A Healthy History
Taylor's commitment to the environment was first demonstrated in the early 1990s with the development and introduction of its EnviroTec Healthguard Adhesive Technology. Long before it became fashionable, the company was working with the EPA and the Carpet & Rug Institute to improve indoor air quality with respect to adhesives. Taylor's Envirotec Healthguard Adhesive line - the first environmentally friendly adhesive products - meets all the requirements of the CRI Green Label Program with its solvent-free adhesives for carpet, resilient, and wood installations, and it has been an environmental and performance benchmark for over a decade. The use of 2071 would potentially reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted into the environment by over 9 mil. lbs., based upon published data from the wood flooring industry. This would represent a reduction of over 95% of the VOC emissions currently coming from solvent-containing wood adhesives such as moisture-cure urethanes and other solventborne adhesives.In addition to satisfying the flooring industry's need for adhesives that meet or exceed the regulations under the Clean Air Act and other environmental restrictions, W.F. Taylor is a leader in addressing problems resulting from microorganism attacks that cause mold and mildew growth. Taylor's Meta-Tec technology features Meta-Sept Anti-Microbial protection for both wet adhesives and cured adhesive films. In protecting the adhesive film, Meta-Sept also provides a first line of defense for the flooring product itself. This measure of protection from mold and mildew is crucial to continuing consumer satisfaction and health.
"The initial launch of Meta-Tec Technology has been so successful... (t)he company has committed 60% of R&D and capital budget for the next three years solely for this product line," said W.F. Taylor President Jack Raidy, Jr.
Treading the Boards
The wood flooring industry has been quick to embrace this high-performance technology. Since its introduction, 2071 has been used to successfully install over 25 million square feet of various types of wood flooring throughout the country. Included in this total are many unfinished solid wood installations, a type of flooring that previously was rarely glued down because of a lack of adhesives with sufficient strength."In the two and a half years since launching Meta-Tec, we have discovered that performance is really what contemporary flooring installers are looking to obtain. For wood flooring installers, it is a product that is easy to apply and clean up, and yet has tremendous shear strength and waterproof capability. Moisture proofing is a huge issue for wood flooring installers, so they select a waterproof product like Meta-Tec 2071 and pay the differential for performance of the patent pending technology. Now we are finding that similar flooring installations such as luxury vinyl tile, vinyl strip plank, cork, linoleum, carpet, vinyl composition and rubber tile are beginning to require the same moisture proof and high shear strength assurances that the Meta-Tec cross-linking chemistry provides," said Executive Vice President Barry Wright.
The very high strength development of the 2071 adhesive was demonstrated in a recent 13,000-square-foot unfinished solid red oak installation in the new ballroom at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The floor plank was glued down with the Taylor adhesive over concrete and then easily withstood heavy industrial sanding, staining and refinishing.
Laminate and Hardwood Technnical Services in Tucson, AZ, was the contractor for the University of Arizona ballroom installation. Owner Thomas Hatfield said, "Taylor 2071 is the best wood flooring adhesive I have ever used. The holding power is tremendous, the clean up is simple, and it is easy and smooth to spread. This is the best wood flooring adhesive on the market today, bar none."
Previous to that installation, the refurbishing of the La-Z-Boy showroom at Furniture Mart in High Point, NC, was completed with the installation of thin gauge unfinished solid ash that was glued down with 2071, sanded, stained and finished. The high strength of the adhesive again allowed a type of installation over concrete that was not common before the introduction of the Meta-Tec technology.
The outstanding performance of 2071 and the ease of use and cleanup have been widely acclaimed by installers throughout the wood flooring industry. Says Tony Robinson, NWFA member and owner of Professional Installation and Repair of Huntington Beach, CA, "Taylor 2071 is my wood flooring adhesive of choice. I have full confidence in its performance for all of my solid wood and engineered wood flooring installations. The ease of use and lack of waste make Taylor 2071 a very economical product for my business."
Expanding Applications
Recognizing the need in the resilient flooring industry for higher shear strength adhesives to overcome tile and plank shrinkage, W.F. Taylor has expanded the application of Meta-Tec technology to all flooring products. Taylor 2091 Tuff-Grip TPS Luxury Vinyl Tile & Plank Adhesive is a transitional pressure-sensitive adhesive that has aggressive early tack to hold down peaking tile, but then cures, or "transitions," to a very high shear strength bond to hold against vinyl product shrinkage. The cured bond is also waterproof and resilient, and can be used as both a wet or dry lay adhesive, thus allowing installations over both porous and non-porous substrates.
Taylor 2092 Meta-Poxy Vinyl & Rubber Tile, Tread & Sheet Adhesive, and Taylor 2096 Meta-Poxy ESD Conductive & Static Dissipative Vinyl Tile Adhesive are one-part Meta-Tec replacements for two-part epoxies and urethanes. These products feature far more rapid strength development than slow-setting epoxies or urethanes and reach very high ultimate strength bonds. Their Meta-Tec chemistry provides cured bonds that are waterproof and resilient, and the ease of cleanup characteristic of all of the Meta-Tec adhesives is yet another benefit for the installer over epoxy and urethane use. Taylor's 2083 Tuff-Lok VCT Adhesive offers waterproof bonds for VCT, and Taylor 2084 and 2086 Tuff-Lok extend the crosslinking, high strength waterproof Meta-Tec technology to linoleum and cork flooring.
A Solid Foundation
W.F. Taylor recognized early the high moisture emission conditions common in concrete slabs in today's fast-track construction projects, and the need for an installation system to overcome these difficulties. Given sufficient time to cure, concrete will generally reach a point where moisture in the slab is low enough to allow the installation of flooring. However, contractor time tables often do not allow any such delays, so Taylor has created a line of penetrating floor sealers called X-Treme Concrete Sealers to hasten the natural reduction of moisture emissions from the concrete slab. These sealers (Taylor 2022 for wood installations, 2032 for carpet installations, and 2042 for resilient installations) are formulated to provide maximum protection for the unique characteristics and requirements of these different classes of flooring. The new Meta-Tec X-Treme Concrete Sealers are inorganic sealers that penetrate the concrete pores, and - when fully cured - create a water-insoluble hydrophobic complex that reduces the transmission of moisture vapor emissions through the concrete slab.By combining the high strength waterproof bond of the expanded Meta-Tec technology product line with these X-Treme Concrete Sealers and the Meta-Sept Anti-Microbial protection, Taylor has now provided the flooring industry with the Lockdown Moisture Control Floor Covering Installation System. This system is truly an innovative answer for flooring installations over concrete with high moisture emission conditions.
"The introduction of this Meta-Tec technology will have far reaching affects, even greater than that of our original Envirotec Healthguard technology we introduced in the early 1990s, which was the first to feature solvent-free low VOC adhesives," W.F. Taylor Chairman Jack Raidy, Sr. said. "Not only does Meta-Tec technology continue this stewardship of the environment, it introduces previously undiscovered advancements to cross-linking adhesives resulting in high bond strength development and curing to create waterproof bonds."
