From the Floors Up

Online Home Design Tools by Armstrong

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This is the year you’re finally going to get that new floor you’ve been dreaming about. Let’s start planning! Armstrong has several online home design tools to help you find that perfect floor. Maybe you already have an idea of the type of floor you want or maybe you prefer to keep all your options on the table. Either way, with these tools, you can find the floor that works with your room, your design style and your budget.

Design a Room

This tool helps you visualize the room you have in mind. Try different floors, looks and colors in a variety of room styles to create the room scene you like best.

Step 1: Choose a room and design style (e.g., Kitchen – Contemporary, Bathroom – Traditional, etc.)

Step 2: Select flooring, look or pattern type, wall color, and cabinets (kitchen only)

Step 3: Save your favorite room scenes to My Project

Floor Finder

This tool steps you through the flooring selection process to find a floor based on: room type, look, size of household, installation method and budget. After you select the answers that fit your situation, Floor Finder shows you recommended flooring options.

My Project and Project Estimator

With My Project, a design organizing tool, you can store your favorite flooring products from Armstrong and the room scenes that inspire you all in one place. After you’ve selected the floors you like, use the Project Estimator to calculate the cost of a full flooring project.

Choosing a floor has never been so easy – or so much fun!

My Project was recently featured in an article from Fox News.com that described the Best Online Home Design tools.

(This post is a guest post provided by Armstrong)

Get Your Floors Ready for the Holidays!

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afp_E8322_rsShopping, decorating, wrapping presents, baking, you’ve got a million things to do to prepare for the holiday season, don’t forget to add “floor cleaning” to your list. If you’re entertaining over the holidays, you want to make sure your home looks beautiful. Taking care of your floors is one way to do it. Sparkling clean, polished floors will make a great impression on your guests.

For the best results, you should always clean your floors regularly with the proper products. Armstrong floor care products are ideal for regular and heavy duty cleaning for all types of floors. Now, you may be thinking, why should you spend money on Armstrong floor care products? The simple answer is: they work.

In addition –

  • They’ve been tested and proven in the lab and on thousands of residential floors.
  • They’re specially formulated to work on Armstrong floors and other floors.
  • They’re engineered to be environmentally friendly. So you get a great-looking floor without dumping harsh chemicals down your drain.
  • By using the proper cleaning products, you will help protect your flooring investment for years to come.

Let’s get started. Armed with your mop, bucket and cleaning products, follow these tips to get your floors ship-shape for the holidays!

Hardwood & Laminate Floors

Before the entertaining begins in earnest, dry mop or vacuum your floor, then clean your wood floor with Armstrong Hardwood & Laminate Floor Cleaner in the spray bottle. It comes in a ready-to-use, no-rinse formula, and it’s suitable for all gloss level finishes. For highly worn areas of your floor, try Bruce’s Fresh Finish to restore the shine. Finally, before your guests arrive, place runners and area rugs with slip-resistant backings along high traffic areas.

Wood Floor Cleaning Myth #1: Dry mopping is the best way to clean hardwood flooring or laminate flooring. Any type of liquid cleaner could damage the floor.

Truth: Dry mopping is fine for a quick dusting, but if all you do is dry mop, you will eventually grind the dirt into the surface of the floor. Use only cleaning products specifically designed for hardwood or laminate to remove soil. RSCB5277_web

Wood Floor Cleaning Myth #2: Concentrated cleaning products are fine for hardwood floors. Just add water and go.

Truth: Never use any cleaner that requires you to add water on hardwood floors – even sealed floors. Water will get seep into and around the planks and cause serious damage to your floor.

Vinyl Floors

Routine maintenance will keep your floor looking good longer. Regular cleaning also reduces the number of times you’ll need to do heavy duty cleaning. Armstrong’s Once ‘n Done Resilient and Ceramic No-Rinse Floor Cleaner is good for spot cleaning or all-over floor cleaning. It comes in a convenient, ready-to-use spray bottle or a concentrated formula. You can also use Once ‘n Done with ceramic, tile, marble, granite, terrazzo, slate and stone floors.

But with the holidays fast approaching, you probably want to put in a little extra effort to make your floors look like new. Armstrong’s Shinekeeper restores the appearance of high gloss vinyl floors, while Armstrong’s Satinkeeper does the same for low gloss vinyl floors. For seriously faded or dirty floors, try New Beginning® Extra-Strength Floor Stripper. New Beginning solves tough cleaning problems, but use it only once every couple of years, or, depending on traffic, once a season.

Enjoy the holiday season and bright, sparkling floors with help from Armstrong.

Get a $2.00 mail-in rebate on Armstrong floor care products at Armstrong.com.

Armstrong Intros New Floating Floors

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The authentic hardwood looks are breathtaking. The water-resistant performance is superior. The installation is incredibly simple. But the real beauty of Armstrong’s new Luxe Plank™ with patent pending Lynx™ Technology is the flexibility it provides, thanks to its revolutionary design and construction.

Luxe Plank, launching to retail now, is the best option for a beautiful, high performance floor, according to Armstrong Resilient Vice President Allen Cubell.  “A combination of beauty, performance and simplicity makes Luxe Plank superior to any other luxury vinyl tile glue-down or floating system available today,” he said.  “It’s the easiest LVT floating installation on the market.  Luxe Plank with Lynx Technology allows the installer to reposition planks as many times as needed, and still maintain the integrity and appearance of the installation – a practice unheard of until now.”

Lynx Technology, the next generation in floating floor engineering, starts with specially formulated super thick LVT planks combined with a manufactured rigid film with a highly advanced performance oriented pressure sensitive adhesive.

“Flexibility without compromise means fewer call backs because the installation is right the first time,” said Yon Hinkle, Product Manager, Armstrong.  “With Luxe Plank, the end result is always a beautiful, high integrity installation that our dealers and their customers can count on.”

“This is a true game-changer,” said Buddy Faircloth, president, Cain & Bultman.  “The genius behind Luxe is that it improves upon existing technology to offer the retailer a truly unique product – unbelievably realistic looks, superior performance and a fail-safe installation. This adds up to not only happy customers, but repeat customers.  It’s a product that promises to be easy to sell.”

“Luxe Plank fills a gap in the market by being more than just about installation,” said Ray Mancini, president, BelknapWhite.  “It clearly establishes a style/beauty first position that speaks volumes to the consumer.”

The vibrant hardwood colors and textures of Luxe Plank™ add instant luxury to any room and feature the most realistic hardwood visuals available in the category. Authentic plank lengths, along with beveled edges and ends, combine to make the visuals incredibly natural. Consumers can choose from a stunning array of the most popular traditional, exotic, rustic and distressed looks to recreate the style of genuine hardwood.

Luxe Plank is available across 33 SKU’s at three price points, in a total of 14 design categories. Its distinctive looks include the undulating textures of Exotic Fruitwood, with vibrant colors and cosmopolitan elegance, and English Walnut inspired by Europe’s great country estates, with a  rich palette and contrasting stained edges (Best Collection).  Peruvian Walnut captures the beauty of the species’ natural variations in color and graining, and the distinct pattern of Empire Bamboo adds a modern flair to any space (Better Collection).  Jefferson Oak seizes the character and versatility of traditional oak in four classic wood tones that enhance any room (Good collection).

“The wow factor is that this is one beautiful flooring collection, a sure crowd pleaser,” said Mancini.  “There is an amazing breadth of design, and just the finest looking and top performing planks I’ve seen.  It is clearly designed to be the best.”

With Luxe Plank, even bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms can have a natural hardwood look. The thicker, more durable top layer features enhanced urethane coatings that resist scratches, stains and wear, making Luxe Plank perfect for high traffic areas as well as high moisture areas.  One of the attributes of the pressure sensitive adhesive is that it also is resistant to various factors – water or chemical.  Plus, the floor’s bond only gets stronger and stronger with time, offering superior adhesion strength with a grip that is virtually unbreakable.

Installing is as easy as 1-2-3

Lynx™ Technology, with its exclusive pressure-sensitive adhesive, makes Luxe Plank incredibly versatile and simple to install. Because each plank attaches to the planks beside and above it – not the floor beneath it – it installs quickly and easily, over practically any surface in any home or business.

With the technology to revolutionize floating floor installation and design options to meet any decorating need, Luxe Plank™ ensures high referral rates and repeat business.

“Luxe Plank wins where it counts – better wear layer, more features, better visuals and great warranties,” added Faircloth.  “Plus, it’s developed and backed by Armstrong, the brand our customers can trust.”

For more information, visit www.armstrong.com.

Green News in Flooring for Armstrong and Shaw

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ARMSTRONG

Armstrong’s Center, Texas engineered hardwood manufacturing plant received Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody certification.

According to Daniel Call, vice president, Wood Product Management, “FSC certification is a measure of our commitment to environmental stewardship, which includes sustainable forest management.”

Built in the early 1950s, the Center, Texas facility is Armstrong’s oldest hardwood plant. The 200-plus employees make residential and commercial flooring for the Armstrong, Bruce and Capella hardwood lines.

Now the plant can produce FSC-certified products in multiple domestic species, including oak, maple, hickory and walnut.

7f598972-fc05-4cc4-b946-b5583c55244ffullSHAW INDUSTRIES

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency welcomed Shaw Industries, Inc. as its newest WasteWise partner.

WasteWise partners are organizations that voluntarily set goals to reduce municipal solid waste.

Shaw is joining EPA’s WasteWise program as it is launching a project to better track its efforts in reducing the amount of post-industrial waste produced in all of its carpet, rug, hardwood and laminate manufacturing facilities.

The total post-industrial waste produced will be compared to the amount of finished production, and Shaw intents to significantly reduce that percentage over the next three years and beyond.

EPA provides WasteWise partners with technical assistance and helps promote the achievement of its partners.

Shaw is a leading recycler of post-consumer carpet, and the comprehensive Shaw Green Edge Recycling program reclaims and recycles carpet nationwide.

Shaw also manufactures a line of wood flooring from post-industrial recycled wood that uses 50 percent less harvested wood than comparable engineered wood flooring.

Carpet scraps, along with all waste generated from laminate manufacturing at Shaw’s facility in Ringgold, Ga., is diverted from landfills and used to generate fuel. An innovative waste-to-energy technology converts carpet and wood waste to steam energy through gasification.

WasteWise is a voluntary partnership program launched by EPA in 1994 with more than 2000 partners. WasteWise partners not only reduce waste, but also are addressing global climate change. By decreasing the demand on raw materials through waste reduction and recycling, these organizations are improving operations, reducing costs, and minimizing their environmental footprints.

Armstrong Expands Linoleum Palette

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On the 100th anniversary of Armstrong linoleum’s introduction to North America, Armstrong introduces an expanded color line of five patterns and 126 colors of linoleum flooring, combining the timeless beauty of its most sustainable product with the superior performance of its exclusive NATURCote™ UV-cured, low-maintenance coating. All colors are designed in a new, organized tonal step system trademarked as Color Continuum™, which unites hue, value and chroma.

More than a century ago, Armstrong ceased discarding post-industrial cork waste and began recycling it – first into corkboard insulation, and soon afterwards into the green product on which its modern flooring business was built: linoleum. Armstrong® linoleum is still made of the same renewable raw ingredients, including cork powder, linseed oil, limestone, organic pigments and jute backing. Armstrong’s line of linoleum has expanded by more than 50%, with MARMORETTE™, LINORETTE™, COLORETTE™, GRANETTE™ and UNI WALTON™ coming together as a collection of inspiring choices.

Armstrong linoleum is a sound choice that supports the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) building rating system. It contributes to three LEED® Credits: MR6.0 (Rapidly Renewable Resources—linoleum contains 36% rapidly renewable content); MR4.1 and MR4.2 (Recycled Content – 10% & 20% post-consumer + ½ pre-consumer) and also is compliant with EQ4.3 (Indoor Air Quality). It is independently tested and certified as a low-emitting product under the FloorScore™ program and is compliant with California Section 01350 for low VOC emissions, recognized as the strictest in the country. NEOCON Booth # 7-4042

For more information on Armstrong linoleum, visit http://www.armstrong.com/commflooringna/.

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

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