Strong Footing
Top flooring products bring a fresh look to apartment spaces more easily than ever.
By Philip Shea, Associate Editor
The revolutionary Enviroquiet floor by FloorFolio integrates a sound-reducing underlayment permanently attached to its Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT), eliminating the conventional two-step process of installing these two items separately. The total thickness of the sound-reducing plank is five millimeters, and the product overall has a minimum post-consumer recycled content of 60 percent. Enviroquiet is available in FloorFolio’s complete collection of LVT with over 100 patterns and colors (www.floorfolio.com).
Interface’s Urban Retreat modular carpet tile collection explores the intersection of manmade and Mother Nature. Designer and Interface collaborator David Oakey drew from the growing global trend of green cities, with nine pattern studies ranging from refined textures to broad organic forms. Grouped into three collections, Urban Retreat One, Urban Retreat Two and Urban Retreat Three, these pattern studies evoke bark, stone, straw and linen in eight natural, earthy colorways with lush green accents of ivy, moss, grass and lichen. Products in the Urban Retreat collection contain up to 81 percent recycled content, including 100 percent recycled content fiber and high recycled content backing (www.interfaceflor.com).
STRIATIONS by Armstrong Commercial Flooring is an environmentally friendly BioBased Tile collection inspired by ancient stone and time-weathered wood. Available in a 12- by 24-inch linear format for sophisticated flooring layouts, STRIATIONS is a non-PVC tile that contains Armstrong’s exclusive BioStride polymer made from rapidly renewable, U.S.-grown plant materials, 10 percent pre-consumer recycled content and 85 percent natural limestone. This collection is made in the USA, and at least 60 percent of its content comes from US sources. (www.armstrong.com).
LinkWerks is a new collection of luxury vinyl tile flooring designed to address unusual subfloor challenges with a locking floating floor that’s beautiful, easy to install and quiet to walk on—all with the quality you’d expect from EarthWerks. The LinkWerks Rapid Clic product features a 20 millimeter wearlayer and comes with a lifetime residential wear-limited warranty. It is available in 14 different shades (www.earthwerks.com).
This new Shades by Crossville line of porcelain tiles brings an urban look with minimalist colors combined with detailed textures. Six shades of gray in warm or cool tones are complemented by both warm and cool white hues and a deep, not-quite-black selection as well. This sophisticated tile line is recommended for interior floors, walls, countertops and exterior walls in both residential and commercial applications (www.crossvilleinc.com).
