Flooring

When playing on the family room floor with the kids or with the puppy, you want to make sure the surface is spic and span.

Plastic vinyl flooring is impermeable, holds up to traffic and is easy to care for and clean - helping to provide a hygienic and safe environment. That's why it's often the choice of hospitals and health care facilities.

Resilient plastic - both vinyl sheet and tile - is among the most popular hard surface floorings in the United States. Durable, easy to maintain, and resistant to moisture, vinyl flooring offers the additional benefit of having no fibers to trap dust mites and other allergens.

Because of its longevity, vinyl flooring does not have to be replaced as often as many other types of flooring. According to vinylbydesign.com, this durability can be a significant benefit to the environment because fewer resources end up getting used to make and install new floors.

Based on environmental and economic criteria developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's Building for Environment and Economic Sustainability (BEES) lifecycle assessment model, plastic vinyl composition tile outperforms linoleum and recycled-content ceramic tile. These criteria include solid waste, indoor air quality (IAQ), global warming, acid rain and natural resource depletion.

While many think of vinyl as the only plastic flooring solution, a great deal of carpet and carpet cushion is actually made from recycled plastic. Carpet cushion made from polyurethane foam or vinyl is designed to enhance quality and performance. Carpet cushion offers benefits you can't get from direct glue-down installation. Use of carpet cushion also results in avoiding hidden, back-end costs of replacing worn-out carpets permanently bonded to floors. Less frequent replacement translates into real savings of time and money. That's why commercial polyurethane and vinyl carpet cushion can be an important part of proactive facility planning.