hey everyone my name is Sam and welcome back to Green Acre Homestead where we're
in the middle of a mobile home renovation and we're currently working
in our kitchen it's time for us to talk about flooring for the kitchen a lot of
you have asked and we have been thinking and planning and choosing and we are 90%
sure we have it picked I say 90% because I need to do some tests before I really
decide and that's what this video is all about so the flooring we're going with
is a product from Lowe's it's called smart core it's kind of a lock flooring
style kind of laminate flooring system you know they're very popular nowadays
it's got its own underlayment on the bottom and a nice vinyl coating on the
top but the number one selling feature that we are most interested in is it's
advertised as being 100% waterproof right here on their website 100%
waterproof well we're going to put that to the test
we're going to test if smart core flooring is actually 100% waterproof by
doing the most hardcore tests I can think of and that's taking this little
scrap piece of flooring and submerging it underwater for at least an hour what
I have here is a spare Tupperware dish out of the cabinet
don't tell Angela I'm using it from a science project here and I've got it
about a halfway full of hot water I'm going to go ahead and take this piece of
flooring and submerge it in the water set the camera on time-lapsed and let
you guys see firsthand with an hour underwater
if this is actually waterproof
all right it has been 10 minutes here let's take this out and see if we can
see any swelling or any kind of noticeable differences in the flooring I
don't see anything at all you see if I can rub the side off and see if we see
any evidence of water absorption in the edge and doesn't it look like anything
here all right let's go ahead and put this back in the water
push it over to the bottom and let's give it another 10 minutes
all right another ten minutes has passed let's pull this sucker out and let's
take a look at it here I don't see any differences in it this this is
surprising this might actually truly be 100% waterproof like they say all right
20 minutes underwater is a pretty good test
I don't previously set an hour but I don't think an hour is gonna make so
much more difference than 20 minutes will I tell you I'm gonna take this out
and I'm going to dry it off with a towel and then we'll compare this with the
other piece we have that has not been exposed to any water and see if there's
any noticeable differences here we have our two pieces the one on the right was
the one that's been underwater for 20 minutes solid the one on the left is the
one that's not been exposed to any water this is gonna be a little bit different
to compare because these pieces interlock with each other which means
that this piece is not identical to this one as far as edge profiles and
everything I'm just gonna have to take a look at this and see if they match up
how they look and then also will they still connect and join as well now that
one of them has been underwater looking at the differences between the two I
really don't see any changes in the middle membrane whatever this is I would
say normally presswood but it's not in this case because it didn't swell I
don't see any noticeable differences no changes no delamination going on yeah I
can't pull that top cover off or anything even the underlayment that's
attached to the bottom of this piece is not coming off at all you'll see some
edges frayed here on the sides that's from this is from the store that way so
let's go ahead and see if these two will still lock together and give a good
solid seal yeah no difference is there I can't fill any changes or any
disruptions and the joint here there's no undulations no puckering no waviness
that is awesome so for all intensive purposes with
the exception of the label on the back this one I can tell has been in water
this one I can tell has not other than the label differences I would really not
see any difference between which one was under water and which one has never been
exposed Wow guys I am honestly genuinely impressed and shocked this floor is
actually a hundred percent waterproof good job people for telling the truth
alright little friend you've had your bath but the tests are still not over
for the next test I want to see how durable this top coating is the
lamination the actual pretty part of the flooring the thing you're gonna see the
most and the thing that's gonna really take the most abuse and wear for that
test though let's go down to the workshop I got a lot more things that'll
mess you up we were down in my workshop now and as you can see I've devised a
horrible torture test for this poor little scrap piece of flooring I'm going
to give it several several abusive tests things that any normal kitchen should
never experience items such as how well does it sing in with 80 grit sandpaper
what happens if you drop the largest kitchen knife point down from head
height as a crowbar really damage it but four drops what about if you hit it with
it how about a burn test how flame-resistant is this floor in case
you decide you want to torch it the same thing applies with what happens if the
red-hot metal object drops on the floor well it sat on fire and lastly we will
have sledge abyss maximus give us a can I break the floor I'll start with this
this won't work or if I have issues I'll get bigger and bigger devices until I
either give up or I smash it alright just start off with this is the same
little piece that we dunked in water for the water test still surviving we're
going to start with this random orbit sander it has 80 grit sandpaper on it
and let's see how long it'll take to sand a piece of the finish off
let's take a look here all right we've got somewhere from the edge for sure and
I can see a differences in color let me wipe that off and see that's just the
dust or if that's genuine difference in color yes so that's definitely you
starting to take it off there that's not too bad considering 80 grit
and pushing down on the sander so let's see how much more pressure it takes to
take this whole section off
all right given odds are you're not gonna try and sand your floor with 80
grit sandpaper for a good minute but if you do you're probably not going to wear
the finish completely off unless it's close to the edge like this and just
picks it up and really tears it off so I would say sander test passed all right
for the next test we've got our largest kitchen knife I'm gonna do some hacking
and chopping tests I'm gonna do some close stabbings and I'm gonna do a knife
drop test on this so let's go ahead and pick a new area I'm gonna go right
through here and let's start with some chops first let's see if we've got any
abrasions I can definitely feel the chop marks I don't know if this camera will
pick it up maybe a little bit of the reflection of the light I can definitely
feel it here maybe you could sand those out I'm joking but so chopping it like
that yes you're gonna get marks you're gonna be able to feel it later
let's try stabbing it okay yes that's pretty definitive there you can stab it
and you'll definitely make it through the finish there there's a little piece
let's try and couch it out here yeah so you don't want to stab your floor if you
can help it all right let's go ahead and do the knife drop test this is from
about three feet above and same kind of outcome here it's a little bit deeper of
a gouge obviously than the closed stabbing but you drop it from three feet
up you're really going to penetrate and damage your floor there now let's do the
crowbar test let's say you're working along and you're being crazy
and you're like hey I just want to hit the floor if you do that you're really
gonna chunk it that totally broke through this gray layer and it made it
into the middle part of this floor for sure let's see how much more abuse this
thing can take
there we go so it took all of that beating to
actually crack the floor and break it through and obviously this piece is
completely toast hammer test crowbar test crowbar wins the floor still pretty
durable though for this next test we're going to use an old cast iron Drupal
that I've had hold it in some pliers and I'm going to heat it to red-hot with
this torch and then I'm going to drop it just like that onto the piece let's see
if this smokes any if it melts if it catches fire or what happens this is the
equivalent of a hot pan on the floor and I'm just not going to pick it up test
well that took some time to heat up but as you can see probably you don't want
to drop red-hot stuff on your floor unless you're willing to have a horrible
plastic burning smell and melt a part of your floor now I will say this it is
pretty cool that it did not burn with flames it didn't burst into flames it
more or less kind of just sizzle and made its own little puddle and otherwise
set there so it seems pretty safe while I have the torch out and I'm in the
burning mood let's go ahead and give it a direct fire test and see if I can melt
through it and see if I can get this to actually flame up
well as you saw there this will flame up but it does not continue to burn very
easily so good good good this floor won't set you on fire hopefully so I
know what you're probably thinking Sam that's that's not really real life test
you're doing you're doing like extreme tests of durability and incredible feats
of magnitude and amazement that's cool and all but I really don't think I'll
drop my hot pants on the floor I really don't think I'll hit what the hammer
stabbed with a knife or even try and set it on fire on the torch
what I'm really curious is is how well does it do with scuffs how well does it
do with normal traffic well don't worry I got this other fresh piece of flooring
here that's not been abused and what I'm gonna do is trying to emulate a couple
of scuff tests I've got a wrench here but I'm gonna use the bottom of it has a
smooth metal surface in the vent you have let's say a metal stool or some
kind of furniture object that is smooth and hard harder than the surface of the
floor and rub it back back back for fourth fourth fourth I'm going to rub it
back and forth a lot and see if I can emulate any kind of normal wear and tear
abrasions for moving furniture or chairs around
all right I've been at it for a little bit longer texture wise without looking
I could not tell you where I've been rubbing the floor the only difference in
thing I can see is kind of a shiny spot where it's been going back and forth so
for non sharp abrasions and moving looks like it holds up pretty well for this
next test I've got a screw here and I'm gonna do a more of a realistic real-life
scratch test let's see what happens if let's say there's a screw on the floor
and maybe you step on it if you move it around with a little bit of weight but
not extreme and let's see if this gets it the screw definitely definitely
affects the floor there are texture differences here in the light I can see
the scratches and I can definitely see that something has gone on so start
screw test fit on the floor yeah not that good that's one sad looking floor
huh well guys I hope you enjoyed this video where we test it if the smart core
flooring was in fact 100% waterproof we did some drop tests some knife tests
some salt tests some hammer tests some red-hot iron tests flame testing metal
abrasion testing and every other testing I could think of I hope you enjoyed this
video leave us a comment down below what you thought of it if you have this
flooring we'd also love to hear from you Angela's not expecting me to order this
floor because it is three times the cost of the other option that we've been
considering but after doing all these tests I believe this floor has earned
our hard-earned long saved money to put this in our kitchen so I'm gonna go
ahead and surprise her and order the floor today it should be here they say
between four to seven days in this special order so it takes a little bit
longer I can't wait to show you guys what it looks like stay with this
subscribe if you're not a subscriber so you can see us install this in our
kitchen check out our other videos and as always thank you so much for watching
we'll see you next time on the homestead
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