A homogeneous sheet is the same material from the face to the backing, so wear never exposes a different colour or a thinner layer. That one fact is why it survives a decade of bed movements, and why the specification argument is about what is inside the sheet rather than what is printed on the sample.
In a layered vinyl, the wear layer is a film. Once that film is gone — and in a hospital corridor it goes — the printed pattern underneath is exposed, and the floor reads as worn even though it still functions. A homogeneous sheet is through-coloured: cutting it open reveals the same material, and the Class T wear rating is measured on that material rather than on a coating.
The second consequence is at the seams. Sheets can be welded into a continuous surface, so a ward floor has no joint for soil to sit in and no edge for a trolley wheel to catch. In a building where the floor is cleaned daily, the joint detail is not a cosmetic decision.
What it is not: a cushioned or foamed product, and not a substitute for a cleanroom floor where the specification is written around pressure and particle control. Where that is the requirement, our PVC cleanroom flooring is the right line — see the flooring overview.
The table below is the published set. Each figure is quoted from the manufacturer test file; nothing here is a datasheet claim without a document behind it.
| Product | Parameter | Result | Test standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homogeneous PVC vinyl sheet | Wear resistance | Class T | Report on request |
| Homogeneous PVC vinyl sheet | Slip resistance | R9 | Report on request |
| Homogeneous PVC vinyl sheet | Fire classification | B1 | Report on request |
| Homogeneous PVC vinyl sheet | Hazardous-substance screening | Passed | EU 249 |
| Homogeneous PVC vinyl sheet | Heavy metals | Free of 19 heavy metals | EU 249 screening |
| Homogeneous PVC vinyl sheet | Phthalate plasticisers | Free of 60 phthalate plasticisers | EU 249 screening |
| Homogeneous PVC vinyl sheet | Maintenance | No waxing required | Manufacturer specification |
EU 249 screening is the check that decides whether a vinyl floor can enter a healthcare building at all. It covers the two families of substance that show up in vinyl compounds: heavy-metal stabilisers and phthalate plasticisers.
Our sheet passes that screening — free of 19 heavy metals and 60 phthalate plasticisers, screened under EU 249. If your consultant asks for the declaration, it goes out with the quotation, as the document itself rather than a summary of it.
Why it comes up so early in hospitals: the floor is the largest exposed surface in a ward, it is washed with disinfectant every day, and it is walked on by patients whose immune response is not normal. A material declaration is straightforward to produce at tender and expensive to defend at handover.
No waxing is not a marketing line, it is a maintenance schedule. A waxed floor needs stripping and re-coating on a cycle, and every cycle means a closed corridor, a wet floor, an odour and a contractor working nights. A homogeneous sheet is maintained by damp mopping and, where the ward protocol requires it, machine scrubbing — no strip, no re-coat, no drying window to schedule around patients.
That is also the honest limit of the claim. It reduces the maintenance programme; it does not remove cleaning. A floor that is not cleaned still fails an infection-control audit, whatever the surface is made of.
Anywhere a resilient floor has to take wheels, cleaning chemicals and daily traffic without a maintenance cycle attached:
The floor is one of three surfaces on the same drawing set. The junction detail with the skirting and the medical clean wall panel is set out with the flooring schedule, which is the practical reason to buy the three surfaces from one supplier.
Yes — free of 60 phthalate plasticisers and of 19 heavy metals, screened under EU 249. The screening declaration and the underlying test file are released on request with the project reference.
Class T wear, R9 slip and B1 fire. Those are the manufacturer's classifications; the reports are sent rather than paraphrased, so your consultant can check the test conditions against the project's own cleaning and traffic assumptions.
All three are quoted per project, because they depend on the area, the colour and the packing mix. Send the floor area per room type and the specification clause, and they are confirmed in writing with the quotation.
We return the datasheet, the EU 249 declaration and the welding detail for your submittal.