temperature. You can control floor heating to low temperature for those room areas that not often be used.
Of course there is. Protex has researched and developed one kind of new product called ESPC flooring. Its full name is'Engineered SPC',a derived and upgraded type of SPC with different structure. As the image shows, it has two extra LVT cores inside. The structure is A-B-A frame, just like a sandwich, which can provide the flooring with an excellent stable performance.
Commonly due to its multi-layer structure, the minimum thickness will be at least 5mm. Thus referring to above pulling strength data testing result, it also provides a better click locking strength, and can avoid the contract phenomenon to the greatest extent.
ESPC also has many other advantages. It can provide you with a better foot feeling due to its LVT core. It can also ensure the patterns not expanding during production because it is produced by hot pressing. If you have any questions or requirement about this new product, do not hesitate to contact and follow us. We will develop and launch man new products every year on the website.
