To answer, let’s start first with a short review of the history of flooring: The first floor covering introduced in the US was Linoleum invented by Frederick Walton in 1863. This early flooring material was adhered with asphaltic tar. Later the tar was replaced with asbestos adhesive commonly referred to as “cut-back”. VCT was introduced in the late forties and sheet vinyl in the early sixties. These materials too were adhered with “cut-back”. “Cut-back” producers began removing the asbestos from formulations in the early seventies and eventually replaced the solvent-born “cut-back” adhesives altogether with water-based acrylics in the late nineties under market pressure.
That’s when the trouble started.
- For over 150 years the flooring industry used solvent based adhesives
- For 150 years moisture was a “non-issue” related to adhesive performance
- For 150 years this adhesive was WATERPROOF!
No moisture testing, no ASTM, no Calcium chloride test or insitu %RH, no moisture mitigation was EVER used, and yet flooring installations performed. Sub-slab vapor barriers didn’t exist either, yet floors never failed to the degree they do today. The answer to preventing flooring failures isn’t a new idea but a re-invention of an old one.
