What Causes a Wear Layer to Delaminate?

Vinyl is beautiful and strong, and is a popular choice for high-traffic areas at home or at the workplace. Vinyl flooring is generally very durable and resistant to wear. Most vinyl floors perform well for many years with proper care and maintenance. However, some problems can still develop over time. In certain cases, the wear layer of the flooring material may experience damage or other issues. To understand what might cause the wear layer of a vinyl floor to delaminate, it is helpful to understand how vinyl floors are constructed.

Anatomy of a Vinyl Floor

Manufacturers build vinyl flooring with several layers designed to maximize both beauty and durability. There are four layers in vinyl flooring:

1. Resilient backing: supports all other layers and resists moisture
2. Vinyl color: durable plastic layer to provide strength and resiliency
3. Photographic image: printed to recreate the look of stone, tile, wood, marble, and more
4. Urethane wear layer: Protects other layers from wear and tear, and resists scratching and staining

The wear layer is what stands between the abuse of foot traffic and the beautiful vinyl flooring. In most cases, the wear layer will last for many years without problem, but there are instances where the wear layer can delaminate.

Delaminated Wear Layer

On the occasional instances where the wear layer delaminates, it is generally caused by a manufacturing error. Basically, when putting all the layers together at the factory, sometimes there can be a glue bond failure that is usually due to a moisture or core imbalance. This kind of defect doesn’t happen very often, but it is possible. An expert in the flooring industry can easily determine when the wear layer has delaminated.