Amtico Flooring

Rainy-Days

Bear with me because it could be a long one.

We bought a new home and the previous owners had installed Amtico Flooring in the kitchen. The flooring was only two years old and we had already noticed scuff marks on the flooring when we were viewing the property. The estate agent heavily marketed the Amtico bit in their literature, but when DH questioned the owner as to whether it was guaranteed by Amtico and that it was installed by one of the registered installers, the owner produced the report/document and receipt to show that it was. On the QT the owner confrmed at second viewing that they now had some serious misgivings about the Amtico floor especially what was laid down in the kitchen (it's in the bathroom and en-suite as well but that is the next job to get that ripped out).

DH rang a good friend of his who is a Structural Surveyor and he told us that there had been some "horror Stories" about these types of flooring. The way he described it was that if you take some concrete with a bit of screeding on top, put it into a plastic bag and put some water in the bottom, seal it up and leave it in a warm place for the next ten years; you subsequently go back to it what do you think the concrete is going to look like?

So, what we did was negotiate a settlement with the owner which took a lump off for getting this Amtico floor up. The new house has an Aga so now we had a petro chemical by product floor, that has a urethane (spelt wrong I guess) sealer underneath it, which is basically like a giant glue sniffing exercise all being heated up by the Aga. The toxic levels must have been horrendous.

We got in a firm to start taking up the flooring and as soon as we got the Amtico floor up, we started to see something that we had been forewarmed about, the floor underneath was effectively sweating, the moisture had no where to go and that the sealants were just sitting on top of it all. In some places the concrete floor was starting to crack open. We had the remainder of the floor dug right down, took out the concrete and had a new floor laid. On top of that we have had a new stone floor installed, which the independent surveyor for the house and surveyor friend told us in no uncertain terms was the absolute best option to go for. It would allow the floor to breathe, we wouldn;t be subject to a petro chemical by product and any toxic levels from this constant warming effect from the Aga would be truly gone.

I don't understand why Amtico is rated as such a fantastic top notch product when since having had experience of this floor everyone has a story to tell about it and it's not good. It scuffs, it marks, it scratches, you have to seal it every 12 months or so, you have to treat with an almost reverential type behaviour that is not akin to heavily used areas such as a kitchen. If you have dogs or cats their claws can mark the surface and heel marks from shoes (although we don't wear shoes in the house anyway) all cause major problems.

I am under the impression this is a clever and slick marketing type product to make this a top end must have when in fact it is nothing more than a bit upmarket lino from the 1970's. In our opinion it's absolutely horrendous stuff and what it did to the underneath of our kitchen floor is shocking. We had a dehumidifier on for a month to dry it out because the natural moisture could not escape and effectvely because this lino is glued into place it just sits there forming some sort of reservoir!!

We had a new wood floor laid down in the hallway, taking up the old carpet and I can confirm that the concrete floor underneath that was good and intact. We checked the dining room and sitting room floors as well and they both were sound. It was so specifically affected to the kitchen that it was clear it was this brand of flooring that had caused such problems.

Has anybody else had this issue? If you do have this floor and are not aware of how this can and will damage your structure then you need to be well aware.

I searched on the internet this evening and there are some forum contributors who has made specific references to this problem as well. Why is this not well known?