Altro flooring: safety vinyl and wall systems
Altro is the manufacturer whose name became the category. Specifiers talk about putting an Altro floor down in a kitchen the way people talk about hoovering a carpet. What they usually mean is slip-resistant safety vinyl, whether or not the sheet that arrives on site carries the Altro name. Behind the shorthand is a family-founded British manufacturer based at Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire that has been at the forefront of innovation for 100 years and describes itself as the original creator of commercial safety flooring. Surface Specialists works across every major manufacturer and is tied to none of them. Where an Altro system is the right answer, it is specified and installed by an experienced specialist contractor from our network. Listing Altro here does not imply a partnership, approval or accreditation.
Why Altro became the word for safety flooring
Altro earned the shorthand by creating the category. It has been at this for a century, so for the whole working life of anyone specifying floors today there has been one obvious name attached to slip-resistant vinyl and the name stuck to the product the way Hoover stuck to the vacuum cleaner. Genericisation of that kind is rare and it is earned by being first.
It has a practical effect on live projects. A brief that asks for Altro in the kitchen is almost always a performance requirement rather than a brand instruction: the person writing it wants a floor that will not turn dangerous once it is wet or greasy. Sometimes Altro is the right answer. Sometimes another manufacturer meets the same rating on a better lead time or a better colour match. The category itself is covered in full on our guide to safety flooring.
What makes an Altro floor a safety floor
A safety floor is a vinyl sheet carrying slip-resistant particles through its full thickness, so the grip does not polish away as the surface wears. That is the difference between a safety floor and a smooth commercial vinyl that simply has a textured finish. Altro’s umbrella claim across the range is sustained slip resistance throughout the life of the floor.
Performance is quoted two ways. A pendulum test value, or PTV, describes wet slip potential: Altro Stronghold 30 sits at the top of the range at PTV 55 or above. An R rating from a ramp test runs alongside it, so Stronghold 30 is R12 and Altro Classic 25 is R11. Those two numbers, read against the contamination the floor will actually see, do most of the specification work.
The Altro safety flooring ranges
Altro groups its safety flooring three ways and that grouping is the fastest route through the range. Work out which third the project sits in first, then choose on thickness, rating and appearance.
| Group | Range | What it is built for |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy duty | Altro Atlas 40 | 4mm industrial safety floor for studs, spikes and forklift traffic |
| Heavy duty | Altro Stronghold 30 | 3mm. The highest slip rating in the range, PTV 55 or above and R12, for wet and greasy conditions |
| Wet and barefoot | Altro Aquarius | Combined wet and dry, shoe and barefoot. Showers, saunas and spas |
| Wet and barefoot | Altro Pisces | Domestic-look wet area floor, shoe and barefoot. Care homes |
| Wet and barefoot | Altro Marine 20 | Dimpled surface for bare feet where Class B is needed |
| General commercial | Altro Walkway 20 | General purpose sheet. A contractor favourite for over 30 years |
| General commercial | Altro Suprema | Non-sparkle low gloss finish using Altro Easyclean technology |
| General commercial | Altro Illustra | Design-led sheet, enhanced sustained slip resistance, Easyclean |
| General commercial | Altro Reliance 25 | 2.5mm. Hospital streets and laboratories |
| General commercial | Altro ContraX | 2mm, sustained PTV 36 or above, 10-year guarantee |
| General commercial | Altro Classic 25 | R11 for chalk, sawdust and muddy water. DT and art rooms |
Two variants sit outside the three groups. Altro Walkway 20 SD is the static-dissipative version for laboratories and computer suites. Altro Wood, Altro Wood Comfort and Altro Wood adhesive-free give a 2mm wood-effect safety vinyl where the floor has to read domestic but still perform commercially.
Altro Whiterock and the hygienic wall system
Altro states that it invented the hygienic walls system in 1982 and Whiterock is still the reason a lot of specifiers stay with the brand. It is an impervious grout-free wall sheet: impact-resistant, impermeable and free of the grout lines that make ceramic tiling a cleaning liability in a food prep room. The walls system is marketed with a 30-year system guarantee.
The family runs wider than the plain white sheet. Altro Whiterock White is the hygienic alternative to ceramic tiles, Whiterock Satins and Whiterock Chameleon cover satin and gloss finishes, Chameleon carrying a 20-year system guarantee. Whiterock wall designs, Whiterock Digiclad and Whiterock Splashbacks handle decorative and printed work. Whiterock Vantage, Whiterock Whiteboard and the Altro Walls ShowerKit answer specific rooms, Altro Tegulis gives tile-effect panels with etched grout lines where the look of tiling is wanted without the grout. Altro Fortis and Fortis Titanium protect corners in heavy traffic. AltroFix W139 is the adhesive.
The commercial argument is the combination. A kitchen or a treatment room bought as floor and wall from one manufacturer arrives as a coherent system rather than two products made to meet at the junction.
The adhesive-free ranges
Adhesive-free vinyl is laid without wet adhesive, which changes the programme rather than the floor. There is no adhesive cure to wait out, so the room can take traffic far sooner and a refurbishment can be phased around a trading day or a ward that cannot close. Altro Cantata adhesive-free is described as same day weld and walk.
Confirmed adhesive-free products are Altro XpressLay adhesive-free, Altro Cantata adhesive-free, Altro Wood adhesive-free, Altro Illustra adhesive-free and Altro Stronghold 30 adhesive-free. XpressLay is the general purpose sheet and it co-ordinates with Walkway 20, which matters when a phased refurbishment has to match into an existing floor. The subfloor still governs the outcome, so subfloor preparation is assessed and priced by the contractor at the same time as the floor.
What else Altro makes
Safety flooring is the reason the name is famous but it is not the whole catalogue. On the smooth side Altro Orchestra is an acoustic vinyl rated at 15dB, Altro Serenade at 19dB and Altro Operetta at 4dB. Orchestra is also offered as Altro Orchestra Custom. These sit in the same territory as the rest of the commercial vinyl flooring market.
In LVT the range is Altro Ensemble, a modular tile system in six sizes rated at 15dB. There is a resin line too, covering Altro Screed, Altro Crete, Altro Flow, Altro Flexiflow, Altro Grip, Altro Coat, Altro Seal, Altro Tect and Altro Mosaic. Altro Transflor Artis, Metris and Sonis cover transport interiors. Edge trims, transition strips and welding rod finish the specification.
How an Altro floor gets specified
The floor is chosen from the contamination and the traffic, not from the brochure. A specialist contractor from our network assesses the substrate and the environment, specifies the right system and provides a written quotation. Moisture readings, the condition of the existing screed and the cleaning regime all move the answer, which is why the sheet and the preparation are priced together.
Altro also supplies the paperwork a tender pack asks for: ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 9001:2015, CE compliance to EN 14041, product-specific EPDs, VinylPlus membership, FloorScore and M1 low VOC classification, plus a contribution to BREEAM credits.
Altro is not the only route to a safety floor. Polyflor makes the Polysafe range and Forbo makes the Step range. Both cover the same performance territory and either can be the better answer on colour, acoustic rating or lead time, which is the point of working across the whole field. The rest of the manufacturers are compared on the commercial brands hub.
Frequently asked questions
Is Altro flooring the same thing as safety flooring?
No. Altro is a manufacturer and safety flooring is the product category it created, so the two names have grown together in everyday use. Plenty of floors described on site as Altro are slip-resistant safety vinyl made by somebody else. The performance requirement is what matters and the brand follows from it.
Which Altro floor suits a commercial kitchen?
Altro Stronghold 30 carries the highest slip rating in the range, PTV 55 or above and R12, for wet and greasy conditions. Where the same space also takes heavy plant or wheeled traffic, Altro Atlas 40 is the 4mm heavy duty option. The final choice belongs to the contractor after the survey.
What is Altro Whiterock?
Whiterock is Altro’s hygienic wall sheet system, an impervious grout-free alternative to ceramic tiling for kitchens, treatment rooms and food production areas. Altro states it invented the hygienic walls system in 1982 and markets the system with a 30-year guarantee.
Can Altro flooring be laid without adhesive?
Yes, on the adhesive-free ranges: XpressLay, Cantata, Wood adhesive-free, Illustra adhesive-free and Stronghold 30 adhesive-free. Removing the adhesive cure lets a room take traffic much sooner, which is why these ranges suit refurbishment work in buildings that cannot close.
Does Surface Specialists only work with Altro?
No. We work across every major manufacturer and are tied to none of them. Altro appears here because it is one of the most specified names in commercial safety flooring, not because of any relationship. Listing a manufacturer does not imply a partnership, approval or accreditation.
Who provides the quotation for an Altro floor?
The specialist contractor does, after the survey. Surface Specialists arranges the survey and matches you to the right contractor, but the written quotation and the contract for the work sit with the contractor who carries it out.
Key takeaways
- Altro is a manufacturer, not a product type. The name became shorthand for safety vinyl because Altro created the commercial safety flooring category and has been going 100 years.
- The safety range splits three ways: heavy duty (Atlas 40, Stronghold 30), wet and barefoot (Aquarius, Pisces, Marine 20) and general commercial (Walkway 20, Suprema, Illustra, Reliance 25, ContraX, Classic 25).
- Slip resistance runs through the full thickness of the sheet, which is what sustains the rating as the floor wears.
- Altro Whiterock is the hygienic grout-free wall system that pairs with the floor in kitchens, wet rooms and clinical areas.
- The adhesive-free ranges remove the adhesive cure from the programme, so a refurbished floor can take traffic the same day.
- Polyflor and Forbo compete directly in this category and the right answer depends on the survey, not the badge.
Get an Altro floor specified
Tell us the space, the contamination and the traffic. We arrange a free site survey and match you with a specialist contractor who works with Altro and the alternatives, so the floor is chosen on performance rather than on habit.