1. Different types

The prescription and application of resilient floor coverings has its origins in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was at this time that the first carpets appeared (produced in small widths on the same looms as dimensional carpets). These were not yet building products, but they were used for decoration and completed the range of possible floor coverings - parquet, tiles, marble, etc. - that were available.

Linoleum, on the other hand, invented in 1863 by the British Frédéric WALTON, has applications much more suited to building constraints. But the market for linoleum was still in its infancy, and would only develop in the first half of the twentieth century...

The first half of this century also saw the appearance of rubber flooring.

The industrial maturity of resilient...