Hello everyone!
I got a second quote today regarding vinyl planks. Since my house will have a strong south-facing orientation and floor-to-ceiling windows, vinyl was discouraged because it is “not suitable” for this application.
Temperatures of “up to 70°C” (158°F) (nice reference to the cooling thread!) are expected there. The MANUFACTURER does not provide a warranty for this type of location. The first supplier didn’t mention anything about this.
Is that because they didn’t know about the windows, they are careless, or is the whole thing simply not true?
Who here has experience with vinyl warping in these conditions?
I got a second quote today regarding vinyl planks. Since my house will have a strong south-facing orientation and floor-to-ceiling windows, vinyl was discouraged because it is “not suitable” for this application.
Temperatures of “up to 70°C” (158°F) (nice reference to the cooling thread!) are expected there. The MANUFACTURER does not provide a warranty for this type of location. The first supplier didn’t mention anything about this.
Is that because they didn’t know about the windows, they are careless, or is the whole thing simply not true?
Who here has experience with vinyl warping in these conditions?
M
Myrna_Loy18 Jun 2021 08:02A vinyl floor needs to be replaced and disposed of after 15-20 years, whereas a hardwood floor can be refinished by sanding.
N
NoggerLoger18 Jun 2021 08:27For example, if you drop cutlery or something similar, you’ll end up with a dent – this already happened to us after one month. However, scratches can be easily treated by re-oiling. Vinyl is therefore more prone to scratches. Vinyl floors nowadays are made very well, but the rustic variety can only be achieved with wood. So, in my opinion, it’s either natural stone or wood.
M
Myrna_Loy18 Jun 2021 09:08Mycraft schrieb:
Vinyl is also commonly used in cars. There, it experiences similar temperatures. However, since it is a soft and flexible plastic, not much happens other than the plasticizers evaporating, which eventually makes the material brittle.
The other manufacturer might have laminated the vinyl onto something, which could cause delamination and so on. If it’s just the planks, they can withstand the sun, and yes, it does get quite warm. The sun is strong. I would like to clarify this.
Vinyl—short for polyvinyl chloride—is not flexible by itself. It is the added plasticizers that make this otherwise brittle, hard material range from impact-resistant to very soft and pliable. The higher the plasticizer content, the faster the material ages. The cheaper the plasticizer, the faster it degrades.
Rigid PVC is commonly found in car dashboards or handles, old roller shutter slats, sewage and downpipes. It lasts very long and is well resistant to light and weather. Soft PVC, which contains a high amount of plasticizers, is used in artificial leather or inflatable pool toys. Flooring vinyl products fall somewhere in between, depending on the manufacturer and intended use.
For luxury vinyl flooring, colorants, pigments, fillers, etc. are added to the PVC. These thin sheets—like wood for parquet—are glued onto a carrier material made of wood. The layers of this composite sandwich of plastic, adhesive, and wood backing naturally respond differently to heat and sunlight. The darker the material, the greater the stress between the plastic and the backing.
Modern plastics are more durable than those from the 1970s, but if a manufacturer recommends against installing the material in areas of strong sunlight exposure, they know their product’s capabilities, expected lifespan, and warranty limits. Plastics are often nearly indestructible as waste, but their intended functional properties usually deteriorate after 10 to 20 years.
R
Reltaw202118 Jun 2021 09:09untergasse43 schrieb:
If you’re already concerned about floors that can’t withstand 70 °C (158 °F), how warm is the room itself supposed to get? If the floor has to tolerate 70 °C (158 °F), the rest of the room would have to be extremely hot. Some kind of sun-controlled shading should already be planned under these conditions, which would also help mitigate the floor issue to some extent.
I’ve already learned in the range hood thread that simple quotation marks are not necessarily recognized as a quote. That’s why I even added a textual highlight indicating that I AM QUOTING. It didn’t help. I don’t know how else to express myself so that everyone truly understands me.
I’m not compulsively searching for arguments. I’m a scientist, so I’m interested in facts. I’m interested in others’ experiences. I don’t reject them, I collect them. In the end, I decide which ones are applicable to my situation. For example, I want to know how/where evidence was provided, whether emissions from vinyl are harmful, or how to recognize the need to replace a vinyl floor.
M
Myrna_Loy18 Jun 2021 09:22Scientists in which field?
The problem is VOCs – volatile organic compounds – which evaporate from all organic materials (that is, everything except metal, stone, ceramic, or glass). This happens either immediately or over time as the individual components break down. Adhesives are particularly prone to decomposition, as are plasticizers. Formaldehyde, for example, was once a major concern in particleboard.
The higher the concentration in indoor air, the more unhealthy it becomes. The smaller and closer to the floor the occupants are, the more these substances are absorbed and accumulate in the body. In a new building, you don’t just have one new source emitting these compounds, but hundreds. These include everything from cable sheathing, paints, upholstered furniture, sealants, plaster and insulation materials, to new furniture and doors.
No manufacturer tests the safety of the aging processes of their materials. When the material becomes brittle, breaks, swells quickly, or changes color, it has reached the end of its service life and can no longer fulfill its function—but these processes usually take several years.
The problem is VOCs – volatile organic compounds – which evaporate from all organic materials (that is, everything except metal, stone, ceramic, or glass). This happens either immediately or over time as the individual components break down. Adhesives are particularly prone to decomposition, as are plasticizers. Formaldehyde, for example, was once a major concern in particleboard.
The higher the concentration in indoor air, the more unhealthy it becomes. The smaller and closer to the floor the occupants are, the more these substances are absorbed and accumulate in the body. In a new building, you don’t just have one new source emitting these compounds, but hundreds. These include everything from cable sheathing, paints, upholstered furniture, sealants, plaster and insulation materials, to new furniture and doors.
No manufacturer tests the safety of the aging processes of their materials. When the material becomes brittle, breaks, swells quickly, or changes color, it has reached the end of its service life and can no longer fulfill its function—but these processes usually take several years.
Ask yourself these questions:
Do you want a PVC floor inside your home?
Do you want yourself and your children playing or sitting on plasticizers?
Do you want those emissions in your indoor air?
Even hardwood flooring can discolor easily.
Vinyl expands when heated. At some friends’ houses, the floor installers made the expansion gaps too small, which caused some rippling.
If the manufacturer advises against it, I would follow that advice.
We don’t have vinyl flooring. On the one hand, we didn’t want it, and on the other hand, our builder didn’t offer it at the time. In 2017, there was no option that met health standards, environmental concerns, and quality expectations.
Do you want a PVC floor inside your home?
Do you want yourself and your children playing or sitting on plasticizers?
Do you want those emissions in your indoor air?
Even hardwood flooring can discolor easily.
Vinyl expands when heated. At some friends’ houses, the floor installers made the expansion gaps too small, which caused some rippling.
If the manufacturer advises against it, I would follow that advice.
We don’t have vinyl flooring. On the one hand, we didn’t want it, and on the other hand, our builder didn’t offer it at the time. In 2017, there was no option that met health standards, environmental concerns, and quality expectations.
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