Adhesive-free floors

With all Altro adhesive-free floors no DPM or adhesive are required. They have been designed to avoid the need for a moisture barrier to subfloors which are damp and to those which cannot be prepared by traditional methods, due to surface contamination. The nodes on the underside of the sheet create an airspace allowing the evaporation of water vapour from damp subfloors.

Altro adhesive-free floors require no adhesive and no DPM (damp-proof membrane) so you make an immediate saving in CO₂ by avoiding these elements.

The up to 50% saving is based on comparing CO₂ data for the named Altro adhesive-free floor against a typical 2mm adhered vinyl floor that uses a surface applied damp proof membrane.

With reduced installation time and being able to walk on the floor the same day, your client can have their busiest areas back to normal use faster. An adhesive-free floor installation can reduce installation time by up to 50% compared with an installation using adhesive. For example (depending on substrate condition): a 200m² corridor would be laid in two days compared with four days with an adhered floor covering, with an approximate 20% cost saving. Time is saved on floor preparation as the need to re-screed the floor or use a liquid DPM, the mixing of epoxies and adhesives have been removed and you don’t need to wait for adhesive to cure before welding joints. By cutting installation time this gives you more availability to complete client jobs and saves you and your client time, money and hassle – making you more competitive in a demanding marketplace.

The main savings come from not requiring an adhesive and DPM in the installation, saving both the cost of the materials and the labour needed to fit them.

In addition, you will not need to hire noisy air extraction equipment; or make alternative arrangements to move or re-house occupants, this will in turn reduce disruption, costs for materials and labour overheads. You can also save costs on disposal by diverting your waste from landfill or by partnering with Recofloor, or recycling the floor and reusing it in another area of your building.

And you can make those savings again when it comes to replacing the floor. Due to the fact that the product is not stuck down using traditional wet adhesives, when the product is uplifted the material is not contaminated with the usual subfloor residue. As there is also no damage to the subfloor and adjoining walls, there are no repairs required, with associated further resources needed.

Altro’s adhesive-free floors excel in their environmental credentials. Sustainable and with 10% recycled content, meaning we use less of the earth’s valuable natural resources, Altro adhesive-free floors are 100% recyclable post-consumer. Waste is minimal as you do not need to use a damp-proof membrane (DPM) or adhesive products; thereby, reducing unwanted landfill content. As it’s 100% recyclable, the floor can be uplifted quickly and easily and any leftover floor can be used elsewhere. At the end of its life the floor can be recycled via a Recofloor collection point and regenerated into useful traffic calming products such as traffic cones.

Altro adhesive-free floors can be laid over existing sound substrates without applying adhesive. So, you can weld and walk on the floor the same day. Altro adhesive-free floors give a quick fit without compromising on performance.

Its unique formulation allows the floor to lie flat and perform like a traditional adhered floor without the need for an adhesive.

With Altro adhesive-free, double-sided, moisture-tolerant tape, the floor edges and joints are secured in place while being installed, coved and welded. With no adhesive, there is no drying time and no resulting odours.

When you are dealing with asbestos it is essential to deal with this in a safe way to avoid risk to health caused by inhaling the fibres. Installing a new Altro adhesive-free floor over the tiles encapsulates the asbestos fibres, and can be an acceptable way to manage the material.

The specially formulated studded underside emboss allows flooring to sit off the subfloor, allowing the floor to breathe, resulting in any moisture dissipating. It can be used with a new concrete floor at up to 97% relative humidity.

Allowing the subfloor to breathe, installations can be quicker and easier as no damp-proof membrane (DPM) is required. You can halve installation time compared with a traditional installation.

This technology gives you a natural, organic and environmentally-friendly drying method for subfloors, which has been rigorously tested to ensure sufficient ventilation of the damp substrate.

We know that our adhesive-free floors won’t let you down. But don’t take our word for it. We’d like to share some key test results with you, so you can rest assured that it will perform as stated for its lifetime.

Altro adhesive-free floors offer up to 14dB sound reduction, which is great for noisy environments such as kindergartens and schools reducing disruptive noise transfer as excited young children or thousands of older ones move around a building. Within a hospital or care environment reducing noise in a ward or public area can aid patient recovery and enhance residents’ wellbeing. Coupled with up to 2.4mm thick options, an adhesive-free floor is an ideal choice for areas that need to look good while helping to give comfort underfoot; much valued for carers, nurses and teachers, who spend many hours a day on their feet.

The floor can be laid over a damp substrate up to 97% RH, removing the need to wait for the substrate to dry and saving labour and materials costs

With up to 50% time saving gained from installing an adhesive-free floor you can easily return your business to normal service within 24 hours; disruption and any anxiety to residents, patients and customers are dramatically reduced. A corridor within a hospital or care home is in constant use by foot and wheeled traffic. Closing down the corridor for a lengthy period of time is not an option, so by installing an adhesive-free floor the work can be completed quickly, even overnight, so that the traffic flow is uninterrupted and when you come to replace the floor covering after many years of use there is no floor preparation needed. Just lay, weld and walk on the same day.

With an adhesive-free floor you can keep your building warm and comfortable as underfloor heating can be kept on; this reduces impact from the work needed to be done, removing the need to hire expensive de-humidifiers or temporary heaters. And keeping the heating on will help dry out freshly plastered walls reducing the time needed to decorate and install surface fixings, giving a quicker return to service.

Lack of adhesive means no tacky areas and trafficking glue through a building plus the reassurance that without adhesives your subfloor or coving will not be damaged when the floor needs to be lifted or removed at end of life.

Adhered flooring uses contact adhesive, so to remove it you could damage not just the subfloor but adjoining walls too. An adhesive-free floor gives you no fuss repair and maintenance, with ease of access to the subfloor allowing you to readily identify and fix problems. In the case of an adhered floor, if you have a leaking pipe you would need to repair both subfloor and wall, the bonded floor would need to be re-screeded and possibly have a surface DPM re-instated; this would not be required with an adhesive-free installation.

100% recyclable pre- and post-installation via the Recofloor take back scheme saving your clients’ valuable time and money by being able to reuse the floor and reducing waste disposal costs

With an Altro adhesive-free floor installation there are no adhesive-related odours and therefore no need to close a critical area such as a busy hospital corridor or provide costly ventilation equipment for affected areas in an occupied property. You can achieve a quieter installation with no requirement to use and/or scrape glue, or hire noisy de-humidifiers or air quality equipment.

Yes. Underfloor heating can remain active allowing you to increase drying conditions throughout, without the added expense of temporary heaters; so that any fresh plaster on the walls will dry faster, reducing time and cost to the overall project. As underfloor heating can remain on, unlike with a ceramic tiles installation, you can save up to three weeks’ installation time, as you do not need to wait to reinstate the heating.

Our adhesive-free floors are durable and can tolerate medium to heavy-duty traffic. Altro adhesive-free floors hold as effectively as Altro floors installed using adhesive: no rucks, no movement. In fact, our award-winning Altro XpressLay adhesive-free has been tested with a 900kg drilling rig with caterpillar tracks, so a patient on a trolley will be no problem at all!

Our sustainable and movement-free floors have been tried and tested in some of the world’s most demanding locations including the Australian Parliament, listed buildings, global four-yearly sporting events and the Asian Games.

With over 10 years’ experience of working with our adhesive-free floors and having invented our international, award-winning Altro XpressLay adhesive-free, we are confident in our products’ durability. But don’t just take our word for it. Our case studies are testament to customer satisfaction, and with a 15-year life expectancy and 10-year guarantee on all our adhesive-free products you needn’t fear that an adhesive-free product will let you down.