February 13/20, 2017: Volume 31, Number 18
By Lindsay Baillie
Adhesives manufacturers are catering to the industry’s plethora of hard surface offerings by developing products that feature multi-use properties. These new high-performance adhesives, which are designed to handle everything from LVT to vinyl composition to carpet tile, aim to provide solutions for retailers and installers.
Utilizing their own proprietary technologies, adhesives manufacturers are increasing moisture resistance, sound reduction and installation options to facilitate more reliable flooring installations for the dealer and greater peace of mind for the consumer.
Following is a sampling of some of the multi-use adhesives hitting the market.
DriTac
DriTac 5900 MegaBond is a pressure-sensitive resilient flooring adhesive that can be applied via roller or trowel. Designed for LVT/LVP, vinyl sheet goods, fiberglass backed sheet vinyl, carpet tile, rubber flooring, cork tile, cork/rubber/ foam underlayments and WPC, this adhesive offers permanent or releasable installation options.
“Eco-5900 MegaBond offers high moisture resistance (up to 8 lb. CC/90% RH) and shear strength with easy clean and easy spread formula characteristics,” said John Lio, vice president of marketing. “It has very low odor and has been independently tested and certified by the Carpet and Rug Institute’s (CRI) Green Label Plus Program for indoor air quality.”
Epic Flooring Adhesives
Epic’s Moisture Stop adhesive is made with Poly BD urethane, which is designed to control moisture vapor permeability. It has a sound reduction IIC rating of 70 and is ideal for engineered, solid and bamboo flooring.
“The strength and durability of Epic adhesives offer decades of moisture protection, sound reduction and holding power,” said Philip Pitts, flooring product manager, “all with solvent-free formulas so there are no toxic, flammable or odiferous substances evaporating into the home.”
Schönox
Schönox’s HPS 92 adhesive for resilient flooring applications features a base with bonding additives and an acrylic dispersion suitable for the bonding of vinyl composition, vinyl enhanced and solid vinyl floor tile on porous and non-porous substrates in interior areas, according to David Stowell, technical director for Schönox, HPS North America.
When applied with a notched trowel the adhesive dries in approximately 48 hours. It has a 12-month unopened shelf life and has an open time of 120 minutes.
W.F. Taylor
Dynamic adhesive from W.F. Taylor touts excellent adhesion to multiple flooring types, including LVT, LVP, vinyl sheet goods, fiberglass- backed vinyl, carpet tile and vinyl composition tile.
“Dynamic is fast drying with a fast grab and remains pressure sensitive with a very wide window of installation time, and it transitions to a secure bond, a ‘cross-linked bond,’” said Daniel Pelton, president and CEO. “Dynamic is great during installation but most importantly has great back-end performance.”
W.W. Henry
W.W. Henry, an Ardex Americas brand, touts the versatility of its Henry 650 R pressure-sensitive adhesive. Applied with either a notch trowel or short nap roller, Henry 650 R can be used with a variety of flooring types, including fiberglass-reinforced sheet vinyl, LVT and LVP as well as vinyl-backed carpet tile.
Thanks to its versatility, installers can choose between a releasable flooring installation by using the adhesive in a dry-to-touch state or a permanent bond via the wet-set installation method.