Exploring LVT Enhancements: Read the Insights, Hear the Expertise

May 2026

With so many flooring solutions available, selecting the right product for a project can be challenging. Beyond achieving the desired aesthetic, specifiers must consider a range of technical requirements, from acoustic performance and slip resistance to sustainability goals.

Amtico's enhancements are designed to make these decisions easier, helping you tailor your flooring specification to the unique needs of each space without compromising on design.

For a deeper dive into the topic, tune into ADF’s Building Insights podcast, where Thomas Beard, R&D Manager, explores Amtico’s enhancements in detail, sharing expert insights and addressing some of the most common questions around flooring performance.

Want to hear the full conversation? Listen to the complete podcast **here.**

Acoustic Performance Without the Extra Layers

Acoustic performance is a key consideration in multi-occupancy buildings, from residential settings such as build-to-rent developments and student accommodation to commercial environments including hotels, offices and education facilities.

Acoustic standards are measured in two ways: impact sound reduction and airborne sound insulation. Amtico Acoustic contributes to impact sound reduction, which measures the level of sound transferred from an upper floor to the space below.

Available across Signature, Spacia, Form and First, Amtico Acoustic features an integrated 1.0mm PVC foam backing, delivering impact sound reduction by up to 19dB.

What are the benefits of integrated foam backing?

When a flooring specification needs to meet particular acoustic requirements, products without an integrated backing typically require a separate underlay to be installed before the LVT can be laid.

This introduces additional considerations, including extra material and offcut waste, longer installation times while adhesives cure, and the need for specialist adhesives that can successfully bond the underlay to the flooring product.

By integrating the foam backing into the flooring itself, projects can reduce installation time, minimise material waste and simplify the specification process, ultimately helping to save both time and cost.

“The role of these enhancements is to be able to provide architects and specifiers the ability to select an Amtico product while meeting whatever requirement they need from a technical performance.”

Thomas Beard, R&D Manager

Listen to the complete podcast here.

Why does Amtico use PVC foam?

Amtico uses PVC foam rather than alternative materials, such as IXPE foam, because it delivers more consistent performance when used with adhesives. This provides greater flexibility during installation and reduces compatibility concerns when selecting an adhesive.

Where is Amtico Acoustic best suited?

As Amtico Acoustic is designed to reduce impact sound transmission between floors, it is ideally suited to upper-floor applications where noise transfer to occupied spaces below is a consideration. It is therefore less likely to provide significant benefits on ground-floor installations.

For projects requiring a consistent flooring aesthetic throughout, the same design can be specified in a standard product on the ground floor and in Amtico Acoustic on upper floors. Available across Signature, Spacia, Form and First, Amtico's collections make it easy to achieve a cohesive scheme while meeting different performance requirements throughout a building.

Slip Resistance Without Compromising Aesthetics

Amtico Safety was developed not only to meet the requirements of BS EN 13845, but also to offer design flexibility and extensive choice, allowing designers to achieve the required safety performance without compromising on style.

To comply with the BS EN 13845 standard, flooring must conform with three tests: the Ramp test, the Pendulum Slip test and an Abrasion test.

Amtico Safety features embedded ceramic particles throughout the wear layer, delivering long-lasting slip resistance while maintaining the high-quality appearance of Amtico's LVT designs. Available across the Signature and Spacia collections, it combines proven safety performance with a wide range of design options.

What’s the difference between Safety and standard LVT?

While some standard LVT products may achieve a Pendulum Test Value (PTV) of 36 or above when new, this measurement reflects performance at the point the product leaves the factory and does not account for wear overtime.

Amtico Safety is different. Its embedded ceramic particles run throughout the wear layer, ensuring slip resistance is maintained as the floor experiences everyday use. This is where abrasion testing plays an important role, demonstrating that the product continues to deliver consistent slip performance throughout its lifespan.

Where is Amtico Safety best suited?

Amtico Safety is ideal for environments where there is an increased risk of slips, including areas prone to spills or moisture, such as washrooms, bars and restaurants. It is also well suited to high-traffic spaces, including entrance lobbies, circulation routes and walkways.

Available across Signature and Spacia, Amtico Safety provides the assurance of safety flooring while offering extensive design possibilities, laying patterns and aesthetic flexibility.

The Same Performance, A Lower Carbon Footprint

Amtico Bio offers the same performance as our standard LVT because it is chemically identical. So, what makes it different?

The answer lies in the raw materials used during manufacture. Amtico Bio is produced using bio-attributed ethylene derived from renewable sources, such as used cooking oil and Crude Tall Oil (CTO), rather than relying entirely on fossil-based feedstocks.

This allows specifiers to achieve a lower-carbon flooring solution without compromising on the performance, durability or design flexibility they expect from Amtico's LVT collections. Supported by ISCC+ certification, Amtico Bio provides a credible and independently verified route to reducing embodied carbon within a project.

Why is it bio-attributed and not bio-based?

The ethylene used to create bio-attributed PVC is not physically separated from standard ethylene during manufacture. Instead, it operates through a mass balance approach.

A useful comparison is renewable electricity. Consumers may choose an energy tariff supplied through renewable sources, but all electricity, regardless of where it is generated, is fed into the same national grid and distributed across the network.

The same principle applies to bio-attributed PVC. A verified proportion of renewable feedstock is introduced into the production process and allocated through the supply chain. By purchasing bio-attributed PVC, we can manufacture and certify a corresponding proportion of our flooring as bio-attributed.

The result is a reduction in the amount of fossil-based ethylene used within the PVC supply chain, lowering the embodied carbon associated with the flooring without altering its composition or performance.

Why does the reduction in embodied carbon vary between ranges?

Amtico Bio is available across Amtico Signature, Spacia, Form and Marine. Each range has a slightly different construction and composition, meaning the amount of PVC used varies between products.

As a result, the embodied carbon reduction achieved through bio-attributed PVC differs from range to range, depending on the proportion of PVC within the product's overall construction.

Why did Amtico choose to provide a bio-attributed PVC product?

The benefits of bio-attributed PVC are twofold.

Firstly, because the material is chemically identical to conventional PVC, it delivers the same trusted quality, durability and design flexibility customers expect from Amtico flooring, while helping to reduce embodied carbon.

Secondly, it enables us to offer lower-carbon options across our wider product enhancements. This means specifiers can combine Bio with Safety or Acoustic performance requirements, creating a more complete flooring solution without compromise.

"When comparing embodied carbon, acrylic and PET resins can have an embodied carbon footprint two to three times higher than PVC. As a result, LVT manufactured using PVC resin from fossil-based feedstocks often delivers a lower embodied carbon impact than these alternatives. When compared with bio-attributed PVC, the difference becomes even more significant. That's why we chose to focus on a bio-attributed solution, where the environmental benefits are measurable, verifiable and achieved without compromising product performance."