The Installer’s Perspective—Ultrabond ECO 962

MAPEI’s Ultrabond ECO 962 Pressure Sensitive Wood Flooring Adhesive can be used for engineered wood plank, LVT, LVP, and prefinished cork flooring. However any product is only as good as it meets the performance and application requirements for the installer and the project installation. As part of this new segment we will be interviewing past and present installers to get their perspective….

Interview with Shawn Mitcham, MAPEI Technical Services Claims Supervisor

Cris: Why is a ‘pressure-sensitive adhesive’ (PSA) useful when installing an engineered wood floor?
 
Shawn: Installers love these types of adhesives when installing wood floors. It gives you a long working time, and ultimately improves the square footage per hour installed for engineered floors, making more money for the installation crews. The long open time, as well as post installation ‘re-bond’ makes issues that render conventional urethane adhesives a pain (e.g. injection), simply go away when using this new adhesive.
 
Cris: Since this adhesive can also be used to install LVT, LVP and cork flooring –what makes a PSA good for these types of applications also? 
 
Shawn: You could go on and on for each of these, but I’ll stick to cork. Many cork flooring options have differing tension from the top to the bottom of the piece, causing it to want to curl post installation, and in many times right out of the box.  A standard single component urethane or two component polyurethane won’t cure fast enough to keep the floor from curling, which is difficult if not impossible to remedy with cork. Once it does cure, the curl is permanent. This breeds callbacks, an installer’s worse nightmare, with additional costs and an unhappy customer.  Some manufactures require a contact cement installation, which leaves installers with slow productivity, and a nasty headache. With Ultrabond ECO 962, having a 24 hour working time for LVT or LVP an installer can work with the confidence and speed they deserve, knowing that the outstanding bond will work for them, not against them. 
 

For specific product assistance with your next engineered wood flooring project, please contact our Technical Services Department.