How Do You Determine The Most Durable Flooring?

When you’re shopping for new flooring, you naturally want to choose a product that’s highly durable. Understanding how to determine the most durable flooring can help you to determine which product is best for your needs.

How to Determine the Most Durable Flooring

When determining which flooring is most durable, it’s important to consider multiple qualities of that flooring. Durability doesn’t refer to any one factor, but is rather a combination of how flooring withstands different elements and situations.

Impact

When it comes to sustaining significant impacts, no flooring is more durable than rubber. That’s why rubber is the go-to flooring of choice for gyms, where the flooring needs to be able to withstand dropped weights.



You will also find rubber used for playground flooring. Rubber is a top material for this use because of its shock absorption properties, which allows it to minimize the injuries that result from falls from height.

While foam is less durable than rubber, it can also offer impressive shock absorption properties. Many foam tiles are fall height rated and used in play spaces and martial arts areas where throws and takedowns are common.

Water Resistance

If you’re shopping for flooring that will be exposed to moisture, then it’s important to choose a product that can withstand water. You will find that both water resistant and waterproof products are available.



Waterproof products generally include options like rubber tiles and mats. Some foam products are waterproof, while others are water resistant.

Depending on where the flooring will be installed, a product will need to be waterproof to be the most durable choice.

Scratch Resistance

Scratch resistance can also contribute to a flooring product’s durability, particularly in high-traffic areas or locations where the floor will support objects like furniture.

Many vinyl and laminate products feature an additional wear layer that helps to keep the floor from being scratched. That wear layer adds valuable durability, and you don’t have to worry about refinishing the flooring in the future.

Spark Resistance

When you’re looking for flooring to use in a garage or workshop, then spark resistance also affects the floor’s durability. Welding sparks can quickly burn the surface of many flooring products, leaving the tile damaged.



At Greatmats, we tested our rubber, PVC plastic, and polypropylene tiles for spark resistance. The rubber tile performed the best, the PVC plastic sustained only minor burns, and the polypropylene tile received more significant burns.

It’s also important to consider a product’s flammability if you will be using it in a workshop or industrial setting. Choosing a non-flammable product can help to not only preserve the floor, but can also keep you and others safe.

Temperature Tolerance

Depending on where you will install your flooring, it may need to withstand temperature extremes. This is particularly true of flooring installed outdoors, like playground and patio flooring.

Rubber and PVC products tend to have excellent temperature tolerance, being able to withstand freezing temperatures as well as the hottest summer days paired with intense heat.

Chemical Resistance

Flooring installed in kitchens, workshops, and garages may be exposed to all sorts of chemicals and oils, which can quickly damage certain materials. Many products are designed to withstand these chemicals and oils, making them a highly durable choice for these particular settings.

You might also consider the cleaning chemicals that you would want to use on a floor when selecting the flooring product that is right for your needs. Many products are designed to be cleaned with a neutral pH household cleaner, but some products can withstand a harsher cleanser.

Weight Capacity

When choosing flooring for use in a gym, warehouse, or vehicle showroom, that floor’s weight capacity becomes an important element of its durability. This is also true of mud protection mats which need to support the weight of heavy machinery, like cranes and dump trucks.



You can find many flooring products with impressive weight capacities, including plastic mud protection mats with weight capacities of tens of thousands of pounds. These products are made of supremely strong materials, so you can repeatedly drive vehicles onto them without damaging the mats.

While many of these products with generous weight capacities are incredibly strong, they are also designed to flex under these loads. That flex capability helps to prevent the mats from breaking.

Choosing the Most Durable Flooring for Your Needs

There is no one flooring product that is more durable than the others. Instead, a product’s durability depends on how it will be used and the qualities that are most important to that usage.

Many of the products for sale at Greatmats undergo a variety of tests, from strength tests to temperature tests and more. As a result, we are able to give you detailed information about each product’s qualities, including those that help to determine the product’s durability in different types of settings.

As you explore different products for sale, consider how you plan to use the product and the unique elements and challenges the product will face. If you have any questions, please contact the Greatmats customer service team, and we would be happy to help you determine which flooring product is best for your needs.