Page 5 - 2018-06-CFR Volume 117 - You Can't Be Serious - June 2018

The physical inspection, analysis, evaluation, research and investigation and testing determined that the
product was reacting to normal conditions and most detrimental was the reaction to the underlayment it
was installed over. The vinyl planks are made with recycled content and glued down to crumb rubber
underlayment – made from recycled tires. These two materials have inherent incompatibilities and put-
ting them together is not condoned by many vinyl flooring manufacturers. This too is another topic soon
to be covered here.
The big issue in this case starts with the designer and the architect and the desire to be green and quali-
fy for LEED points on this project. Both the flooring and the underlayment are made with recycled con-
tent. I’m all for recycling and being green and shudder if I see a paper blowing around but in this case
there needed to be some research done. As it turns out the underlayment instigated the flooring failure.
The installation of the flooring had nothing to do with why there was a problem. The flooring itself, by
admission of the supplier, is affected by normal conditions all types of flooring exists in every day. They
also stated that this material is inexpensive and has a limited life span of 3 to 5 years. Did they give an-
yone this information when they were hot for the sale? Do they expect that this is going to be music to
the ears of those looking at a multi-million dollar building that can’t be occupied because the flooring is
failing? And do they think that saying you can’t use this material as you would expect to use any flooring
because the sun affects it is going to make anyone happy?
In this situation you have two issues. First, the underlayment which is actually instigating the visible
physical change in the vinyl plank flooring and second, the effects of nature on the material exacerbating
the condition. So now everything has to go into the landfill which eliminates any green advantages. A
different, more expensive and stable vinyl plank product has to be installed, the existing floor and un-
derlayment trashed, more expense in labor to rip up and re-install and expediting all of this work so oc-
cupancy generating revenue can take place. After this comes the fun part of this situation going legal.
The trail of what went wrong and why and who is at fault became clear. In this case a lot of parties have
culpability and the one party with none is the flooring contractor, he and the installers did nothing wrong.
Remember this. The evidence never lies – the flooring never lies – it will always tell you what’s wrong if
you know how to interpret what it’s telling you. People lie but never the flooring. No amount of nonsen-
sical comments can change the facts revealed by the
evidence. There is no alleging, assuming, “appears to
being” or anything else when the facts prove the truth
of the matter.
The depth of our resources and knowledge assets
knows no bounds. As one manufacturer stated many
years ago, “LGM are not the guys you want sitting on
the other side of the table.” When you really need and
want to have the answers to what went wrong and why
you have to call us and if you want to avoid a failure
you have to come to the same place.

5 Commercial Flooring Report June 2018