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How to make your old floors shine again

Use of special coatings to renovate vinyl flooring

Vinyl floor­ing can be con­sidered to be the new “gold stand­ard” among floor cov­er­ings. The resi­li­ent floor­ing is robust, water-repel­lent, comes with an attract­ive design and can there­fore be used in all rooms. But even the best-qual­ity floor­ing even­tu­ally loses its shine and becomes dull with age. Also signs of use and dirt buildup on the sur­face can­not be avoided. But for­tu­nately, there are high-per­­­form­ance, solvent-free renov­a­tion coat­ings. They can be applied eas­ily and quickly, are vir­tu­ally odor­less and also eco-friendly. After applic­a­tion, the floor looks like new, is res­ist­ant to scratches and in some cases even slip-res­ist­ant. Good to know: Floor­ing pro­fes­sion­als only use products that carry the EMICODE® EC1 qual­ity seal since these are very low-emis­­sion and abso­lutely healthy for liv­ing.

Vinyl floor cov­er­ings, in par­tic­u­lar lux­ury vinyl tiles (LVTs), are con­tinu­ing to be on the advance – in all rooms. In 2019, they already accoun­ted for around one quarter of total sales gen­er­ated with all floor cov­er­ings (source: statista.com).

This suc­cess is also due to their excel­lent sur­face qual­ity. Most vinyl cov­er­ings are delivered fact­ory-sealed with a poly­ureth­ane coat­ing – the so-called wear lay­er. This keeps the floor­ing pro­tec­ted from harm­ful extern­al influ­ences and beau­ti­ful for many years to come. Under­neath the wear lay­er comes the thick, dec­or­at­ive vinyl lay­er with a prin­ted design, e.g. imit­at­ing the look of stone or nat­ur­al wood grain. There is a mul­ti­tude of design options avail­able to achieve an authen­t­ic look.

Even though this type of floor­ing is par­tic­u­larly hard-wear­ing, the sur­face can still lose its shine over the years and show signs of wear caused by mov­ing chairs or con­stant expos­ure to foot traffic. Even small particles can cause scratches in the sur­face. But this does not mean that you need to replace the floor­ing right away. With spe­cial renov­a­tion coat­ings, these marks can be eas­ily removed or at least reduced. Sand­ing or strip­ping the floor is usu­ally not neces­sary. And shortly after apply­ing the coat, the floor is ready for use again. Dull floors will regain their shine and will almost look like new. If desired, also matt effects can be achieved. Some fin­ishes even have an anti-slip effect.

Many renowned man­u­fac­tur­ers have long since switched their pro­duc­tion to water-based coat­ings. The low solvent con­tent (less than 8 per­cent) in these products only serves as a bind­er. Just like water, the solvent evap­or­ates imme­di­ately after applic­a­tion. All that remains is a dur­able pro­tect­ive lay­er. In terms of per­form­ance, water­borne coat­ings are now on a par with con­ven­tion­al solvent-based sys­tems. In addi­tion, the risk of fire is vir­tu­ally elim­in­ated and odor devel­op­ment is next to zero.

If you want to play it safe, choose renov­a­tion coat­ings that have been awar­ded the EMICODE® seal. They are proven to be very low in emis­sions and abso­lutely healthy for your home. To ensure com­pli­ance with the strin­gent EMICODE® emis­sion lim­its, the products are con­tinu­ously mon­itored by inde­pend­ent experts.

Photo: © Katar­zyna Białasiewicz/123rf.com/GEV

Robust, water-repel­lent, with many attract­ive design options and suit­able for use in all rooms: vinyl floor­ing is a true all-round­er. When the shine wears off after a few years or signs of wear begin to show, vinyl floor­ing can be ren­ov­ated in no time at all. Highly dur­able and elast­ic coat­ings are used for this pur­pose. Good to know: Floor­ing pros only use renov­a­tion products that carry the EMICODE® EC1 seal, because these are very low-emis­­sion and abso­lutely healthy for liv­ing.

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12 April 2021