What is flocked flooring?
It looks like a textile, feels like a textile, and washes like a vinyl. Flocked flooring is the most misunderstood product category in commercial specification — and the one most often specified by accident once people understand it.
On this page
How flocking works
Almost every textile floor covering is made by putting yarn through a backing. Tufting punches loops through with needles. Weaving interlaces warp and weft. Either way the fibre lies over, under and around itself.
Flocking does something else entirely. Individual short nylon fibres are given an electrostatic charge and fired at an adhesive-coated backing held at the opposite charge. The field orients every fibre vertically, and each one embeds in the adhesive standing straight up, like grass.
Forbo's figure for Flotex is up to 80 million straight nylon fibres per square metre. Not loops. Not tufts. Eighty million individual upright filaments.
“Feels like a carpet and cleans like a resilient.”
That is Forbo's own summary, and it is unusually accurate for a marketing line, because it describes a genuine physical consequence rather than an aspiration.
What that gets you
It releases soil instead of trapping it
Loop pile carpet traps particles inside and between the loops, which is why vacuuming recovers only some of what is in it. Flocked fibres stand separately with space around each one, so soil sits near the surface. Forbo publishes 76% soil release after vacuuming, against 46% for loop pile.
It is completely waterproof
Not water-resistant — waterproof. The backing is impervious, so spills do not reach the subfloor and cannot wick sideways into the adjoining floor.
It can genuinely be washed
Forbo describes Flotex as "the only truly washable textile floor covering on the market", with drying in 4–6 hours against roughly 24 hours for carpet. In a building that cleans overnight, the difference between a floor that is usable at 7am and one that is not is the whole decision.
It holds the Allergy UK Seal of Approval™
Forbo states Flotex is the only textile flooring to have received it. The mechanism is the same upright fibre geometry — allergens and dust do not get trapped where a vacuum cannot reach them.
It is quiet and it is warm
19 dB impact sound reduction and a textile surface underfoot. Neither is available from a hard floor at any price.
It is slip resistant when wet
Which a polished hard floor is emphatically not, and which is why Flotex keeps appearing in care settings and around food service.
Why the designs are sharper
A tufted carpet builds its pattern from where yarn of a given colour is placed. Resolution is limited by gauge — how close together the needle rows sit.
Flotex is digitally printed before flocking. The image is in the print layer, not in the yarn placement, so the achievable detail is a different order of magnitude. That is why the Flotex range carries convincing marble veining, timber grain, woven textile structure and smooth tonal gradients, and why a tufted construction generally cannot.
See it on Marble, Wood Effect, Frameweave and Ombre.
When to specify it — and when not to
Specify Flotex when the brief contains a contradiction a conventional product cannot resolve: textile comfort and acoustics, but washable. Domestic warmth, but waterproof. Design detail, but heavy commercial durability. Specifically —
- Healthcare and care settings outside clinical areas
- Schools, nurseries and SEN environments
- Food service, canteens and cafes
- Bathrooms, wet rooms and changing areas where a textile is wanted
- Dementia care, where a domestic appearance is therapeutically useful and a hard, cold, slippery floor is not
- Anywhere allergen control is part of the brief
Do not specify Flotex when local infection control policy requires an impervious, welded, coved sheet floor. That policy governs regardless of how a product performs; Flotex tiles and planks have joints, and a clinical wet area needs welded sheet. Forbo makes Flotex in sheet as well as tile, which is a conversation worth having in those areas.
Also think twice where the floor will take heavy point loads from racking or industrial trolleys — that is a job for a resilient or a dense fibre bonded product, not a textile.
Flotex versus the alternatives
| Against carpet tile | Waterproof and washable, far better soil release, allergen accredited. Carpet tile offers more choice of texture and usually costs less. |
|---|---|
| Against vinyl / LVT | Warm, quiet and slip resistant when wet. Vinyl is cheaper to clean at scale and can be welded for clinical areas. |
| Against safety flooring | Far better acoustics and comfort. Safety flooring wins where a specific wet slip rating is mandated. |
| Against natural fibre (sisal, seagrass) | Flotex Seagrass gives the look with none of the staining, water intolerance or degradation. |
Frequently asked questions
Is Flotex a carpet?
No. Flotex is flocked flooring — up to 80 million nylon fibres per square metre standing upright on a waterproof backing, rather than looped or tufted through it. It feels like a textile but is completely waterproof and can be wet-cleaned.
Can Flotex get wet?
Yes. Forbo states Flotex is completely waterproof and describes it as the only truly washable textile floor covering on the market, drying in 4–6 hours against roughly 24 hours for carpet.
Is Flotex good for allergies?
Forbo states Flotex is the only textile flooring to have received the Allergy UK Seal of Approval™. The upright fibre structure means dust and allergens are released during vacuuming rather than trapped — Forbo publishes 76% soil release against 46% for loop pile.
Where is Flotex made?
At Forbo's plant in Ripley, Derbyshire, which is also Forbo Flooring UK's head office.
Can Flotex be used in bathrooms and wet areas?
It is waterproof and slip resistant when wet, so it is specified in changing areas, wet rooms and around food service. In clinical wet areas where infection control policy requires welded coved sheet flooring, that policy governs — Forbo makes Flotex in sheet form as well as tiles and planks.