How Alsaflooring Expanded Globally with Water-Resistant Flooring Solutions

Spill-proof laminate flooring

You’re heading to the sunniest corner of your home, morning coffee in hand. In your half-awake state you stumble and a spill lands on your beautiful, polished floor. Accidents happen and Alsaflooring is on a mission to improve the performance of laminate flooring, turning spills from drama to a minor inconvenience.

Did you know that the most moisture sensitive part of a laminate floor is where the boards join? To push the boundaries of performance, Alsaflooring partnered with Teknos to develop a cutting-edge hydrophobic coating for their v-groove areas. The challenge; to reach 100 hours moisture resistance.

Versatile and high-performance: the science behind TEKNOGROOVE AQUA

“It’s a privilege to develop products in close collaboration with our customers” explains Najd M’barek, Product Development Director for Teknos interior coatings. “By working as a team, we gain valuable insights and fast-track practical solutions for complex challenges. With Alsaflooring, we optimized the coating's hydrophobic properties to enhance both water resistance and repellency — to actively drive water away. Our technical solution is a result of over 100 raw material screenings to find the best performing recipe.”

When it was ready to use on the line, the changeover was seamless. “Testing a new product is a rewarding challenge” says Michael Boussin, Teknos Key Account Manager for Alsaflooring, “we needed to ensure the smooth introduction of TEKNOGROOVE AQUA 292-145 on to the coating line. Having worked closely with Alsaflooring for some years and knowing their production processes, I could support with a deep understanding of their systems. It was exciting to see the first application run off the line with almost no disruption to production.”

In fact, this waterborne industrial topcoat is - by design - versatile enough to run on both vacuum coaters and by transfer-disc application. It offers hydrophobic, pigmented coating for v-grooves on PDL or DPL flooring, making it a flexible, high-performance solution. And what of its improved moisture sensitivity for v-grooves? TEKNOGROOVE AQUA more than satisfies here; after testing with industry standards body NALFA according to ISO4760, Alsaflooring can guarantee water resistance of 100 hours for their laminate flooring range.

Competitive advantages and the future of flooring

“Introducing hydrophobic TEKNOGROOVE AQUA to our range has given us some major competitive advantages” explains Caroline Allienne, Purchase Manager for Alsaflooring, “Due to the excellent water resistance, our laminate flooring can be used in all rooms, including kitchens and bathrooms. And because TEKNOGROOVE AQUA can be tinted, we can offer our range in 13 different colours - RAL 1019 and 8014 are our bestsellers!”

“The high performance of our products, backed by NALFA tests, have also brought us export opportunities that we didn’t have before. We recently signed a deal with a new customer in the USA and we are confident that we will expand our markets further outside Europe with our strong offering of long-lasting, quality laminate flooring” highlights Juan Goncalves, Production Manager at Alsaflooring.

Building on this success, Teknos and Alsaflooring continue to collaborate on the next generation of hydrophobic TEKNOGROOVE AQUA. Discussions are also underway to develop more sustainable and cost-effective ways to transport coatings, reinforcing a shared commitment to innovation and environmental responsibility.

The partnership between Alsaflooring and Teknos proves that great products come from great collaboration — and that with the right technology, even a spilled cup of coffee is no longer a cause for concern.