Commercial & Industrial Interlocking Flooring

FreeStyle flooring stain test makes its mark, just not on the floor
In any work environment lies the potential for a spill and possible staining. None face that more on a daily basis than a hair salon. That’s why we decided to test our FreeStyle Commercial Resilient tiles against the worst a hair salon has to offer—hair dyes.

Spilling dye in a hair salon presents a different kind of clean-up issue. A big spill might be cleaned right away. But a drop or two may go undetected and can settle in on the flooring and become permanent. With this test, we wanted to use a worst-case scenario where stains remained on the tile for one, three, six hours and for one full 24-hour day. And we used an amount of dye that no salon would ever not notice over those periods of time.

For the test, we used our Cherry Block and Graystone tiles to provide a variety of colors—dark and light. Next 3” x 3 ” squares were taped off on each tile. Then three different types of dyes—Ultra Blonde Violet, High Definition Red Red and Dark Brown Neutral Ash—were applied to each square, completely filling the square within the tape. After sitting the predetermined time—one, three or six hours—we removed the dye with a putty knife and Zep industrial cleaner purple.

A second round of tests were done similarly with a square being filled with dye and

left for 24 hours before being removed in the same fashion.

The results for both tests revealed no staining whatsoever after one, three, six and 24 hours. This result was further reinforced when two strips of tapes were removed and there were no lines from where the dye had originally been placed.

Now, there are many flooring companies that make the claim of being stain-resistant. We felt it important to back that up and our FreeStyle tiles came through in fine fashion. Where our tiles do not have to be glued in, it’s also easy for salon maintenance staff to remove a stained tile to give it a thorough cleaning as necessary, and then reinstall the tile, good as new.

For complete results of the SelecTech’s stain test, visit www.freestyle.com. Remember, while we did this test with a hair salon in mind, FreeStyle tiles with the same level of stain-resistantce can be used in a wide range of commercial and industrial settings.