Page 2 - 2017-07-CFR Volume 106 - The Difference Between Dimensional and Planar Stability - July 2017

in pieces can’t be affected by anything, hey it’s basically plastic right?
Well it can but we’ll qualify these issues for you so you can place them
in the correct and corresponding column to the concern.

Some definitions for Dimensional Stability are:
The experts at LGM
 The ability of a flooring material to maintain its essential or original specialize in consultation, correction
dimensions while being used for its intended purpose. and resolution for flooring complaints,
claims, installation and performance
 The degree to which a material maintains its original dimensions issues.
when subjected to changes in temperature and humidity. No issue is too big, too small or too far

 The ability of a material to retain its size and shape in the conditions away for us to handle.
in which it is used. All ads are interactive. Just click on
the ad to enter their website.

As flooring material one has the reasonable expectation that it will main-
tain its shape and size once it’s installed and forevermore stay that way.
Nothing wrong with that at all. Unfortunately that doesn’t always happen
because the material may have ideas of its own and the conditions of
installation may not be conducive for avoiding problems.

With imported Luxury vinyl flooring which 82% of the product is, it’s diffi-
cult to control what’s in the mix for “recycled” products. Materials like
bamboo dust, wood dust, clay and maybe even some other PVC prod-
uct material may be in the material. We’ve seen architectural specs call
for up to 45% of recycled content presumably for the sake of being
green. Being green can get you into trouble when you have recycled
content whose uniformity and consistency can’t be controlled which
means the product may be hard to control. If there is moisture and
there’s a high mix of natural materials in the flooring the product can ex-
pand and contract making it dimensionally unstable. These are things
one never thinks of when buying or using this flooring and knows noth-
ing about. Even some of the manufacturers who distribute these prod-
ucts may not know this. Yet when there’s a claim on the material their
response is that you did something wrong. Even if the expansion and
contraction of the material is minimal it can equate to what appears to
be extreme amounts when viewed throughout the entire installation and
you’re asking yourself what could cause this.

Aside from not acclimating the material properly prior to installation
nothing done during installation will cause the flooring material to ex-
pand or contract, curl, cup, dome, shrink or grow regardless of what an-
yone tells you. If installation is the cause for these issues then I want to
talk to you about some other magic tricks you may be able to perform.

Page Layout By: Anita S. Drennon
2 Commercial Flooring Report July 2017