Van Flooring Comparison: Plywood vs. Composite

Plywood has been the go-to material for lining cargo vans for a long time. It's rigid, seems readily available and is cheap.

The alternative to plywood, composite floors, came to the attention of fleet operators when they began looking for robust, heavy-duty flooring that lasts under intense daily wear & tear, and is safe for workers.

Legend Fleet Solutions, a leading manufacturer of cargo van linings, floors and accessories based out of Tillsonburg, Ontario, foresaw this need and the demand for their sustainable and very tough Stabiligrip and EVOLVE van flooring took off.

EVOLVE, a sustainable, lightweight cargo van floor that could withstand heavy impacts and be impervious to chemical spills, warping and common moisture became popular with EV fleet operators. For an even heavier-duty option for non-EV fleets, Legend pioneered Stabiligrip, both offered as a practical alternative to traditional plywood.

Now, let’s compare composite to plywood and discover how each one measures up to the heavy burdens you, as a fleet operator, demand.

Materials

The most popular type of plywood, coated birch, is produced by killing mature trees – in a lot of instances from countries currently immersed in military conflict. To soften the trees in preparation for peeling they must be soaked in harsh chemical solutions. After this, virgin petroleum products are used to heat and dry the wood. Finally, petroleum-based adhesives are employed to bond the layers together. It is worth noting that the most cost-effective plywood, the product most people typically buy from local and national lumber yards, is sourced from regions where the proper forestry practices are ignored, and the land is stripped.

Birch forests like this one are where most plywood is sourced from. Often, from countries that do not adhere to forestry regulation. As a result, the land is cleared and stripped completely. As mentioned before, many of the densest birch forests are located in countries immersed in military conflict.

Legend’s composite flooring doesn’t rely on harvesting any of our natural resources and enjoys a much less complicated, cleaner and quicker manufacturing process. The raw materials are produced without adding any chemicals or petroleum-based glues and are composed of 75%+ recovered and recycled non-toxic elements. As any excess material is produced, it gets saved and recycled back into the manufacturing process. This has the direct result of dramatically reducing the amount of material going into landfills and cutting the carbon footprint significantly.

Performance

Coated birch plywood, because it is a natural substance, has a grain that must be considered in the installation process. Without proper care, plywood can crack or splinter along the grain when fastening the sheets to floors or walls. If you run an EV fleet, or even a single EV, plywood is a heavy material that can unnecessarily increase the payload in an EV and ultimately drain the battery and reduce the range of the vehicle, slashing profit. Even if you don’t operate EV’s and run standard combustion-engine vans, plywood is a natural porous substance, so it does not resist moisture or accidental spills; it soaks them up and can warp causing splintering, and in the worst cases, rot very quickly weakening your floor. Plywood typically lasts just months before the fiber structure begins to break down under the constant walking, weight of interior shelving, and impacts that occur in everyday use by your drivers. In just a couple of years, plywood simply breaks, comes apart, and produces spurs that can trip workers and create serious work hazards.

Plywood is not meant to be durable over time. Instead, it splinters and warps due to constant use and moisture absorption. This presents a serious, and potentially expensive, safety hazard if workers trip or fall inside a van with floors that are compromised.

Legend took a serious look at the performance of plywood and worked to come up with a sustainable alternative that was tough, moisture-resistant, lighter, and easier to install. With the goal of protecting and supporting hard-working cargo van drivers they have dubbed the “Legends of the Road”, their solution was innovative. By focusing on safety, the company fabricated a tough composite flooring that provides the safest possible work environment for anyone who spends their working day jumping in and out of a cargo or work van. Both Stabiligrip and Evolve composite flooring are extremely durable and highly resistant to heavy impact damage as well as being completely unaffected by moisture, not to mention resistance to spills of any kind including harsh chemical spills. According to the company, ‘grippiness’ was a factor in the development. All Legend’s floors are non-slip but at the same time, smooth enough to allow a small percentage of slip for moving heavy equipment around. Add to the fact that both Stabiligrip and Evolve are 75% recycled materials and Evolve does not need to be screwed in place, rather snapped in place, and the advantage of composite over plywood comes into focus.

Cardboard dust is a danger.

Legend is a tried-and-true innovator in their industry so not only is time spent on developing new products but also finding and analyzing problems brought to them directly from drivers on the road.

A perfect example is dust: the cardboard kind.

Cardboard dust rarely gets any attention. Which is a shame because Legend found that the dust is such a dangerous hazard but has practically gone unnoticed. So much so that, if left unaddressed, can become an enormous expense for the fleet operator.

Moving, dragging, and placing cartons and boxes around the interior of a work van sloughs off significant amounts of cardboard in fine granules that typically go unnoticed throughout the workday. The problem is that this creates a layer of tiny round particles of cardboard that can make a smooth floor, like plywood, an ice rink in the best of weather.

It is no surprise that slips and falls in the back of a cargo van are some of the most serious injuries a worker may face in their working life. And for the fleet owner, the last thing they want to hear is that their worker/s have taken a bad fall inside their van. This type of injury can cost the victim their health and the operator thousands, sometimes much more, in worker’s compensation. It is prudent for the fleet operator to eliminate this type of easily preventable hazard from showing up in the first place.

Now, you can’t eliminate cardboard dust from appearing. It’s part of the by-product of working with cardboard boxes and cartons. But you can eliminate the hazard. All Legend floors are anti-slip by featuring miniature grooves and peaks that capture any dust particles virtually removing excess slip. Now that’s some great news.

By simply employing Legend products in your van/s, everyday hazards can be completely avoided without even thinking about them. Consider Legend in your next van upfit. Their job is to make your job easier, safer, and more profitable. The choice is clear.

Learn how a complete upfit of your van or van fleet can benefit your bottom line.