USE: This product is suitable for heavy duty residential and light commercial applications.

 

GENERAL PREPARATION

Acclimatization: Allow your vinyl product to acclimatize by laying the strips on the floor to be covered, with the patterns upwards and in small piles, for 24 hours at normal room temperature. Keep the temperature unchanged for 72 hours. This ensures flexibility and ease of fitting of the product and minimizes the risk of open joints after installation.
Even surface below: Make sure the strips are always placed as flat as possible to avoid distortion before fitting. If the material is not stored flat, this can lead to problems when fitting it.
Under-floor heating: Avoid using under-floor heating for 24 hours before and 24 hours after laying your new floor. The under-floor heating system must be installed at least 4 weeks before laying the floor covering. Make sure to provide under-floor heating procedure before laying vinyl floors.
Drying time: Respect the time the under-floor needs to dry. Colour changes: During the production of design flooring, minimal colour changes are inevitable. Before installation, it’s still possible to visually notice the colour differences of the strips. Mix up the planks from different packing; in order to avoid laying similar planks with or without perceptible colour changes next to each other. Minimal production related colour changes are to be accepted.
Dimensional stability: Bear in mind that a dimensional deviation of ≤ 0.25% can occur with design flooring. The perception of joints is an inherent characteristic of the product. Other qualifying factors for open joints are the ambient temperature by underfloor heating, the type of surface below, the preparation of the surface below, the type of glue and the installation itself.

 

PREPARATION OF THE SURFACE BELOW

The type of surface below your flooring, its quality and any pretreatment required, will have a significant influence on the final result of laying your floor. If at first sight, the floor does not seem to be suitable for being covered with design flooring, it must certainly be treated in order to make it suitable anyway. If necessary, an extra leveling surface will have to be applied on top of the existing floor. To avoid discoloration, damage or unevenness in the floor covering, the underlying surface needs to be clean and flat, dust free, permanently dry, of normal porosity and free from contaminating products (avoid wood protection products). As a general principle, all types of finished floor need to be planed and leveled beforehand, because the tiniest irregularity in the surface below will show through if you fail to level it off. Your floor is only ready for gluing after this special pre-treatment. If you are in any doubt about this issue, always consult a specialist in glues and leveling compounds.

Wooden floor: Make sure your floor has no sticking out nails. Screw down any loose boards. Floorboards and joints need to be smoothed using a leveling compound. Open joints must be filled in.
Concrete floor: Use a leveling product for gaps and cracks in order to obtain an even surface. The moisture content of a concrete must be less than 2.0% and less than 0.5% in anhydrous concrete. If you have under-floor heating system, the moisture content of a concrete must be less than 1.8% and less than 0.3% in anhydrous concrete. Vinyl floor can be installed in combination with electrical and hydro systems for floor heating. The temperature should never exceed 30°C during and after installation. Radiant components must be at minimum of 15 mm below vinyl flooring. Make the surface as flat as possible and vacuum or sweep it frequently to get rid of all the dust and dirt.
Resilient floor: The old textile or soft floor covering such as vinyl, carpet, linoleum or cork, needs to be removed along with any traces of glue on the underlying surface. Then, it is advisable to apply an extra leveling layer.
Suspended floor: If you use MDF or another suspended surface (OSB or particle boards) as your under-floor surface, this must be laid a minimum of 24 hours, before you start fitting and gluing vinyl floor. Do not treat pre-treated boards with a primer. Untreated boards must be treated with a primer to prevent the MDF from absorbing the glue. Leveling pretreatment is not required.
Pre-treatment: Apply a primer layer on each type of under-floor surface with a soft foam or mohair roller. Respect the time needed to dry, as indicated by the primer manufacturer (generally around 30 minutes). The primer provides a better adhesion of the next layer and perfectly fills up the pores in the under-floor surface.
Leveling: Apply a leveling compound on top of the primer layer. Spread the leveling compound regularly over the surface. Respect the time to dry as indicated by the leveling compound manufacturer.

 

BASIC INSTALLATION

First row: You will need to remove the tongue on the long side of the panels that faces the wall, from the appropriate amount of panels from your first row. This is to ensure that the decorative surface of the vinyl is well under the finished trim when installed. Use an utility knife to score through the tongue several times until it easily snaps off. Start laying the first row in the left hand corner of the room. Use spacer wedges to ensure the gap tolerance of 3-5 mm to the wall, which is required for squares concern of the room (figure 1). Lay out the first row in a straight line and let the short ends interlock. To do so, insert the tongue into

the grooves at an angle of approx. 25° and lower the board (figure 2). As it is lowered, the board snaps into place tightly giving you a press fit. Continue connecting the first row until you reach the last full panel. Fit the last panel by rotating the panel 180° with the pattern side upward, place beside row, mark and then cut off excess (figure 3).

Second and next rows: For aesthetic reasons, while starting the next row, always make sure to stagger the end joints by at least 30 cm. Try to use cut piece from the previous row to start a new one (figure 4). To start your second row, tilt and push the side tongue of the panel into the side groove of the very first panel at about 25°. When lowered, the plank will click into place. Attach the second panel of the new row first on the short end side. Follow to tilt and push the side tongue as per (figure 5). Continue laying the remaining panels in this manner.

Last row: To fit the last row, lay a panel on top of the previous row with the tongue to the wall. Lay another panel upside down on the one to be measured and use it as a ruler. Don’t forget to keep the 3-5 mm room for dilatation. Cut the panel and attach it into position (figure 6). Door frames and heating vents also require some expansion room. First cut the panel to the correct length. Then, place the cut panel next to its actual position and use a ruler to measure the areas to be cut out and mark them (figure 7). Cut out the marked points, allowing the necessary expansion distance on each side. You can trim door frames by turning a panel upside down and using a handsaw to cut away the necessary height, so that panels slide easily under the frame (figure 8). Be sure to keep some spare Vinyl planks in case, there is an unforeseen need for replacement. If you need to replace a plank, simply take an utility knife and cut the bad plank out along the long side of the plank only and lift out of place. Then, take a spare plank and cut the tongue and groove off the long side of the replacement plank only. Leave the tongue and groove on the short side of the plank. Then simply fit into place and lock the two short ends into place.

 

GENERAL MAINTENANCE
Your vinyl floor can be cleaned easily with a normal household brush, vacuum cleaner or damp mop. Regular maintenance will keep your floor looking good for a longer time. Always use a non-aggressive maintenance product. Do not pour water onto the floor and do not allow puddles of water remaining on the floor.

PRECAUTIONS

• Always use felt pads on the feet of chairs, tables and cupboards
• Protect your flooring and reduce dirt and gravel using floor mats at the entrances of the rooms. Rubber can damage the PVC design flooring irreparably: avoid mats with rubber lining, rubber furniture legs or rubber wheels
• Chairs must be provided with soft wheels (W Type as described in the EN l2529 standard)
• Dragging heavy household appliances or furniture over the ground without protection may also damage the flooring. 5) Be carefull with kitchen appliances, cigarettes, hot or heavy objects that can damage the floor when falling!

Under-floor heating: The design flooring can be installed on surfaces with electric or water heating systems. The surface temperature of the top layer must not exceed 27°C.

GUARANTEE
Producer provides a 5 year guarantee on vinyl floors. The guarantee applies to manufacturing defects and premature wear-off in normal residential use. The guarantee is only valid when the official installation and maintenance instructions have been followed. The guarantee is invalid if the current categories of use for this specific type of product have not been observed (residential and light commercial applications). The guarantee does not cover normal wear and tear of the product, installation or maintenance defects, scratches or any other defect of damage caused by the user. Damage caused by sharp objects, inappropriate use of detergents, chemicals and aggressive substances, damage due to abnormal use, cutting into it or burning (cigarettes) are excluded from this guarantee. The guarantee applies to the purchaser from the first day of purchase and on the condition, that the original purchase invoice can be presented. The guarantee provides replacement of the damage recognized by the manufacturer of the assessor by a similar product from the same range of products on the day of the complaint, of the same or similar quality.