Bio Based Tile (BBT) From Armstrong Commercial Flooring

BBT is a product produced by Armstrong Flooring, a subsidiary of Armstrong World Industries.  On a recent project the product was specified by the architect and the designer.  Having used the product sparingly in the past we were excited for the opportunity to put down large quantities of the relatively new flooring to measure its performance.

What makes the product unique is that it looks almost identical to Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT), your standard commercial tile found in buildings of all types.  At the same time, the product does not contain any vinyl it is made up of 85% limestone and 10% pre-consumer recycled content.  Originally designed to be a more environmentally friendly alternative to VCT it was discovered during testing that the product is actually much more stable, resistant to denting and cracking than standard VCT (according to Armstrong).

Our installation consisted of around 40,000 square feet of BBT in a new construction / renovation.  Right from the onset we found that the product appeared to be more sensitive to temperature variation and that the adhesive was not setting properly.  As a result, we cranked the heat up to 75 degrees in order to warm the floors.  The heat helped but still, the tile would not sit properly.  It took multiple days of rolling the tile with increased temperatures and in some cases heating tiles individually with a heat gun to get the tile to lay flat.

We spoke with Armstrong customer service in regards to the problem and explained that the adhesive was not forming the proper bond.  Customer service did what they could to assist but said that we were doing everything properly.  Approximately 2 months later we placed an order for additional tile and adhesive for another area of the same building.  As soon as we ordered the adhesive the representative from Armstrong explained that it was no longer available and that there was a “new” required adhesive.

No problems with the installation the second time around using the “new” adhesive.  It would appear that Armstrong was able to identify the problem with the adhesive and have it corrected.  We have found that our client is very happy with the final result and the product is holding up well to the high traffic demands.

Now that the testing phase is over and we made the trial run, we do recommend the new BBT products from Armstrong.  Here are some pictures of our work.