| Term | Definition |
| Abrasion | Wearing, grinding, or rubbing away by friction. |
| Abrasion Resistance | Resistance to a form of wear, in which a gradual removal of a flooring surface is caused by the frictional action of relatively fine particles. Abrasion resistance generally depends on the toughness of the product or wearlayer, thickness of wearlayer, and existence of surface coatings. |
| ACI | American Concrete Institute – a trade organization of the concrete industry. |
| Acid Etch | Refers to the use of a mixture of muriatic acid and water on concrete either to neutralize the surface if it shows signs of alkali or to open the surface to allow a good bond with adhesives or powder underlayments. This can actually cause problems in bonding due to acid residue. |
| Addenda | That portion of an architect’s specifications which is added after the specifications for a building project are written. |
| Adhesive Bleeding | Undesired migration of materials in the adhesive to the surface of the floor between tile joints or seams. |
| AIA | American Institute of Architects – the largest organization of recognized architects in the United States. |
| Air Bubbles | Trapped air under flooring. Bubbles can be small or large in size. When bubbles appear shortly after installation, placing the flooring into the adhesive too soon or rolling improperly is generally the cause. When they appear at a later time, they may be caused by moisture in the subfloor or debonding of the adhesive. |
| Alkaline Salts | Salts that are carried to the surface of concrete, normally by water coming up from the ground below. These may cause installation failure by destroying the adhesive bond. Salts can be deposited on the flooring by being carried up through tile joints. In dry concrete, normal alkalinity on the pH scale is 9 or less. When alkali readings on a slab are above 9, alkali can cause problems with a flooring installation. There is no guarantee any treatment will keep the surface free of alkali, but washing the surface with clear water or soda water will lower the alkalinity. |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute. Installation standards for the installation of ceramic tile. |
| APA | Formerly called the American Plywood Association, it is now known as APA – The Engineered Wood Association. A trade organization which specifies which wood panels are acceptable as underlayment boards for resilient flooring. (Of domestic made underlayments. Does not apply to imported underlayment panels.) |
| APA Trademarked | Wood underlayments approved by APA – The Engineered Wood Association as suitable for the installation of resilient flooring. |
| Aqueous | Water containing or water based. |
| Architect | The “agent” of the building or property owners or managers who draws plans, writes specifications, and follows through all phases of a building project with the general contractors and subcontractors working on that project. Almost always a graduate of a professional school. Occasionally, a one-man office, more commonly part of a larger organization which sometimes reaches to a size of several thousand employees. May be the owner of his own firm, may be a partner, junior partner, or may occupy any one of many jobs in a large architectural firm. |
| ASTM | American Society of Testing Materials. Sets testing standards for a variety of materials – including resilient flooring. |
| Backing | The bottom part of the flooring structure upon which other layers are built. This is the part of the flooring, which determines what adhesive will be used for installation. |
| Balling Up | Incapable of being troweled satisfactorily, the adhesive “balls up” under the trowel, and is usually due to a dusty or dirty substrate. May also occur when the adhesive has been frozen. |
| Beam | A piece of timber, steel, stone or other material placed horizontally to support a load over an opening from post to post (column to column). |
| Bearing | Any characteristic part of a building (wall, column, etc.) which supports part of the weight of the structure. A wall is often spoken of as a “bearing-wall” whenever it supports weight other than itself. |
| Beveled Edging | An edge material, normally vinyl, wood, metal or rubber, fastened in place to taper the edge of the floor covering to a lower level. Also called reducer strip. |
| Bid | The offer or proposal of any contractor (general contractor, subcontractor, flooring contractor) to the architect or owner or general contractor to furnish material and/or labor for one or more parts of a building. |
| Binder | The composition of a plastic which contains the resin, plasticizer and stabilizer; whatever is not binder is filler. |
| Bleeding | Undesired migration of materials in an adhesive to the surface of the floor between tile joints. May be caused by moisture in the subfloor, not enough open time, too much adhesive, solvent removers in the subfloor, or the use of no-rinse strippers within the first two years of the installation. |
| Blister | A raised spot on the surface of a floor similar in shape to a blister on human skin. How soon after installation a blister develops can help determine the cause. Blisters which occur within a few hours are usually due to a concentration of trapped air. Blisters which occur at a later time often indicate the presence of moisture in the substrate, or delamination of materials or adhesives. |
| BTU | British thermal unit. A measure of heat used to describe the capacity of furnaces, water heaters and heating units. |
| Buckle | Adhesive failure when a floor is under compression. It is caused by subfloor movement or floor growth. |
| Burred Seam | A seam with a jagged saw-toothed turn-up. Burrs can occur with sheet vinyl flooring when a seam is cut with a dull knife. Also a result of recess scribing with a dull scriber needle. |
| Butted | Positioned edge to edge, such as butting tile or underlayment boards. |
| Calendering | Taking the fused mass of vinyl from the mixer and placing it onto two, hot, large rotating rolls and allowing the mass to be squeezed into a thin sheet; similar to a dough roller. |
| Cantilevered | That portion of a structure which projects beyond its own support is cantilevered. |
| Cement | Usually refers to a portland or hydraulic cement. |
| Cementitious | Having the properties of cement, being made of cement and other binders such as fly ash, pozzalons or gypsum. |
| Charcoal Lighter Fluid | Fluid used to light charcoal grills. A mild solvent used to clean adhesive residues. |
| Chemical Foam | Blowing agent placed in a plastisol, and when heated it decomposes and creates air cells to make a foam; primarily used in “cushioned rotovinyl” residential structures. |
| Chemical Resistance | Resistance to softening, bleaching or discoloration from common chemicals that may be spilled on the floor. Chemical resistance is most dependent on the composition of the product, the existence and chemistry of the surface coating and the susceptibility of the seams to failure in chemical spills. |
| Closed Specification | An architect’s specification for one manufacturer’s material only. |
| Color Trials | Material could be graded as regulars or irregulars, except color range is beyond acceptable limits for either grade. Color Trial material is sold “as is” with no warranty. Color Trails will be sold as single rolls. This category will include Residential Rotogravure Sheet Flooring Products. |
| Column | A vertical wood, steel, stone or concrete shaft, pillar or support, free-standing, supporting the portion of the structure above it. |
| Combustible | Having a flash point of 80-150 degrees F. |
| Commercial Flooring | Resilient floors designed for installation in commercial settings such as schools, hospitals, public buildings and institutions. Also referred to as contract flooring. |
| Compressive Strength | The ability of a material, such as concrete, to withstand loads. Compressive strength is measured in pounds per square inch (PSI). If the compressive strength is 3500 psi, it means the subject material will withstand a load up to 3500 pounds per square inch without breaking down. |
| Conductive Flooring | A floor designed to carry off built-up static electricity and reduce the risk of explosion in potentially explosive environments. |
| Countersink | To drive a nail or screw flush or just below the surface. |
| Cove Base | Usually made of rubber or vinyl in a variety of sizes and shapes, cove base is designed to give a finished appearance between the floor and the wall. The base meets requirements of ASTM F 1861, Standard Specification for Resilient Wall Base. |
| Cutback Adhesives | Refers to asphalt adhesives which have been liquefied with solvents. When the lighter factions are boiled away from petroleum oil, the thick residue left is asphalt. To make it fluid again, solvent is added or the asphalt is “cut back”. |
| Deflection | A variation in the position or shapes of a structure or structural element due to the effects of loads or volume change; usually measured as a linear deviation from an established plan rather than an angular variation. |
| Dimensional Stability | The ability of a material to retain its original size and shape without appreciable shrinkage and/or expansion after temperature or humidity change. |
| Dry | To change the physical state of an adhesive or an adherent by the loss of solvent or water evaporation, absorption, or both. |
| Earthguard | Products formulated to be environmentally compatible, they meet the following: 1) Low or no VOC content (calculated at 70 degrees C, SCAQMD) which means less than 150 g/l. 2) Low odor – does not contain ammonia. 3) Low or no organic solvents. 4) No reportable hazardous substances per current regulations. 5) Nonflammable. These products continue to provide the working and handling characteristics required of a floor covering adhesive while providing the environmentally compatible characteristics on today’s market. |
| Ease Of Cleaning | Most dependent on the porosity of the surface which provides voids for dirt entrapment, presence of surface coatings, uniform coverage of the coating, and toughness of the surface coating to stand-up to wear and maintenance routines. |
| Efflorescence | The residue deposited on the surface of a material (usually the grout joints) by the crystallization of soluble salts (alkali or free lime). |
| Embossing | A permanent multilevel surface of flooring produced by mechanical or chemical means during manufacturing. Embossing provides a three-dimensional appearance and helps conceal subfloor irregularities. It also prolongs gloss retention because only the high points of the embossing receive surface abrasion. |
| End Stops | Edges of various types of permanent or resilient base used at the junctures of floors and walls, where the base material meets an exposed door frame, ends at a wall line, or in any case where the base material does not completely enclose the perimeter of any room area. |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency. |
| Epoxy Adhesive | A very strong two-part thermoset adhesive which is mixed on the job. Depending on the use, epoxies can have short or long working times. |
| Estimate | A preliminary cost figure prepared by contractors or other to give a job owner and/or architect a rough idea of the cost of a completed building |
| Exposure 1 | Panels which have a fully waterproof bond between plies and are designed for applications where construction delays may be expected prior to providing protection for the panels. |
| Exterior | Panels which have a fully waterproof bond between plies and are designed for applications which are subject to permanent exposure to moisture. |
| Extremely Flammable | Having a flash point of less than 2 degrees F. |
| Face Wrinkling | Wrinkle appearing on the surface of adhered flooring. This is normally caused by severe compression of the flooring, normally associated with hard set, firm bonding adhesives over shrinking substrates. |
| Feather Edge | A technique which reduces a patch or underlayment material to the subfloor level. |
| Federal Specifications | Standards which are established for various types of flooring by the General Services Administration (GSA) in Washington, D.C. Federal Specifications have been replaced by ASTM Standards. |
| Filler | The composition of a plastic which contains the inert, unreactive material, which is usually inorganic in the case of vinyl flooring; whatever is not filler is binder. Most fillers are mineral-based materials and are quarried out of the earth. Common fillers for flooring include: limestone, dolomite and clay. |
| Flakeboard | See particleboard. |
| Flammable | Having a flash point of 20-80 degrees F. |
| Flash Point | Temperature at which an inflammable liquid produces a vapor which, when mixed with air, becomes an explosive mixture. |
| Flexibility | The degree of a floor covering material’s ability to be bent, turned or twisted without cracking, breaking or showing other permanent damage. Flexibility will vary with temperature. |
| Footing | The spreading course or courses at the base or bottom of a foundation wall, pier or column. |
| Foundation | The structural portion of a building or wall below the first floor construction, including the footings. |
| Framing | The rough timberwork of a structure including the walls, floors, roof, ceiling and the beams and studs which make up these various parts. |
| Freeze/Thaw Stable | An adhesive which is able to be frozen and thawed for a specified number of times without the emulsion breaking. When an adhesive is harmed by freezing, it is the handling characteristics which are affected. The adhesive becomes rubbery, stringy and thick, and is unable to be troweled or applied to the substrate. |
| Frick-Taber Abrasion Tester | An abrasion tester which uses a leather-covered wheel on a rotating stage and an apparatus which deposits grit onto the sample and removes it each revolution. No standards exist in the US which specify limits for abrasion resistance with this tester. Because weight loss is one of the measurements made with the tester, very soft materials can fair well, because they pick up the grit and do not appear to lose weight. On harder materials, this tester represents the actual foot traffic wear mechanism very well; this was concluded by an independent research effort in Europe. |
| Fully-Sanded Face | When used in reference to plywood underlayment, it means the boards have been sanded smooth during manufacture so they meet the requirements of their intended use – which is a smooth surface for the installation of resilient flooring. |
| Gauge | The nominal thickness of a flooring material or of a layer within the material. With resilient flooring, wear layer and backing gauge are often listed separately. |
| General Contractor | The “prime contractor” or major contractor, who, under the architect, is the firm in charge of any construction. All subcontractors report to the general contractor except in those cases where the subcontract portion of the project is taken out of the general contract and let by the architect or owner directly. The general contractor is responsible for the completion of all portions of the project which fall under his supervision and bases his bid for all the work under his direction on the bids provided him by the subcontractors. A general contracting firm may do a number of the major items in the job, i.e. masonry, carpentry, etc., but most often asks for bids for the items included in his contract from a number of subcontractors. |
| Gouge | A groove or cavity in the flooring surface accompanied by material removal and penetration below the immediate flooring surface. |
| Grab | The property that enables an adhesive film to hold in place an adherent which is trying to pull away. This is usually applied to a partially set film. |
| Grade | The level of the subfloor in relation to the surrounding ground. |
| Green Concrete | Concrete which is fairly new and has not had a chance to completely cure and/or dry. |
| Heterogeneous Sheet Flooring | Floor surfacing in sheet form consisting of a wear layer and other layers which differ in composition and/or design and may contain a reinforcement. (Sometimes called layered composite or backed vinyl sheet flooring.) The flooring meets requirements of ASTM F 1303, Standard Specification for Sheet Vinyl Floor Covering with Backing. |
| Homogeneous Structure | Floor surfacing in sheet form that is of uniform structure and composition throughout, usually consisting of vinyl plastic resins, plasticizers, fillers, pigments and stabilizers. (Sometimes called unbacked vinyl sheet flooring.) The flooring meets requirements of ASTM F 1913, Standard Specification for Sheet Vinyl Floor Covering without Backing. |
| Hot-Melt Calendering | New technology used by Holmsund to melt a vinyl wearlayer into the calender and immediately place it onto a calendered backing material for a composite structure. |
| Hydration | The chemical reaction between water and Hydraulic or Portland cement, which causes the concrete to attain its ultimate compressive strength. |
| Hydrostatic Pressure | Pressure which forces water up through a below-grade slab, generally causing installation problems due to moisture. This occurs when the water table is higher than the slab. Hydrostatic pressure is caused by the weight of the water pressing down on itself. Contrary to popular belief, this is not the cause of most problems with resilient flooring. |
| Impact Insulation Class | IIC is the measurement of how well a product resists the direct transfer of an impact, over a wide frequency range, from an elevated floor to the room below. |
| Inlaid Sheet Flooring | Floor surfacing material in which the decorative pattern or design is formed by color areas set into the surface. The design may or may not extend through to a backing. |
| Inorganic | Being or composed of something other than plant or animal (i.e. mineral); primarily relates to fillers being inorganic. |
| Intensive Mixing | Wherein vinyl resin, plasticizer, stabilizer and filler are blended together like damp sand and placed in special mixers that run at high speed and sheer forces. The mixture becomes heated due to friction and added heat, then it “fuses” into a dough-like mass which needs further operations to become useable. |
| Jamb | The side of a doorway, door frame or window. |
| Joints | The junction of precut surfaces butted together, such as tile or underlayment boards. |
| Joist | A small timber to which the boards of a floor or the laths of a ceiling are nailed. Joists rest on the walls or on girders. |
| Knotholes | Voids produced by the dropping of knots from the wood in which they are originally embedded. |
| Latex | A milky, rubbery fluid found in several seed plants. Originally, latex meant the natural rubber dispersion as it came from the tree. Today, it includes synthetic rubbers or other polymers dispersed in water. |
| Legs | Long strings of adhesive developed between the flooring and the substrate as a result of the water evaporating or migrating from the adhesive. This is normally seen in rubber-based adhesives and is a desirable characteristic. It is important to remember that not all adhesives have legs and legs are not a necessary characteristic for good adhesion to occur. |
| Level | A surface or line with all points at the same elevation. Horizontally straight. |
| Light Reflectivity | The Characteristics of a material which determines the degree or amount of light which will be reflected from its surface from any given angle. |
| Linoleum | A surfacing material composed of a solidified mixture of linseed oil, pine rosin, fossil or other resins or rosins, or an equivalent oxidized oleoresinous binder, ground cork, wood flour, mineral fillers, and pigments bonded to a burlap, jute or other suitable backing. |
| Mastic | Relating to flooring adhesive and sometimes even to latex primers. It is normally associated with water-based products and is a catchall term. |
| Milk | Refers to a latex liquid used to prime dusty substrates or mix with an underlayment powder. |
| Nosing | The rounded and projecting edges of the treads of a stair or the edge of a landing. Usually where these edges are right-angled, in resilient floor installations, they are protected by a slightly rounded metal edging, also called “nosings”. |
| Off Goods | See irregulars. |
| Open Specification | This is a specification where the architect’s requirements for material is stated but in which no specific manufacturer’s product is listed. When a specification of this kind is written, the architect and/or the owner must approve material made by one or several manufacturers and then bids are made on the basis of the architect’s approval of this material. |
| Or-Equal Specification | An open-end specification where an architect will mention one or more manufacturers’ products and will add the words “or equal”. Those manufacturer’s names given have had the architect’s approval for this specification, but other competing products may be approved if the architect will recognize them as equal in quality and type to those specifically mentioned by name. |
| Organic | Having been living at one time (like petroleum, crude oil, coal, wood, etc.) or derived from living materials and/or containing carbon and hydrogen atoms; primarily relates to plastics being derived from petroleum. |
| OSHA | Occupational Safety and Health Administration. |
| Oxidation | The combination of a substance with oxygen. |
| Parting Agent | Compounds used on wood or steel formwork for concrete to make it easier to remove the cured concrete from the form. Parting agents are normally silicone or paraffin waxes and must be removed before installation of resilient flooring. Also known as bond-breakers. |
| PCA | Portland Cement Association – a trade organization of the concrete industry. |
| Performance-Rated Panel | Panel products designed and engineered to meet performance criteria for specific end-use applications. |
| Plan | A drawing representing a projection of any one of the floors or horizontal cross sections of a building or of the horizontal plane of any object or area. |
| Plasticizer | Special oils developed to impact flexibility and special properties like stain resistance) to plastics, like PVC; they are added in the compounding step to the vinyl resin. The most common plasticizer used in vinyl is called DOP for short, dioctyl phthalate for long (pronounced “die-octil-thal-ate”). |
| Plasticizer Migration | The migration of the plasticizer in the flooring to the adhesive. This causes unwanted softening of the adhesive and may lead to release of the bond. |
| Plastisol | Made from a special kind of vinyl resin which is suspended in plasticizer and stabilizer to make it pourable as a liquid for coating purposes. |
| Plywood | A term used to determine the number of thicknesses of wood veneer for plywood underlayment when laminated together. A five-ply thickness of plywood has five separate layers of wood, glued or laminated together, which each layer lying at right angles to the graining of the wood layer beneath or above it. This cross lamination allows for added dimensional stability of the panels. |
| Porosity | A matter which is porous or contains pores which are able to absorb liquid. Subfloors, which are porous, are normally concrete and wood. If there is any doubt as to the porosity of a subfloor, put a few drops of water on the surface. If the water is quickly absorbed, the surface is porous. If the water remains beaded on the surface, the surface is nonporous. |
| Pot Life | The amount of time an adhesive remains useable in the container once it has been mixed or opened. Normally used in reference to products which are mixed together such as epoxy adhesives or portland-based underlayments and patches. |
| Printed Sheet Vinyl Flooring | A floor surfacing material which has a pattern printed on a backing and is protected with a wear layer of transparent or translucent vinyl plastic. Also called rotogravure sheet vinyl flooring. |
| Radiant-Heated Subfloor | A subfloor which also serves as a means to heat an area. Generally, heating coils, pipes or ducts are built into the subfloor. Resilient flooring may be installed over radiant-heated subfloors as long as the surface temperature does not exceed 85 degrees F. When temperatures exceed this limit, the flooring can soften and increase the risk of indentation or discoloration, known as heat degradation. |
| Ramp | An inclined plane connecting two different levels and used instead of steps, elevators or conveyors. |
| Reagent Stain Resistance | Resistance to color change/residue by common chemicals that floors are exposed to in specific end-use areas, like Betadine in hospital operating rooms, tempera paint in schools, or coffee in other areas. Reagent stain resistance is primarily a surface characteristic. It is most dependent upon the existence of surface coatings and the chemistry of the coatings. |
| Residential Flooring | Flooring designed for use in home settings. |
| Resiliency | The ability of a material to resume it’s former shape after mechanical deformation. |
| Resilient Floor | A nontextile floor surfacing material made in sheet or tile form or formed in place. Materials include but are not limited to asphalt, cork, linoleum, rubber, vinyl, vinyl composition, and poured polymeric systems. |
| RFCI | Resilient Floor Covering Institute. |
| Ridging | Small, tunnel-like raised areas over underlayment joints. They are approximately 1/4” wide and similar in cause to tunnels. |
| Roll Coating | Describes numerous processes which allow plastisols to be placed on a surface at a desired and consistent thickness. |
| Rolling | When recommended, roll in one direction and then roll in the cross direction. Rolling should be done immediately after placing the flooring into the adhesive. Start at the center of the sheet flooring and work outward to move trapped air to the edges. Rolling flattens adhesive ridges and pushes the flooring into the adhesive for a better bond. |
| Rotogravure Printing | Printing process used to print magazines and resilient flooring and other higher fidelity printed color products. |
| Sanded Face | Panels where the faces are sanded smooth or touch sanded during manufacture in order to meet the requirements of their intended use. |
| Scarify | A mechanical means of roughing a surface to obtain a better bond. |
| Scratch | A shallow cut or narrow groove in the flooring surface. A line or furrow made in the flooring surface by rasping or rubbing with a pointed or jagged object. |
| Scuffing Of Resilient Flooring | A wearing away of the surface through abrasion or a thermo-mechanical displacement of the upper surface of the floor covering by friction from traffic bodies. |
| Section | A drawing showing in a vertical plane the internal heights and details of the various parts of a building. |
| Selvage Edge | Excess material manufactured on the edge of the flooring. It is cut off before the flooring is seamed or matched at the edges. |
| Sheet Resilient Flooring | a form of resilient flooring that is usually thin in comparison to its length and breadth. In addition, the length usually substantially exceeds its width. |
| Shelf Life | The period of time which the manufacturer guarantees the unopened adhesive will be useable. The date of manufacture is normally stamped somewhere on the adhesive container. In most cases, the adhesive will be usable for a period of time following the shelf life. When the adhesive becomes unusable, the handling characteristics are affected. |
| Slab | A layer of monothlic material which serves as a substrate for finished flooring to be installed. |
| Solid Vinyl Tile | A resilient tile flooring composed of binder, fillers, and pigments compounded with suitable stabilizers and processing aids. The binder consists of polymers and/or copolymers of vinyl chloride, other modifying resins, and plasticizers which comprise at least 34% by weight of the finished tile. The polymers and copolymers of vinyl chloride comprise at least 60% of the weight of the binder. The tile meets requirements of ASTM F 1700, Standard Specification for Solid Vinyl Floor Tile. |
| Specialty Floors | Any type of construction is found in these materials, because they exist to provide functions to the floor. Some functions include: slip-retardancy, acoustical properties, sports activities and static-control for industrial situations. |
| Specifications | The detailed selections of the architect, covering all of the material and labor methods to be used in erecting a building. Usually prescribe types of material, sources, and often lists method of application or installation. |
| Stabilizer | Chemicals developed to impact light and heat stability to plastics, so they don’t start to turn color when exposed to normal lighting and heat ranges expected in end-use areas. |
| Stair Treads | The horizontal board which forms the “walking” portion of the set of stairs. |
| Static Load Indentation Resistance | Ability to resist or bounce back from high load, large small indenture exposure, like hospital beds, table legs, chair legs, stiletto heels, etc. Static load indentation resistance is most dependent on the product construction, presence and type of backing, surface embossing and pattern (which may help to mask indentation). |
| STC | Sound Transmission Class (STC) is the rating of airborne sound transmission. The STC of floor/ceiling (or wall) structure is a measure of the decibel difference between the airborne sound energy striking one side of the structure and the sound energy radiated into a receiving room on the other side. Typical floor/ceiling structure STC values range from 25 to 35 for lightweight single family residential construction to upwards of 50 to 60 for commercial construction. |
| Strings | Long “strings” in the adhesive, normally while still in the container, are usually a result of instability. These are an undesirable characteristic. |
| Studs | The small vertical timbers (usually 2″ x 4″ or 2″ x 6″) used in partitions and exterior frame walls to which the weatherboarding and lath are nailed. |
| Subcontractor | A firm which provides a certain number of the required parts of a building project to the general contractor. Reports to, takes his instructions form, is paid for completed work by the general contractor. In flooring installation, the retailer or flooring contractor providing the materials and/or the installation of those materials for floors, walls, counter-top surfaces in a building project. |
| Suspended | A suspended floor is one with a minimum of 18″ of well-ventilated air space below. Also referred to as above grade. |
| Taber Abrasion Tester | An abrasion tester which uses a leather-covered wheel on a rotating stage and an apparatus which deposits grit onto the sample and removes it each revolution. No standards exist in the US which specify limits for abrasion resistance with this tester. Because weight loss is one of the measurements made with this tester, very soft materials can fair well, because a very abrasive wheel will become filled with the soft material and not be abrasive at all, if the wheel is not “redressed” at appropriate intervals. Likewise, with harder materials like VCT tile and Classic Corlons, the wheel abrades through materials very quickly. The danger is in comparing materials that vary widely in hardness. The harder materials will grind away, and the soft materials will gum up the wheel, producing incomparable results. |
| Telegraphing | When the irregularities, imperfections, or patterns of the substrate are visibly transmitted through the flooring. |
| Terrazzo | A type of mosaic flooring made by embedding small pieces of marble, granite, glass or onyx in freshly placed mortar. The surface is usually hardened, ground, and polished. |
| Thermal Conductivity | The rate of heat flow through a floor. Various resilient flooring materials have different characteristics which affect their conductance of heat flow to the top surface. With radiant heating methods (where instead of conventional radiators, pipes are laid into the subfloor of concrete, hot water or steam is passed through the pipes, and the room area is heated by warm temperatures rising through the floor and into the room), the thermal conductivity of floors does not present much of a problem (even with the thickest gauges of cork tile), but the resilient floor’s resistance to indention may be lessened it the heating system delivers too high temperatures. With perimeter heating, where heat is supplied to a room through wall or ceiling pipe installations, wall and ceiling materials may be affected if the temperatures run too hot. |
| Tile Resilient Flooring | A flat, thin piece of resilient material (such as cork, linoleum, rubber, solid vinyl, or vinyl composition) that is used to cover floors and can be installed as individual units. Tiles are usually square with sides of 9 to 24 inches. Most common are 12 inch by 12 inch tiles. They can also be rectangular with sides of 3 to 36 inches. |
| Traffic Staining/Yellowing | Yellowing caused by a chemical interaction of the anti-oxidants put in rubber shoe soles and plasticizers in vinyl. The more plasticizer, usually the higher the staining, except with the use of very expensive non-staining plasticizer. This is also caused by a tracking-in of asphalt driveway resins and asphalt driveway sealers. |
| Trim | The finishing details finally added to a house interior or exterior such as window and door casing. |
| Truss | A framework, resting on a bearing wall or support at each end, used for supporting a roof or some other load. |
| TSP | Tri Sodium Phosphate commonly used to remove surface contaminates from substrates. |
| Tunneling | When incomplete bonding causes releasing from the substrate and long areas of the flooring form tunnel-like deformities usually over underlayment joints. Tunnels are normally caused by movement of the underlayment joints from moisture growth and are sometimes combined with product growth. |
| Vapor Barrier | Any material used to stop the migration of vapor through walls, floors or ceilings. |
| Veneer | Thin sheets of wood which plywood is made. Also refereed to as “plies” in the glued panel. |
| Vinyl Asbestos Tile | An obsolete form of resilient tile composed of vinyl plastic binders, chrysotile asbestos fibers, mineral fillers and pigments. |
| Vinyl Composition Tile | A resilient tile floor covering composed of binder, fillers and pigments compounded with suitable stabilizers and processing aids. The binder consists of polymers and/or copolymers of vinyl chloride, other modifying resins, and plasticizers. The tile meets requirements of ASTM F 1066, Standard Specification for Vinyl Composition Floor Tile. |
| Vinyl Resin | Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which has been polymerized from vinyl chloride monomer into a powdery form for mixing with other ingredients to form rigid vinyl (as found in house siding, PVC pipe, credit cards, etc.) or plasticized vinyl (as found in shower curtains, pool liners, and of course, floors!). |
| Viscosity | A property of fluids, either liquied or gaseous, that can briefly be described as causing resisitance to flow. Viscosity is the measure of the combined effects of cohesion and adhesion. It is one of the most important physical properties of an oil, varnish or lacquer. |
| VOC | Volatile Organic Compounds |
| Wear | Deterioration caused from use. A diminishing from the accumulation of abrasion, gouging, scratching, and scuffing of the thickness of the flooring. |
| Wear Layer | The portion of a resilient floor covering that contains or protects the pattern and design exclusive of temporary finishes or maintenance coatings |