Samples, ratings, labels and warranties: what to check before you buy

Test a sample at home against the room's questions, read the one or two ratings that answer them for what they do and do not predict, and read the warranty's exclusions before you pay.

1. The room decides what to check Understand

How to compare finishes starts every comparison from the room: a short list of what the room will do to a surface (water, scratches and dents, stains, heat, sun, falls, quiet, care time, repair), most important first. Those questions decide which sample tests to run and which ratings to read, and the rest can wait.

A kitchen counter where hot pans land needs the maker's heat line and the warranty's heat exclusion more than any abrasion number. A sofa in a house with a cat needs its fabric's cleaning code and a look at its arms more than its rub count. Reading every number on every spec sheet takes hours and settles little; reading the two that answer your first questions takes minutes.

Four kinds of evidence come up when you choose a finish. Each shows something real, and each has an edge past which it says nothing.

Write what each piece of evidence says in its own column on the comparison sheet: the sample result, the rating that matters, the warranty term and its main exclusion. Keeping them apart stops one from standing in for another, such as a long warranty read as a long life.

Samples: testing at home

A sample is a piece of the actual product you are considering: a full plank or tile, an offcut of the stone slab, a fabric swatch. Get the largest piece you can. A two-inch chip shows a color; a full plank shows the pattern, the bevel and how two pieces meet. For stone, the Natural Stone Institute's shopping guide suggests asking dealers or fabricators for pieces from their scrap bins (Use Natural Stone, A Scientific Guide to Shopping for Natural Stone).

Look at it in the room

Put the sample where it will go: on the floor by the door, against the cabinet fronts, on the sofa's seat. Look at it in daylight and again at night under your own lamps, beside the samples of the other surfaces in the room. Write what you see on the sample sheet. No source we found sets a method for viewing samples; this step is ours, and it is the cheapest test there is. This manual's convention

Ask before you mark anything. A sample you bought or were given is yours to test. A showroom slab or a seller's swatch book is not; ask whether a piece can be marked, and write the answer down. This manual's convention

The stone test

The only published home sample test we found is for natural stone. Geologist Karin Kirk's guide on the Natural Stone Institute's consumer site sets out a kit and three tests (Use Natural Stone, A Scientific Guide to Shopping for Natural Stone). Test it

• Kit. A glass tile, a pocket knife, lemon juice or vinegar, a spray bottle of water, a cloth, a magnifier, a camera and a notebook.
• Hardness. See whether the stone scratches the glass, and whether the knife tip scratches the stone. The guide says stone harder than glass or a knife blade is likely to stand up well to wear and tear.
• Acid. Leave a puddle of lemon juice or vinegar for several minutes, wipe it off, and look at the spot from a low angle. A dull patch is an etch: the acid has dissolved a little of the polished surface. An etch is damage to the surface, not a stain, and the guide says sealing does not prevent it. It names granite, quartzite and soapstone as stones without acid-sensitive minerals.
• Absorption. Spray water on an unsealed sample. If it soaks in, the stone is very porous; if it leaves a shadow, in between; if it beads, the stone absorbs little. Then try cooking oil, and scrub and dry the spot before you judge it.

The acid test also tells you what a stone is. Stone that is mostly calcium carbonate, which the Natural Stone Institute calls calcareous (marble, limestone, travertine), is sensitive to acids (NSI, Care and Cleaning of Natural Stone). A Use Natural Stone article on quartzite reports that some stones sold as quartzite are marble, and that restorers get calls about etch marks on "quartzite" (Use Natural Stone, caring for quartzite). True quartzite does not etch with lemon juice, according to the same article, so a dull spot on a "quartzite" sample is worth a question to the dealer. Countertops covers stone types and sealing.

Our tests for floors, other counters and fabric

We found no maker, extension service or standards body that publishes a home sample test for flooring, engineered counters or fabric. The tests below are ours. Each copies the room question it answers, uses things already in the house, and stays within what the maker's care sheet allows. They are not lab tests, and a result says how one piece behaved once. This manual's convention

The mat test exists because makers warn about it. Shaw tells owners of its vinyl to use mats without latex or rubber backings to reduce possible discoloration (Shaw, Luxury Vinyl Care), and Mannington says latex-backed mats will stain or damage its resilient floors (Mannington, Resilient Care and Maintenance). The color transfer test is a kitchen version of what fabric labs call crocking, dye rubbing off onto another surface, which the Association for Contract Textiles grades wet and dry in its guidelines (ACT Performance Guidelines, woven indoor fabrics).

Skip a test the maker's sheet already rules out, and write the maker's line as the result. Cambria's care page, for example, tells owners to keep acids, bleach and strong alkaline cleaners off its quartz and asks for a hot pad or trivet under pans (Cambria, Quartz Product Care). An acid or hot-pan test on that sample would test something the maker already tells you to avoid. "Maker says keep acids off" is a result, and a more useful one than a dull spot. Product-specific

Write each result on the sample sheet with the date and a photo taken at a low angle. Copy the one-line result into the comparison sheet's sample column.

Ratings, and what each does not predict

A rating is a number from a standard test, reported by the maker on a spec sheet or a carton. Read only the ones that answer your room's first questions. For each, ask the seller for the test name beside the number: a number without its test is hard to compare with another maker's. This manual's convention

Wood floors: Janka

Janka hardness is the load, in pounds-force, needed to push a steel ball 0.444 in. across halfway into the side of a piece of wood. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook gives the federal values: northern red oak 1,290, white oak 1,360, sugar maple 1,450, black cherry 950 and black walnut 1,010, measured on clear, defect-free solid wood (Wood Handbook, FPL-GTR-282). Physical principle NWFA calls Janka a good indication of dent resistance, says cut and finish also affect durability, and says none of the values apply to engineered wood flooring (NWFA, Durability). Scratches land in the finish, which Janka does not test. For a household with a large dog, the dent question and the scratch question are two questions; Wood floors covers finishes.

Laminate and vinyl plank: wear ratings, wear layers and dents

Laminate's North American standard is ANSI/NALFA LF 01-2026, which replaced the 2018 edition this year. It sets four usage levels, from Residential to Heavy Commercial, and tests abrasion by counting cycles to the first point of wear; the 2026 table lists cycle counts and, for the first time, AC classes. It also limits how much a board may swell after 24 hours under water (ANSI/NALFA LF 01-2026). An AC class is an abrasion class from the European standard EN 13329, and a NALFA white paper calls abrasion class only one component of a floor's durability, with impact and stain resistance separate (NALFA white paper summary, FloorBiz). Convention Read the usage level and class your product is certified to on its own spec sheet or NALFA certificate. NALFA's optional water resistance certifications sit on top of LF 01 (NALFA, Product Certification Standards).

A vinyl plank's wear layer is the clear top layer over the printed film, measured in mils (thousandths of an inch). Armstrong's spec sheet for one commercial luxury vinyl tile lists a 20 mil wear layer and states the ASTM F1700 requirement as 0.020 in. minimum for commercial use; it also lists residual indentation under ASTM F1914 of less than 8 percent on average (Armstrong, Natural Creations specification). Product-specific A thicker wear layer takes longer to wear through. It is not a scratch rating: Shaw's SmartCore warranty printout counts wear only when the vinyl layer is worn through to the core over at least 3 percent of the floor, and says gloss reduction and surface scratches are not surface wear (Shaw SmartCore warranty, 2021 printout). Vinyl, laminate, linoleum and cork covers construction, protectors and the water section.

Tile: porcelain, PEI and DCOF

Porcelain tile, by the definition the Tile Council of North America uses, absorbs 0.5 percent or less of its weight in water under ASTM C373; tile that absorbs more is non-porcelain (TCNA, Porcelain vs. Non-Porcelain). TCNA says there are many instances of non-porcelain tile advertised as porcelain, and that the Porcelain Tile Certification Agency certifies tile that meets the absorption limit (TCNA, Porcelain Tile Certification). Convention

A PEI class is a wear class for glazed tile, based on a test of visible surface abrasion now published as ASTM C1027. The test's scope says it does not account for apparent differences between light and dark tiles and does not optimally evaluate loss of gloss (ASTM C1027). The class descriptions we found (0 to 5, walls only up to heavy traffic) were on retailer pages, not from a standards body or a maker we could read, so we do not print them. Ask the maker for the class and the use it states for that class.

DCOF, the dynamic coefficient of friction, measures how much a standard test foot resists sliding across a wet tile. Under ANSI A326.3, tile for level interior spaces walked on when wet, which can include home bathrooms and kitchens, should have a wet DCOF of 0.42 or more. The same standard says DCOF can usefully compare surfaces but does not predict whether a person will slip, that it should not be the only factor in choosing a floor, and that an installed floor's DCOF can change with wear and contaminants (ANSI A326.3, free copy from TCNA). Convention Tile and grout covers slip resistance in wet rooms.

Fabric: double rubs and Martindale cycles

A double rub is one back-and-forth pass of a cotton duck cloth across a taut fabric in the Wyzenbeek test, ASTM D4157. The Martindale test, ASTM D4966, rubs the fabric in an ever-changing elliptical path against worsted wool and counts cycles. The Association for Contract Textiles, whose members sell fabric for offices and public spaces, sets 15,000 double rubs or 20,000 Martindale cycles for low-traffic spaces and 30,000 or 40,000 for high traffic (ACT Performance Guidelines). Convention These are contract guidelines; ACT gives no residential figure.

The bodies behind these numbers warn against reading them as years. ASTM D4157's own text says lab abrasion results should not be relied on to predict actual wear life (ASTM D4157). ACT says a fabric with twice the abrasion cycles does not have double the service life, that both tests measure flat abrasion and miss the edges of seats and arms, and that a member survey found field failures far more likely to come from cleaning, maintenance, abuse and the wrong application than from abrasion (ACT, Abrasion Disclaimer). Read a rub count as a minimum for the use, not a lifespan. Upholstery fabric covers fibers, weaves and cleaning codes.

Cabinets: KCMA certification

The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association certifies cabinets to ANSI/KCMA A161.1. Its 2026 summary says certified cabinets are loaded up to 600 pounds, their doors and drawers are opened and closed 25,000 times under heavy loads, and their finishes are exposed to heat, cold and stain-causing household substances (KCMA certification one-sheet). Convention Certification says a cabinet line passed; it does not rank one certified cabinet above another, and KCMA's own page says certified cabinets come at every price point. Cabinets and hardware covers door materials and finishes, and the labels decoder has the test list.

Emission and safety labels

A VOC (volatile organic compound) is one of a large group of chemicals that evaporate at room temperature. EPA lists building materials, furnishings, glues and finishes among indoor sources, says no federally enforceable standards have been set for VOCs in non-industrial settings, and advises more ventilation when using products that emit them (EPA, VOCs' Impact on Indoor Air Quality). The labels on flooring and furniture boxes describe tests of these emissions. We explain what each tests and what it leaves out; we make no claim about health, and a question about your health goes to your clinician.

FloorScore, Green Label Plus and GREENGUARD

Sources: RFCI, FloorScore; CRI, Green Label Plus; UL, GREENGUARD Certification.

All three point back to one California method. The California Department of Public Health's Standard Method tests newly made products in a small chamber and reports emissions at 14 days. It models the result into a standard classroom and a standard private office, not a single-family home. It limits chronic inhalation risk from listed chemicals, and it does not test odor, flame retardants or other semi-volatile chemicals, PFAS, or emissions after a product has aged in a home (CDPH Standard Method v1.2). Convention So a label tells you a product's early emissions of listed chemicals met a limit modeled for an office or classroom. It does not tell you the product is harmless, and none of these labels rates durability. If emissions are one of your room's questions, the label answers part of it, and EPA's ventilation advice is the rest.

Formaldehyde in composite wood: TSCA Title VI

Under the federal rule known as TSCA Title VI, hardwood plywood, medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and particleboard, and finished goods made with them such as cabinets, furniture and some laminate flooring cores, must meet formaldehyde emission limits. Since March 22, 2019, they must be labeled TSCA Title VI compliant (EPA, Formaldehyde Emission Standards for Composite Wood Products). The limits, by test method ASTM E1333, are 0.05 ppm for hardwood plywood, 0.11 for MDF, 0.13 for thin MDF and 0.09 for particleboard. A finished good is labeled on the item or on each box or bundle; when an item is not labeled individually, the retailer must keep the label and make its information available to customers on request (40 CFR 770). Ask the authority So you can ask the store. The rule does not cover solid wood, or finishes and adhesives applied in your home. EPA's final rule of October 2026 updated the test methods the rule refers to; it did not change the limits.

Safer Choice on cleaners

EPA's Safer Choice label appears on cleaners, floor and tub-and-tile cleaners among them. EPA says it reviews every chemical ingredient regardless of its percentage, requires products to perform comparably to conventional ones, and audits them every year (EPA, Learn About the Safer Choice Label). The label says nothing about which surfaces a cleaner suits. EPA's page does not say a labeled cleaner suits every surface, such as stone or a wood finish; your floor or counter maker's care sheet decides what goes on it. Cleaning by surface covers cleaners by surface.

Upholstery labels

Upholstered furniture carries a federal flammability label; the standard behind it adopted California's TB 117-2013, a smolder test whose own text says it does not measure open-flame exposure (TB 117-2013). Stain-repellent treatments may contain PFAS, which none of the emission labels above test, and state rules on PFAS in textiles vary; the Association for Contract Textiles keeps a list (ACT, Stain Repellent Finishes). Upholstery fabric reads these labels in full, and the labels decoder lists every label in one place.

Warranties, and what "waterproof" covers

A warranty is the maker's written promise about its product: what it will repair, replace or refund, for how long, and on what conditions. An exclusion is something the warranty does not cover. A pro-rated warranty pays less as the years pass. A transferable warranty passes to the next owner of the home; a non-transferable one ends with the original buyer.

The FTC's consumer page on warranties says a written warranty must be available for you to read before you buy. It tells buyers to check what is covered (and to assume that anything not listed is not covered), whether a registration card must be returned, and who handles repairs and pays for labor and shipping. It says to keep the warranty with the receipt, which proves the date of purchase (FTC, Warranties).

Two "lifetime" warranties

"Lifetime" means different things on different documents. Here are two, read in full.

Sources: Cambria, Transferable Full Lifetime Warranty; Shaw SmartCore warranty, 2021 printout, which may differ from Shaw's current terms. Product-specific

Claim deadlines and records

Two habits follow. Write the warranty's main exclusion beside its term on the comparison sheet, because the exclusion is often what a busy room does most (scratches from a dog, heat from a pan). And write the claim deadline on the installed register, because a 30-day window starts when you notice the problem, not when you get round to it. Stains, damage and older homes covers filing a claim.

What can put damage outside the warranty

Each maker's document lists its own conditions. These are examples, each from the maker or trade body named:

• Sealers on quartz. Cambria's care page says not to apply sealers or topical treatments under any circumstances; the Silestone use and care sheet says not to use sealants and that misuse may cost the warranty (Silestone Use & Care, 2021 sheet).
• Humidity for wood. Bruce's instructions for its solid hardwood say damage from failing to maintain proper humidity will void the floor's warranty (AHF Products, Bruce installation instructions).
• Carpet cushion and cleaning. CRI says the wrong cushion may void carpet warranties (CRI, Selecting the Right Carpet), and that some makers require cleaners with its Seal of Approval for warranty coverage (CRI, Cleaning and Maintenance).
• Mats and protectors on vinyl. Shaw's vinyl care page asks for mats without latex or rubber backing and for wide floor protectors, and its SmartCore printout excludes damage from missing furniture rests and from not following maintenance instructions. A mat stain is potentially outside that warranty; the full document for your product settles it.

Read the care sheet as part of the warranty. On every warranty above, caring for the surface the way the maker says is a condition of coverage.

What "waterproof" covers

"Waterproof" on a floor carton is a marketing word with no industry standard behind it, as a flooring inspector writing in Floor Focus put it in 2019 (Floor Focus, What is waterproof really worth?). NALFA has since added optional water resistance certifications for laminate, which a product may or may not carry. The same article makes the point that matters most: a waterproof plank does not make a waterproof installation. Water that runs over the edges and under the floor reaches the subfloor, which the plank does not protect.

The warranties say the same in their own words. Shaw's SmartCore printout covers topical spills only as long as the water does not flow over the edge, and notes that mold can still grow where moisture collects. An IICRC inspector writing in Cleanfax quotes warranty language that limits waterproof coverage to the product itself, not the subfloor or adhesives, and not water from below or flooding, whether the floor is vinyl or laminate (Cleanfax, Waterproof Flooring and the Rest of the Story). NALFA's own FAQ says laminate does not belong in bathrooms unless the maker specifies it as waterproof (NALFA, Laminate Flooring FAQs). Product-specific

So the honest reading of "waterproof" is: the surface resists a spill that is wiped up and does not reach the edges. Ask the seller, in writing, what the warranty says about water at the edges, from a leaking dishwasher, and from below, and put the answer on the questions sheet. Vinyl, laminate, linoleum and cork applies this to each floor type.

If the surface is already there

If you rent, or you bought a home with surfaces someone else chose, the warranty belongs to whoever bought the product, and some are not transferable. A renter's route is the landlord: ask, in writing, what the floor and counters are, who made them, and for the care sheets. Report damage to the landlord in writing too, with photos. Learn First Home Basics' Before you move in: the lease, the walk-through and the condition record covers the dated, photographed record to send at the start of a tenancy, and Stains, damage and older homes covers asking before you change anything.

2. See it See it

• Use Natural Stone, A Scientific Guide to Shopping for Natural Stone: the stone test kit and the three tests, with photos.
• TCNA, Dynamic Coefficient of Friction: the history of the 0.42 figure and the standard's use categories.
• ACT, Abrasion Disclaimer: why a higher rub count is not a longer life.
• Cambria, Transferable Full Lifetime Warranty: a "lifetime" countertop warranty, with its exclusions and 30-day claim window.

3. Practice Practice

Minimum: one surface: a sample of each candidate seen in the room, the tests for your first two room questions, one rating read with what it leaves out, and each warranty's main exclusion and claim deadline written down. If you are not choosing: the maker, the care sheet and the warranty for one surface, found and filed. Time: about an hour of work, spread over a day and a night. Materials: the samples; for stone, a glass tile, a pocket knife, lemon juice, a spray bottle of water and cooking oil; for floors and fabric, a house key, a kitchen chair, the household's common spills and two white cloths; a phone camera; the sample sheet and the comparison sheet.

1. Label each sample on the back. Candidate name and the date.
2. Look at the samples in the room, in daylight and at night. Write what you notice on the sample sheet.
3. Run the tests for your first two questions. Same spills, same time, same light for every candidate; skip any test the maker's sheet rules out and write the maker's line instead. Photograph each result at a low angle.
4. Read the rating that answers your first question. Write the number, the test name and what it does not predict.
5. Read each warranty in full. On the comparison sheet, write the term, the main exclusion, the claim deadline and any condition (approved installer, care, registration).

4. Your home Your home

5. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Did every candidate get the same tests, under the same conditions, with results written and photographed?
• Did you skip any test the maker's sheet rules out, and write the maker's line as the result?
• For each rating you used, did you write the test name and what it does not predict?
• Does the comparison sheet name each warranty's term, main exclusion and claim deadline?
• Is the warranty filed with the receipt and the care sheet, and noted on the installed register?
• If you are not choosing: does the installed register name the surface, its maker if known, and where its care sheet and warranty are?

Worked example

The Brennans' sheet passes. The granite has two stone test results with photos. The quartz's result is the maker's own line, because its sheet rules out the tests. No abrasion number appears, because none answers heat, stains or water. Each warranty's term sits beside its main exclusion, and the laminate's exclusion is marked open with a name beside it. Maya's register passes too: one row for the floor, with the maker from the landlord's email and the care sheet's link, and one for the sofa, "S, no warranty, bought used".

Common mistakes

• Testing a showroom sample without asking. It is the seller's property; ask first or get your own piece.
• Putting acid on a quartz sample. The maker already says to keep acids off; the test tells you nothing you can use.
• Reading a rub count or a wear layer as years. The test bodies say their numbers do not predict wear life.
• Reading an emission label as a health promise. It covers listed chemicals, at 14 days, modeled for an office or classroom.
• Trusting "waterproof" for water at the edges. The warranties we read cover spills that stay on top.
• Filing the warranty without the receipt. The receipt proves the date and that you are the buyer.
• Missing a claim window. Cambria's runs 30 days from when you learn of the problem.

What is still unresolved

How each material behaves over years, from its makers' sheets, is in the material chapters: Vinyl, laminate, linoleum and cork, Tile and grout, Countertops, Upholstery fabric and the rest. Whether a stone needs sealing is the fabricator's call for your slab. What a warranty covers in a dispute is decided by its full text, the maker's process and, if it comes to that, a lawyer. Whether a product suits someone's health is a question for their clinician.

6. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The sample sheet has a result for each candidate, and the comparison sheet names each warranty's main exclusion (or, if I am not choosing, the installed register names the surface and where its care sheet and warranty are kept).
• For each rating I used, I wrote the test name and what it does not predict.
• Each warranty's claim deadline and conditions are on the installed register, and the warranty is filed with the receipt and the care sheet.
• I asked the seller, in writing, what the warranty says about water at the edges and from below.
• I ran the two-week sun and mat tests and photographed the results. (Go deeper; optional)