You can choose vinyl, SPC, or wood in the stores

In the past, the dividing line between flooring "sufficient" for residential purposes and suitable for the commercial sector was set at an expected foot traffic of fifty people per day. But beware, we should not confuse the load class, which relates to wear from regular use (simplified, the frequency of human movement), with the resistance of the flooring to impacts from sharp objects.

Let's start in order; there are three load classes. The class beginning with the number two is intended for residential construction, followed by "three" for commercial loads such as shops and restaurants, and for demanding industrial segments, one should choose a class starting with four. Within these classes, there are also degrees indicated by the second digit in the sequence – for example, flooring with load class 21 can withstand less than flooring marked as class 23. Additionally, the individual classes overlap, so flooring with a class of 23 from the residential range is essentially equivalent to thirty-one, that is, the "weakest" in the commercial range (which includes grades 31, 32, 33, and 34).

For maximum load class, the flooring must be glued down

The classification of flooring into a load class is determined by two things: the thickness of the top wear layer and the method of installation. The standard stipulates that in load class four for industrial use, flooring must always be fully glued down; for commercial spaces, floating installation is also permitted. The second parameter is the thickness of the wear layer. "The differences are not dramatic; for thirty-one, the defined wear layer is 0.3 mm, while a thickness of 0.4 mm corresponds to class 32. A thickness of 0.55 mm is adequate for classes 33, while a higher load class requires 0.7 mm. This is defined by the standard, but some manufacturers have an even thicker wear layer," continues Aleš Viktorin from KPP.

The highest load class with a wear layer of 0.7 mm is offered by Swedish vinyl manufacturer Kährs, while German WINEO focuses on vinyls with a wear layer of 0.55 mm, but also has elastic flooring PURLINE, which in the 1500 collection also achieves the highest load class at the level of industrial loads. By the way, the bio floor Wineo PURLINE 1500 could, in a hyperbolic sense, be used as a road surface – during testing at a university in Bielefeld, there was no wear on the floor even after 25,000 passes with a 500-kilogram load at a speed of 6 km/h! The excellent durability is positively due to the composite bio polyurethane ecuran, which forms a 0.3 mm thick wear layer.

Industrial loads would easily be met by, for example, mineral SPC coverings from manufacturers like Arbiton or Kährs, but due to the method of locking installation according to the standard, they only achieve "only" the third class. "Therefore, they are certainly suitable for spaces like restaurants or shops," explains Aleš Viktorin from KPP.

With wood, the less, the harder

Wood is a topic in itself. Load classes are not indicated for wood; there is no regulatory recommendation on where which type can be used. The key factor is the hardness of the wood, which depends on the species. The hardness value is determined by the Brinell hardness scale. Oak is considered a medium-hard wood, with a coefficient of 3.7 degrees on the Brinell hardness scale, while beech is quite similar at 3.8. If a customer wants a really hard wood, they must choose exotic types like merbau or jatoba, with an average value of 7. "But there is an exception, which is veneered multilayer flooring, such as the Swedish Kährs in the Life collection," points out the paradox Aleš Viktorin: "If you use oak only as a veneer on a solid hard HDF board, you suddenly reach a hardness of 5.8 to 6 degrees on the Brinell scale. Thanks to the hard supporting HDF board, on which there is only a veneer of noble wood, these floorings from the Kährs Life collection have significantly higher hardness than if you have a floor made entirely from the same type of wood with a thickness of 15 mm."