​Let's talk about the acoustic properties of Luxfeel air. First of all, we've got to understand what that means—the acoustic properties. Well, if we're talking about a high rise building or a three-three story walkup, you need to adhere to the building code of Australia minimum. That'd be 62 decibels, and under, mind you, most body corporates or buildings that you go into will have an adjusted set of unique rules. And the body corporate will set the bylaws, and they might set it to 50. 50 is a very, very low number to reach and most products, even with an acoustic underlay or a separate acoustic underlay, will not get down to 50. Luxfeel air does it.

Luxfeel air does it differently. It is taking the principles and the wealth of knowledge across other sectors and other products and combining them in a fashion that delivers the best possible acoustic reduction for the most minimal amount of effort. And I know this sounds like a slight contradiction, but that's what it does.

When you look at Luxfeel air, it's got an EVA acoustic foam underlay. The EVA foam, similar to that used in like ski boots, is a very durable, high density, rubber, tight material or foam that offers amazing reductions. This is our patented acoustic product. Then in conjunction with the air rated PVC board, the air rated PVC is a Virgin PVC that's air rated through the extrusion process that blitz little air bubbles through the board itself. That helps us soak up the noise again and, in conjunction with a luxury vinyl plank that's been tried and tested, stuck to the top. That multilayer construction is what other people do, but they do it separately. We do it all in one. 

Let's talk about some results. We have gotten results through independent acoustic reports from Palmer acoustics on a few buildings on the Gold Coast. This was under an old concrete slab, Which is 160 millimetres. The older the slab, the worse-performing cause the concrete gets denser. It gets harder. It starts to operate closer to steel than concrete with no plastic sheet ceiling. Sometimes the plastic sheet will have a void and then plaster. So that gives you a false understanding of how good the acoustics are, which some people do. Some suppliers will supply you with an acoustic report with a void. That's not an accurate indication of their product's performance specifically. So we give it the worst-case scenario, and we perform phenomenally.

We can get down to a 49 DB on a 160-millimetre slab. With no plaster sheet ceiling, that combination there and that kind of result is absolutely industry-leading. So if you are looking for a product that has to hit all those requirements, or you have a body corporate that is sticky, we can give you the documentation. Supply you the information and help you with the process to get past your body corporate. So you can have a hard surface, beautiful timber look aesthetic in your home in your high rise property or your three-story walkup.

I hope that covers all the ins and outs of what's needed for the acoustics and where Luxfeel air can perform. If not, we can have a chat to get further in on it for your specific scenario, but that's a good covering of what is needed.

Do you need floor preparation under Luxfeel air? Well, it's a floating floor system, the reason why you go for a floating floor system. Our next-generation hybrid is because it minimizes the floor prep needed on your subfloors, whether it be timber, tiles, or concrete. A majority of the time, you won't need any floor prep whatsoever for a DIY option. This is an absolute dream.

What we look at, though, there's always a provision put in play just in case you have a disastrous subfloor. So let's talk about a hole in the floor. Well, let's say we've got a hole in your floor, and it's concrete. Let's fill it up with a bit of levelling compound and smooth out that area so that board can float and go over the top. Because it's the air rated PVC, it's flexible, it's strong, and it can contour to the shape of your existing subfloor quite nicely. But there's everything within reason. Suppose there's a huge big hole that you need to fill over the timber. It's exactly the same thing. It can float over the top of your timber subfloor. So this is your pole homes, your second stories, for example, you can go straight over the top of them no worries at all. 

Let's just address, if there's a crazy high point where two bits of the yellow tongue are meeting, let's sand that down. If you sand it down, it will make it nice and simple. 

The major question that I get asked more than anything is we're going for Hybrids, and we're going for next-generation Hybrids specifically to go over the top of tiles. And I personally have had that installed directly over top of the tiles at my home. And what we did there, though, is we assess the space. We had 500 by 500 highly polished porcelains with quite narrow grout lines. They are very uneven, mind you, though. They're not flat. So the subfloor underneath the tiles was up and down like anything.

So I knew ahead of time there was going to be some high points and low points. So on the low points where it drops off quickly, you might feel a little bit of flex in the flooring. But that's okay to me. I decided that that was okay if I didn't like that. If you had really big, open grout lines with huge high points in the tiles, what you might want to do is grind those high points off. That's option one.

And if you get really, really specific and you want it perfect, you can flood coat those tiles to make it nice and smooth to install the planks thereafter. But if you get asked the question, can I install over my tiles? Yes, all within reason. Let's assess what type of tile it is, and let's float our floors, saving on the floor preparation.

​Let's talk about the installation method for Luxfeel air. If we break it down, it's a floating floor. It is a next-generation Hybrid, mind you. But it will be categorized as a floating floor system. So all floating floor systems need an expansion joint around the perimeters. Now, this is roughly a six-millimetre gap all around the outside.

So if you have skirting boards down, you can pull the skirting boards off and lay your floor to the backing board of six millimetres. We'd like to use little cut-out pieces of the Luxfeel air itself and use that as the space around the outside. Once the floor has been installed, pull the spaces out drop your skirting boards back on top after that. It gives you a seamless, nice finish.

Alternatively, if you don't want to mess around with them, skirting boards, wich some people don't like to do, they don't, they don't want that process. So you can lay up to the edge of the skirting board six-millimetre gap. And then you have a little bit of Scotia. This is a quad or a Scotia. It's a little timber beading, which we can provide, which matches the colour of the flooring that runs around all the perimeters. N

Now let's think about when we get to sliding doors or tiled edges. There's a thing called a C channel. A C channel is an aluminium trim, like a little u. it gets glued down to the floor first, and then you slot your board in, and it gives the board the capacity to expand and contract, making it a seamless looking finish around all your perimeters. And that is the best aesthetic. It looks stunning. 

We offer all the supply. That particular material is through Bunnings and makes it nice and simple for your installation process. It is a floating floor with expansion joints needed, and I believe it's one of the true DIY systems that you can come across in the market today.

​Let's talk about the texture, and when we boil it down, this is nearly one of the most important things you could ever consider when picking a vinyl plank, a loosely vinyl plank, or a next-generation hybrid. So the texture, why is it important? Well, first of all, if the texture is too rough, it holds dirt. If it's too smooth, it's slippery, and it potentially looks fake, you need to maintain that space in the middle.

Now, if you go looking at a lot of vinyl plank or timber look alternatives, if you touch the texture and you run your fingernails across it, it's a sharp bit of ridging, and it holds dirt and people, they handle it with their hands, and they go, wow. The texture is beautiful. It feels so real, but you won't realize it until that floors down.

Now that I pointed out to you, you can look at some of the lighter colour floorings in the commercial spaces. They hold dirt unbelievably. It's like a thousand little grout lines on the floor holding dirt. 

So this is something we avoid at all costs. And that particular embossing is called BP embossing. 90% of all the planks on the market will hold that because when they get their products made, it's the cheapest way to manufacture it. So that's why they do it. The other suppliers tend to cut corners because it's cheaper, but it doesn't deliver the best result. So now, when you see that and look down the light, it additionally throws up this strange kind of reflective corrugation that you can see down your flooring, and you don't know this until it's been installed in your home and your property.

So what Luxfeel has done and what we did was take the best of the best and compile it together in a new texture. We call it natural embossing. Now, this is a slightly rounded texture, very subtle. So when you walk on it barefoot, it still feels like a real timber underfloor, but the rounded texture doesn't let dirt hold.

So you've got a vinyl plank that's ultimately durable and easy to keep clean. It's got a beautiful texture on it. Additionally, with a satin-type finish, then the gloss, the gloss throws out a plastic look. We need the satin. Together, these three things make all the difference in making the floor feel real and easy to keep clean, so it's pleasant, durable, and hygienic for your family. The last little element within the texture type on top of the surface is a tiny little micro bevel. A tiny little micro bevel is just checked out around the edge of each plank. It doesn't hold dirt, but it just throws out a tiny little check around each board. So when you do look down at the light, you have individual boards on the floor. 

A lot of the other suppliers or manufacturers might have a square edge. So a square edge is a square edge that butts together that becomes a sheet. So what's the point of having a plank when it looks like a sheet down.

These are all the things, all the problems that we've solved to deliver a more premium, more beautiful, more ascetically pleasing flooring directly to you.

Hi everyone. Well, the question at hand is, what is hybrid flooring? Hybrid flooring is a uniquely Australian terminology attached to three different product types. You know how they're like in Australia, there's an esky or gyprock, or there are texters. Well, texters are actually felt tip pens.

And an esky is just the name of the product from the company. So the first version of a Hybrid was broadened by a company called Godfrey hearse. And it is technically called an SPC. So it's a stone composite PVC flooring "coined Hybrid". So everyone after there gets that name hybrid. That version, SPC flooring, is terrible. It is a mixture of limestone and PVC, roughly 70% limestone 30% PVC, which is highly problematic. If you don't have a perfectly fluid, smooth subfloor and you have a slight hump in your flooring, once that board clicks together, because it is also rigid and flat, it tends to break at the clicking mechanism, making it not a very suitable option for a lot of people.

Additionally, this needs to be brought to most people's attention. It has a building material in it called silica. This is a cheap, nasty bit of material that can cause silicosis. It's the modern-day asbestos. So if you are going near that particular iteration, say. I want to move across to something that has solved those problems, and that's not going to put my family's health in jeopardy. 

The next variation was a wood powder alternative. So they used wood powder instead of limestone. And everyone was like, wow, this will be a great variation, this is the next Hybrid. It doesn't quite work because the wood pattern can absorb moisture. It doesn't repel water. It absorbs it.
Additionally, it can become unstable with certain temperatures. If you reach certain temperatures, it expands and contracts. And it has a whole raft of problems attached to it. So let's remove ourselves away from old Hybrids and move towards the next generation.

That's where Luxfeel air comes in. So there's another company out there, Karndean and Korlok, their product. It's phenomenal. It has a Luxury Vinyl plank topper. An Aerated PVC board with an acoustic underlay and a unique click system. So that's what we did. 

We looked at Karndean, we looked at Korlok, and we said, okay, you've been around for 50 years. We love what you do. We're going to engineer our products around that same set of scenarios. So it is the tried and tested luxury Vinyl plank on top. The air rated PVC board in the middle is flexible, strong, 100%waterproof, solving all the problems of the old Hybrids and moving in with an acoustic underlay back.

This acoustic underlay is an EVA foam underlay that reduces noise transfer from upstairs to downstairs and utilises a uni click system. Uni click is a globally recognised click system that locks the boards, and you'll know the uni click system because there's a little plastic sleeve at the end piece. So when you click it down, it locks, making it 100% waterproof.  

This is the next-generation Hybrid. We call it an APC. So it's aerated PVC composite. It's trademarked by Luxfeel flooring. This is the number one iteration in the market today. 

Luxfeel air solving all the problems as the most premium generation of Hybrid floorings in the market today.

​How do we deliver the most realistic timber look alternative in the market? Well, there's a lot that goes into it. So we break down the construction of the material. So whether it's luxfeel original, cushion or air, fundamentally, the surface on top is exactly the same. So it's a hardened wear layer. And then under the wear layer, it is a print film, and it's a photograph of some timber.

The patent repeat is one of the most important things you could ever identify in a realistic-looking floor. And if I help jog your memory, you know, you've looked at certain timber alternatives, whether it be a vinyl plank and next-generation hybrid or a loose lay vinyl plank. And you look at them and go that looks fake. I can see that pattern repeating itself. There is a knot again and again and again. 

So that's what we need to remove from the vocabulary. We can't have something that is really, really distinctive in the pattern itself. We need to go under the principles of same, same but different. So when we went through the process of designing our products up from scratch, we had a combination of timber looks.

So these are actual photographs of timber that compliment each other really, really nicely. So it's two different timber variations in the blackbutt category, and then we put one tone across the top. So that three-ply combination gives us the most realistic look down on the floor with the highest possible pattern repeat of one in 22. 

When we put those combinations together, it's not noticeable until you go looking and you go; wow, this looks so much more realistic than what I'm used to. Get all those things together and you have a beautiful looking floor.

​Are hybrid planks waterproof? Well I can say yes with the outermost confidence purely because I have next-generation hybrid installed in my home. They are 100% waterproof. I even have them installed in my bathroom. The beauty is that if the water was to go down on top of the boards, it's a non-porous material that completely locks tight together at the joints.

So you could get a bucket of water and pour it down on top, and it can't go through. By default, it's 100% waterproof, not waterproof enough to go inside of your shower. Cause the system is not compatible with that. But, the boards themselves are waterproof. 

There is an astrix next to that. The most modern versions of hybrid flooring are the most waterproof iteration because it takes a luxury vinyl plank and an air aerated PVC board. So that particular combination, the APC, the IPC, or the Karndean Korlok. They are the most waterproof types of hybrid in the market today.

So with confidence, laundry, bathrooms, kitchen, all those areas, you need to have those waterproof capabilities installed with confidence, 100% waterproof.