print this article | 
e-mail this article | 
comment Migrations Biobased Tile from Armstrong
The green building community loves to hate vinyl composition tile (VCT). Along with the PVC and phthalate plasticizer content (about 15 percent by weight), VCT requires regular waxing and periodic stripping to maintain an attractive, protective wear layer. According to Greg Norris, with the Harvard School of Public Health and Sylvatica, the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from just one cycle of stripping and waxing VCT exceeds the VOCs from the entire production supply chain of VCT manufacture. Despite all that, the affordability of VCT and the familiarity building owners have with it in institutional, retail, and commercial buildings keeps this resilient flooring option extremely popular.
Based on what you have seen and read about this project, how would you grade it? Use the stars below to indicate your assessment, five stars being the highest rating.
Enter Armstrong’s Migrations line of biobased composition tile. Introduced at the 2007 Greenbuild Conference in Chicago—the product will become available in early 2008—Migrations uses BioStride, a newly developed corn-based polyester binder instead of PVC to hold the tile together. Armstrong invented and has applied for a patent on BioStride, but the polymer will be produced by a partner company. As with VCT, the majority of the tile content is limestone (about 85 percent by weight), including about 10 percent post-consumer recycled limestone. The BioStride polyester, which includes a small percentage of petroleum products, allows the flooring to contribute to a rapidly renewable credit in the LEED Rating System. (While biobased polymers offer alternatives to petrochemical feedstocks, some environmentalists raise concerns about the chemical-, water-, and energy-intensity of products derived from corn, as well as the U.S. reliance on genetically modified strains of corn.)
Migrations has been certified through the FloorScore program of the Resilient Floor Covering Institute as complying with California’s 01350 indoor air quality standards. Migrations is identical in thickness to standard VCT at 1/8" and will be available in the same 12" x 12" tiles. The recommended adhesives are the same LEED-compliant products as those used with VCT.
According to Armstrong, Migrations tile beats the performance of standard VCT with twice the indent resistance and more than five times the impact resistance. The tile surface is less porous than VCT, which may allow Armstrong to reduce the frequency of recommended waxing (the company is studying this question). Armstrong will initially recommend that Migrations floors be cleaned and waxed using identical equipment, materials, and procedures as with standard VCT.
Cost is expected to be somewhat higher than VCT. Armstrong projects that Migrations will cost $2.50 to $3 per square foot, compared with $1.50 to $2.75 per square foot for its VCT. This is still significantly less than its natural linoleum products, which Armstrong estimates at $4.50 to $5 per square foot. Migrations will be available in 28 colors.
While Migrations will not reach the marketplace until at least the first quarter of 2008, Kent Clauson, the commercial marketing manager for Armstrong Commercial Flooring, was very pleased with the response to the product at the Greenbuild conference. “We knew that it would be a very positive response, but the response has been overwhelming, he said. “We already have heard about people wanting to switch out specs to accommodate this product.”
For more information:
Armstrong Commercial Flooring
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
877-276-7876, 717-937-0611
www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/
del.icio.us
