Compare resilient with other hard flooring surfaces and you’ll discover that it’s got a new personality and a new fashion look.

What’s resilient? It’s a broad term for a flooring family that includes vinyl, linoleum, even rubber. It’s called resilient because it “gives” a bit underfoot, even though it’s considered to be a hard flooring surface.

Today’s “resilients” feature a wider range not only of colors and textures, but also of designs and formats. There’s even a new technology that brings together the best attributes of ceramic and resilient flooring. It’s called engineered ceramic, and it’s made with a body of limestone and cross-linked, space-age polymers that make it incredibly tough. Invented by Congoleum and called DuraCeramic, this is a tile product available in nominal sizes of 16 inches and tiles that snap into 8-inch tiles for endless design options for the floor –– even backsplashes. (For more on this product, visit www.fabulousfloorsmagazine.com, Fall ’05 edition.)

Redoing your kitchen, bathroom or high-traffic area? Resilient is still one of the most affordable floors with more colors and patterns becoming available all the time in sheet,
tile and even plank formats. Look for stone, slate, travertine, wood (including the trend toward random plank widths) and what are called “overall” pattern designs –– continuous flowing colors and textures.

Many members of the new generation of resilient flooring have today’s lifestyles in mind, offering tough finishes like nylon or aluminum oxide and healthy features such as mold-, mildew-, bacteria- and stain-resistant surface treatments.

Typically, FABULOUS FLOORS does not write about commercial flooring products, but some of the new resilient is a bold exception. Better brand manufacturers are beginning to blur the lines with some collections, featuring residential décor with commercial performance characteristics. That means for the active home or business –– even military housing, health care and retirement facilities, education and government buildings –– which wants flooring to look great and stand up to heavy use, there’s finally a product everyone can agree on.

There are many price points in resilient floors and even more ways to install the products, from gluing the product to the floor to “loose” laying the floors so they can be removed easily if necessary or when it’s time to redecorate. Available in 6 and 12-foot widths, depending upon the size of your room, it’s possible to create a resilient floor without seams. Not having seams makes the floor easier to clean and eliminates the “dirt catching” aspect of any other floor with seams. No need to wax or apply any dressing on today’s resilient floors. Use the cleaner specified by the manufacturer.