Vinyl flooring blog — Page 4

In Spain, the word sintasol is used for any sheet vinyl floor covering supplied in rolls. It started life as a brand name, but the name stuck and became generic — much like "hoover" for a vacuum cleaner. Outside Spain the same product is known as sheet vinyl or vinyl roll flooring, and that is how we will refer to it below; we keep the word sintasol where the Spanish market is specifically meant.

Let's look at what lies behind the term, how the types differ from one another and what to check before buying.

What sheet vinyl is

It is a flexible polyvinyl chloride floor covering supplied in rolls and glued down as a continuous sheet. Roll width is usually 2 metres, length 25–30 linear metres.

The key difference from vinyl planks is the near absence of seams. In a room up to two metres wide the floor ends up with no joints at all. In a wider room the joints are welded with a rod into a single monolithic surface, and the floor becomes watertight.

Hence its main field of use: anywhere water, grease or disinfectants reach the floor and hygiene is required. Commercial kitchens, washrooms, clinics, laboratories, retail areas, warehouses, sports halls.

Sheet vinyl or vinyl planks: which to choose

Both materials are PVC; the difference lies in the supply format and in the jobs they are meant to do.

A practical rule: if the floor is mopped with chemicals, take the roll. If people simply walk on it and appearance matters, take planks.

Types: homogeneous and heterogeneous

This is the main technical division within the category, and it is what determines price and service life.

Heterogeneous

A multi-layer "sandwich": a backing layer, a PVC carrier layer, a printed decorative film and, on top, a transparent wear layer that takes the abrasion. A polyurethane lacquer is often added.

• Any design: wood, stone, plain, ribbed;
• Service life is set by the thickness of the wear layer — 0.3 mm for normal commercial traffic, 0.5–0.7 mm for heavy traffic;
• Cheaper;
• Once the wear layer is gone, the floor has to be replaced.

This accounts for 90% of what is sold under the name sintasol.

Homogeneous

Uniform throughout its thickness. The pattern is not printed on top but runs all the way through — there is simply nothing to wear off.

• Limited designs: speckled, marbled, plain;
• Local damage can be sanded out and the floor renewed;
• One and a half to two times more expensive;
• Maximum service life.

It is used where loads are extreme and the floor has to last 20+ years: operating theatres, laboratories, hospital corridors, industrial premises.

For a shop, an office, a bar or a warehouse, a heterogeneous floor with a 0.3–0.4 mm wear layer is entirely sufficient. Paying extra for homogeneous is justified only in healthcare and heavy industry.

Ribbed floor coverings

A separate sub-category: a surface with longitudinal ribs or round studs.

The relief solves three problems at once:

1. It displaces liquid from the contact patch — slip resistance is maintained on a wet floor;
2. It spreads the load from equipment wheels;
3. It disguises signs of use — on a plain smooth floor every scratch shows, on a ribbed one it does not.

Applications: warehouses, production areas, loading bays, garages, service corridors, transport.

What to check before buying

Overall thickness and wear layer thickness are two different figures. Service life is set by the second one. A 2 mm floor with a 0.3 mm wear layer will last longer than a 3 mm one with a 0.15 mm wear layer. A seller who quotes only the overall thickness either does not know the product or is hiding something.

Use class to EN ISO 10874: 32 for normal commercial traffic, 33 for heavy, 34 for very heavy.

Reaction to fire. Public buildings require class Bfl-s1 — a requirement of the Spanish building code, section CTE DB-SI. Without it the floor covering cannot be used in a public space.

E1 emissions — the lowest level of volatile emissions. Mandatory for housing, schools and healthcare facilities.

Declaration of Performance (DoP) and CE marking to EN 14041. Without these documents the product cannot legally be sold in the EU. If a supplier answers your request with nothing but a catalogue — that is your answer.

Residual indentation to EN 433: the lower, the better the floor holds point loads from racking and equipment.

How much sheet vinyl costs

Our prices ex stock in Valencia, excluding VAT:

All items: Bfl-s1, E1 emissions, residual indentation 0.33 mm, dimensional stability 0.4%, with a complete document package.

Market context: cheap domestic-grade "sintasol" in DIY superstores starts at €5–8/m², but there the wear layer is 0.1–0.15 mm and the class 21–23 — that is a floor good for 3–5 years in a flat and one year in a commercial space. Professional heterogeneous coverings from well-known brands run €18–35/m².

Sheet vinyl by the roll or cut to length

A full roll — 60 m², better value per metre, no problems matching batches, and you keep a reserve for future repairs.

Cut to length by the linear metre — for small rooms. Each linear metre at 2 m width gives 2 m² of floor. Cut lengths are agreed separately — write to us with the area and the geometry of the room.

One important point: when ordering cut lengths, allow a margin for trimming the seams and for matching the pattern if it is directional. Usually 5–10% on top of the net floor area.

How to calculate the quantity

1. Measure the room at its maximum dimensions, including recesses and doorways.
2. The sheets are laid out along the long side of the room — that way there are fewer seams.
3. Each sheet is taken with a 5–10 cm margin at each end.
4. Count the number of sheets: room width ÷ 2 m, rounded up.
5. Total length = number of sheets × (room length + 0.2 m).

Example. A room measuring 5 × 8 m. Sheets run along the eight-metre side. 5 ÷ 2 = 2.5 → 3 sheets. Each sheet is 8.2 m long. That gives 24.6 linear m = 49.2 m² against a net area of 40 m². Waste is high because of an unfavourable width — laying along the five-metre side instead: 8 ÷ 2 = 4 sheets of 5.2 m = 20.8 linear m = 41.6 m². A difference of almost 8 m².

The layout is worth working out before you order, not after.

Installation