Page 3 - 2018-12-CFR Volume 123 - Indentations in Resilient Hard Surface Flooring - December 2018

You must understand that the load limit rating on the
vinyl flooring is arrived at without any adhesive under
the flooring or uninstalled. Adding adhesive, de-
pending on what type and how thick it is, either pre-
applied or applied at installation, will add another ele-
ment to the indentation resistance or lack thereof on
the flooring. Typically for rolling or static loads in a
hospital an adhesive, such as an epoxy, will be more
resistant to indentation than an applied or pre-
applied adhesive. Furthermore, rolling the adhesive
on instead of troweling it will often make a difference
in seeing, or not, obvious indentations in the flooring.

FRONT SIDE—
BACK SIDE—
INDENTATION IN RUB-
INDENTATION
BER TILE WITH HIGH
IN ADHESIVE
GLOSS FINISH.

Another consideration is the type and density of the
patch or leveling agent beneath the flooring. If the
compressive load of the leveling agent or patch is
not high enough then it will indent and show through
the flooring surface. Add to this any moisture vapor
emission in the substrate that can hydrate the patch
compromising it’s integrity, causing it to break down,
or additives in the concrete that can affect the integri-
ty of the patch also causing it to break down or
debond and you have a host of conditions that can
add to vinyl flooring not being able to resist indenta-
tion.

Now let’s take into account the finish on the flooring,
especially in a hospital where the gloss levels most
often desired by them is like glass and any indenta-
tion and the visibility of it, is magnified. Add to that
overhead lighting or sunlight streaming into the
space and any indentation is going to be visible and
seen.

ASTM tests for static load (ASTM F970) which
should not have a residual compression greater than
0.005 inches and rolling load (ASTM F2753) which
no compression is given for, is a consensus number.
We know that a compression of 0.002 inch is visible.
Given the compression for static load we can
3 Commercial Flooring Report December 2018