By The Resilient Floor Covering Institute

COREtec WPC in Briar Oak. Photo: COREtec.

The term “resilient” is often used to describe a community, business or even a natural area that demonstrates strength during hardship and the ability to adjust under pressure. “Resilient” is also the name for a category of flooring products that possess the physical strength and flexibility to stand up to nearly anything your family can throw at it, spill on it, drop on it, or run across it. It has more “give” than hardwood, stone, cement, or ceramic tile but less than carpet, making it an ideal choice for everyday life.

The resilient flooring category is comprised of many specific floor types. While architects and designers are familiar with the phrase “resilient floors,” it’s quite likely you’ve encountered these floors under specific product names, such as luxury vinyl tile, rubber, linoleum, or cork floors.

The popularity of luxury vinyl tile (LVT) has blossomed due to its incredible design capabilities. With LVT, you can delight in the natural beauty and distinctive texture of wood and stone without straining your family’s budget. Your guests may not be able to tell the difference between the LVT you choose and more expensive flooring systems like hardwood, stone or ceramic tile. Plus, LVT is water resistant, pet friendly, and highly durable, which helps limit waste over time. Another way LVT reduces waste is through modular installation – meaning you can easily replace individual tiles or planks as needed, without having to replace the entire floor.

Flexible Luxury Vinyl Tile

The popularity of luxury vinyl tile (LVT) has blossomed due to its incredible design capabilities. With LVT, you can delight in the natural beauty and distinctive texture of wood and stone without straining your family’s budget. Your guests may not be able to tell the difference between the LVT you choose and more expensive flooring systems like hardwood, stone or ceramic tile. Plus, LVT is water resistant, pet friendly and highly durable, which helps limit waste over time. Another way LVT reduces waste is through modular installation – meaning you can easily replace individual tiles or planks as needed, without having to replace the entire floor

Rigid Luxury Vinyl Tile

Color is back, and green tops the charts, especially in soothing grayed sages and watery pastels. Rarely have paint manufacturers been in such agreement, almost unanimously choosing verdant shades for 2022 color of the year: PPG Olive Sprig, Sherwin-Williams Evergreen Fog, Better Homes and Gardens Laurel Leaf, Benjamin Moore October Mist, Glidden Guacamole and Behr Breezeway.

Rigid core flooring (also called multilayer flooring) provides all the advantages of luxury vinyl tile – plus a few more. It provides exceptional underfoot comfort, sound absorption and warmth. It also provides greater resistance to water, humidity and temperature variations, making it a great choice for bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms and entryways.

Sheet Vinyl

Today’s sheet vinyl flooring typically comes in 6’, 12’ or even greater widths so you can create a seamless floor with excellent top-down moisture protection. It comes in an array of styles and colors that can mimic the aesthetic of more expensive stone and hardwood floors. Sheet vinyl combines lasting performance, low maintenance costs and sound-damping benefits into one great choice for budget-conscious homeowners. Many sheet vinyl products are designed for simple, DIY-friendly installation.

Linoleum

Linoleum floors are made from natural, rapidly renewable ingredients. Linseed oil (derived from flax plants) is combined with limestone, pine resin, cork, wood flour and dye, and eventually rolled onto a jute fiber backing. Many linoleum flooring products also integrate recycled content. This durable flooring type withstands heavy traffic and scratches over decades, without losing its color.

Cork

This material is renewable and, where facilities exist, recyclable. It can be harvested every nine years from each cork oak tree – a significantly faster rate of renewal than the hardwood trees commonly used for floors. For flooring products, cork is ground up, compressed and formed into sheets bonded with resins. Some manufacturers incorporate recycled cork and cork waste. Cork flooring is a natural insulator that muffles sound and helps homeowners use energy more efficiently. Cork is not an ideal choice for rooms that get wet – such as bathrooms – or homes with pets.

Rubber

Rubber flooring is durable, easy to clean, and ideal for hard-wearing commercial or residential environments, including restaurant kitchens and gyms. Excellent slip resistance, water resistance and softness also make rubber a smart choice for your basement, recreation room or utility room. Rubber flooring is available in a vast array of colors and textures.

Vinyl Composition Tile

Vinyl composition tile (VCT) is most often used in commercial and institutional applications, such as supermarkets and schools. However, it’s also a very popular DIY product because it is easy to handle and install. Low-cost, durable VCT can be used in a wide range of color and design combinations to create unique, custom effects. It’s made in the USA of North American limestone, a highly abundant natural resource, combined with vinyl and color pigments.

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