FreeStyle flooring stain test makes its mark on hair salon owners, not on the floor

Hair salon owners have long purchased FreeStyle commercial flooring for its ease of installation, thanks to its interlocking technology that requires no adhesives. The comfort and support it provides stylists has also been a key selling point. SelecTech, makers of FreeStyle tiles, recently conducted a stain test on its FreeStyle Commercial Resilient Tiles, the type most commonly used by hair salons, to demonstrate a third major benefit—stain resistance.

“You think of a hair salon floor and you think hair, but spilled dyes are the true maintenance issue. What compounds the dye spillage issue is sometimes those spills go undetected and can settle in on the flooring and become permanent,” said Thomas Ricciardelli, president of SelecTech. “With this test, we wanted to use a worst-case scenario where stains remained on the tile for one, three, six hours and for one full 24-hour day. And we used an amount of dye that no salon would ever not notice over those periods of time.”

SelecTech used its Cherry Block and Graystone tiles to provide a variety of colors—dark and light. Next 3” x 3” squares were taped off on each tile. Then three different types of dyes—Ultra Blonde Violet, High Definition Red Red and Dark Brown Neutral Ash—were applied to each square, completely filling the square within the tape. After sitting the predetermined time—one, three or six hours—SelecTech removed the dye with a putty knife and Zep industrial cleaner purple.

A second round of tests were done similarly with a square being filled with dye and left for 24 hours before being removed in the same fashion.

The results for both tests revealed no staining whatsoever after one, three, six and 24 hours. This result was further reinforced when two strips of tapes were removed and there were no lines from where the dye had originally been placed.

“There are many flooring companies that make the claim of being stain-resistant. We felt it important to back that up and our FreeStyle tiles came through in fine fashion,” said Ricciardelli. “Where our tiles do not have to be glued in, it’s also easy for salon maintenance staff to remove a stained tile to give it a thorough cleaning as necessary, and then reinstall the tile, good as new.”

For complete results of the SelecTech’s stain test, visit http://freestyleflooring.com/hair-dye-stain-testing/.

SelecTech’s FreeStyle Commercial Resilient tiles are made from recycled materials and are 100 percent recyclable. Employing a cutting-edge (pun intended), interlocking technology, FreeStyle™ flooring installs quickly over existing floor surfaces--without glues or other messy adhesives and without having to completely move chairs and other furniture and equipment for long periods of time. This virtually eliminates down time and causes no business interruption.

With a durable wear layer, FreeStyle tiles are built for the demanding requirements of the beauty industry. Its flexible composition also makes it much more comfortable to stand on.

FreeStyle is available in a large selection of attractive styles and can be custom-designed to incorporate salon logos into the flooring. To learn more about SelecTech products, including the FreeStyle flooring products, visit http://www.selectechinc.com.