How do they do it?

Today's vinyl flooring can look like hardwood, stone, or just about any natural flooring material, while still keeping vinyl's easy-to-take-care-of benefits. It's done with a rotogravure embossing process, which achieves a realistic look in what's known as - no surprise here - rotogravure vinyl flooring.

Vinyl floors come with two types of "wearlayers" (a fancy name for the surface) that effect their overall performance: - Urethane - an enhanced urethane finish will protect floors from scuffing, asphalt sealer tracking, and allow most spills to be wiped off easily with a clean rag or paper towel. - PVC (poly-vinyl-chloride) - the basic vinyl floor wearlayer, it gives good durability, but lacks the easy maintenance features found in urethane. So scuffs and marks can be difficult to remove.

The thickness of the wearlayer varies, and is generally measured in mils. The thickness of a mil is the same as a telephone book page (so a 10 mil wearlayer is about as thick as ten pages of the phone book). Generally, the more expensive vinyl floors have thicker wearlayers.

Vinyl composition tile is a special form of vinyl flooring, a mix of thermoplastic binder, fillers and pigments. Its used primarily in offices, retail establishments, schools and health care interiors because of its durability, ease of installation, and moderate price.

Vinyl Care

Caring for a vinyl floor is fairly easy, but there are some general rules.

Vacuum regularly to remove grit and sand, and wash your floor occasionally with the manufacturer's recommended floor cleaner. (Never use abrasive cleaners, soaps, paste waxes or solvents, though.) Also, to keep sand and grit from being tracked onto the floor, non-staining walk-off mats should be placed at every outside entry to the room.

Dull-looking vinyl floors can be restored to their original gloss with the manufacturer's recommended floor polish - but first, try cleaning to make sure a film on the floor isn't causing the dullness. With inexpensive PVC floors, you should consider using 2-3 coats of polish - any vinyl floor with a PVC wearlayer (that's a fancy name for surface) shows scuffs, scratches, and other marks very easily and by adding those coats of polish you'll make the floor easier to maintain.

When moving heavy objects across a vinyl floor, place plywood sheets down first and move the object over them.

Vinyl First Aid

If your Vinyl floor gets a cut or gouge in it, or if you have a seam open, cover the areas and call a floor covering professional immediately to come and repair them.

Wipe up any spills immediately. Most spills wipe up easily with a clean rag or paper towel. If needed, clean them with the manufacturer's recommended cleaner or luke warm water and clear ammonia. Don't use soap because it will leave a film that will make the floor appear dull.