Carpets are one of those tricky design details that can go terribly wrong. When it comes to mitigating mold and mildew, it is absolutely essential to find the right solution for your situation, as it will help avoid disastrous and costly reparations in the future. Luckily for architects, rather than masking common problems — or sweeping them under the rug, if you will — cushion-backed modular carpets by Milliken tackle the root issue of many moisture-related problems.
Multiform in Chill and Vital, random installation of all three carpet tile dimensions
To properly understand Milliken modular carpet tiles and their vast array of performance factors, Architizer spoke with Michael Eckert of Milliken Floor Covering. Let us begin by understanding the rampant problems that Milliken sets out to combat with their novel product design.
When dealing with a new construction, installing carpet tiles can feel like a no-win situation. According to Milliken, “Moisture is the X-factor.” Even under ideal conditions, a newly poured four-inch concrete slab takes four to five months to be fully ready to accept flooring. As you may have already suspected, very few construction schedules allow for this type of time flexibility. As a result, hardback carpeting is frequently installed far before its concrete base has properly dried. With unwanted moisture simply covered up, this is when real problems start to occur.
Most hardback floor coverings create an impenetrable barrier that prevents water vapor from escaping. This means that hardback floor coverings frequently lead to condensation and moisture buildup. Condensation turns into water, which in turn creates a breeding ground for mold and mildew right below a just-installed floor covering. Fortunately, Milliken’s products profoundly differ in this regard. Due to their highly specialized cushion-backing, Milliken’s modular carpets can be safely installed as quickly as 45 days after a new concrete pour is completed.
“All Milliken modular carpet products have been designed to manage moisture simply and effectively: We let natural processes happen freely,” Eckert said. “Unlike with hardback products, water vapor has a way to escape from beneath Milliken’s cushion backing. It travels freely through our open-cell cushion before evaporating naturally through seams at the edges of each carpet tile.”
Diagram of five-layer Milliken Modular Carpet
When paired with Milliken’s Non-Reactive Standard and Moisture Extreme adhesives, Milliken’s cushion-backed modular carpet allows water vapor to evaporate at a remarkably high rate. Composed of five smart layers, as pictured above, this makes the formation of liquid water almost impossible. “Milliken’s proprietary design, in conjunction with that open-cell polyurethane cushion, allows vapor to get into the backing and then escape,” said Eckert. “The cushion backing also extends the life of the product by two-times.”
Milliken’s modular carpets can be installed with such a high level of confidence that the often-inconsistent and costly process of moisture testing can be ruled out altogether. In most instances, industry-standard tests such as Relative Humidity (RH) and Anhydrous Calcium Chloride (ACC) tests are the first line of defense against moisture problems. However, these “spot tests” only display moisture levels at a single time and location, and thus cannot account for fluctuations over time or inconsistencies throughout the installation site. Inaccurate testing makes it impossible to select the right moisture mitigation solution.
“The best solution is to eliminate ambiguous testing completely, by specifying flooring solutions that can handle anything moisture thrown at it — without the need for moisture testing.” According to Eckert, “Our products have allowed architects to eliminate moisture mitigation, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars and minimizing risk. In fact, on one large project, we were able to save over one million dollars by eliminating both moisture mitigation and moisture testing on the project.”
Left: Expedition in Permafrost; Right: (left to right) Expedition, Shackleton, and Isotherm in Avalanche
Extending beyond functionality, the unique structure of Milliken modular carpet tiles boasts benefits for health, comfort and ergonomic support, making them a perfect solution across many architectural typologies. These benefits include improved underfoot support, better thermal comfort, increased noise absorption and an innate ability to solve the root cause of sub-floor moisture problems.
Milliken is constantly in the process of creating innovative flooring solutions. “We are actively looking to solve other issues like installing over chemically abated floors and minimizing floor prep in order to avoid disturbance on the concrete sub-floor,” Eckert said. These innovations will exceed the OSHA’s new workplace standards, “which reduce the allowable amount of exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust in construction projects.”
All images courtesy of Milliken Floor Covering.