A spec that says "antistatic floor" does not tell a compounder what to build. The words antistatic, static-dissipative, and conductive each carry a resistance band, and the number a floor has to hit depends on which test method produced it, whether a person was standing on it, and what the humidity was that day. This is how those pieces fit together, and where the additive dose sits inside them.
The three tiers, by resistance
Static control in flooring is graded by electrical resistance, measured in ohms. Lower resistance means charge reaches ground faster.
Antistatic. The loosest tier, and the one defined by behavior rather than by a resistance band. An antistatic floor limits how much charge a person builds walking across it. The European walk test, EN 1815, measures that body voltage directly, and 2 kV or less is the threshold used to declare a resilient or laminate floor antistatic under EN 14041.
Static-dissipative. Above 1.0 x 106 ohms and below 1.0 x 109 ohms to ground. This is the working band for electronics, and the one most static-control vinyl is built to hit.
Conductive. At or below 1.0 x 106 ohms to ground. The fastest path, normally reached by putting a conductive filler such as carbon into the floor rather than by an additive alone.
Dissipative is the default for electronics work for a practical reason. It drains charge fast enough to protect devices while keeping enough resistance in the path that a grounded person is not tied directly to earth. Conductive floors get specified where the charge has to be gone as quickly as possible and the grounding plan accounts for it.
Resistance gets measured in more than one place
Three measurements share the same units and answer different questions. Reading a data sheet without knowing which one is quoted is the most common way a floor gets mis-specified.
Point-to-point (RTT). Two electrodes on the floor surface, a set distance apart. This tells you whether the surface itself carries charge laterally, and it is a material property.
Resistance to ground (RTG). One electrode on the floor, the other on the building ground. This is the path that actually matters, and it includes the adhesive, the subfloor, and the grounding strap, not just the tile. A floor material that tests well point-to-point can still fail to ground if it was installed over the wrong adhesive.
System resistance, with a person in it. A person wearing the footwear that will be worn in the space, standing on the installed floor, measured to ground. ANSI/ESD STM97.1 covers this, and it is the number ANSI/ESD S20.20 puts its limit on: less than 1.0 x 109 ohms for the person, footwear, and floor together.
The floor material on its own is characterized separately, per ANSI/ESD STM7.1. Both numbers matter, and they are not interchangeable.
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Request a SampleThe body-voltage test is the one that fails floors
Resistance says how well charge can leave. It does not say how much charge gets made in the first place. Those are different properties, and a floor can pass one and fail the other.
ANSI/ESD STM97.2 measures the second one: the peak voltage generated on a person walking across the floor in the footwear the space allows. ANSI/ESD S20.20 caps that at less than 100 volts peak, which lines up with the 100-volt human body model threshold that sensitive devices are protected against.
Two consequences follow. First, a floor has to be qualified with every type of footwear that will be worn on it, because the shoe is part of the system. Second, chasing resistance alone is not enough. A floor can measure inside the dissipative band and still generate more than 100 volts on a walker, and that floor does not qualify.
Humidity changes the answer
Static control that depends on moisture works well in summer and disappears in January. Surface-active antistats function by attracting a thin water film to the surface, and that film thins as the air dries. Resistance climbs, charge generation rises, and a floor that was compliant in testing stops being compliant in a dry building.
The test protocols account for this by conditioning the floor twice: at 12 plus or minus 3 percent relative humidity, and at 50 plus or minus 5 percent, both at 23 degrees C. The low-humidity run is the honest one. It is where a floor with a conductive path built through the material separates from a floor that is borrowing humidity to pass.
For a compounder, this is the argument for building static control into the compound rather than relying on a topical treatment. An antistat metered into the PVC compound or plastisol is present through the wear layer, so the performance does not walk off with the finish or wait on the weather.
Which standard applies to your market
Four families of documents come up, and they are not competing versions of the same thing.
ANSI/ESD S20.20 is the ESD program standard used by electronics manufacturing, defense, and aerospace in North America. It sets the system limits and points at the test methods: STM7.1 for the flooring material, STM97.1 for system resistance with a person, STM97.2 for body voltage.
ASTM F150 is the resilient-flooring test method for electrical resistance of conductive and static-dissipative flooring. It is what a flooring manufacturer's own data sheet is most likely to quote, and it stays current: the 2018 reapproval of the 2006 edition was superseded by a 2025 revision.
EN 1815 and EN 14041 are the European route. EN 1815 is the walk test that produces a body voltage for a resilient or laminate floor covering, and EN 14041 is the harmonized standard that governs the declaration, with 2 kV or less the threshold for calling a floor antistatic.
IEC 61340-4-1 and IEC 61340-4-5 cover the international electrostatics route: resistance of floor coverings and installed floors in 4-1, and the footwear-plus-flooring system in 4-5. European ESD programs typically write to these.
Buyers still ask for one document that no longer applies. NFPA 99 once required conductive flooring in hospital operating rooms, and that requirement existed because those rooms used flammable anesthetic gases where a static spark could ignite an explosion. Those anesthetics went out of use, and the requirement came out of the code in the 2015 edition. Healthcare spaces that specify static control today are generally writing to ESD or IEC standards, not to NFPA 99.
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Talk to an ExpertWhere the additive sits
A liquid antistat goes into the compound, not onto it. In flexible PVC that means metering it into the plastisol blend or the melt-compounded vinyl, where it lowers the electrical resistance of the system at low addition and stays there for the wear life of the floor.
The band an additive reaches on its own is 106 to 109 ohms, which covers antistatic and static-dissipative performance and sits at or under the 1.0 x 109 ohm ceiling S20.20 works to. That is the range PATstat 313 is built for: a cationic antistat carried in a plasticizer, supplied as a low-viscosity liquid, dosed with a pump and adjusted on the line to land on a resistance target. Conductive results at or below 106 ohms normally need a conductive filler in the compound, with the additive working alongside it.
Coatings take a different route to the same place. Where the static-control layer is a resin floor rather than a vinyl tile, the chemistry is usually built into the coating, which is covered in quaternary ammonium compounds in ESD flooring. If you compound flexible PVC, the same warehouse also stocks the plasticizers and the calcium stearate that sit in the rest of the formulation.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between static-dissipative and conductive flooring?
Resistance, and therefore how fast charge reaches ground. Conductive flooring measures at or below 1.0 x 106 ohms to ground. Static-dissipative flooring measures above 1.0 x 106 ohms and below 1.0 x 109 ohms. Dissipative is the usual choice for electronics because it drains charge without giving a person a low-impedance path to ground.
What resistance does ANSI/ESD S20.20 require for flooring?
It puts the limit on the system, not the tile. The person, footwear, and floor together must measure less than 1.0 x 109 ohms to ground per ANSI/ESD STM97.1, and the same combination must generate less than 100 volts peak per ANSI/ESD STM97.2. The floor material is characterized separately per ANSI/ESD STM7.1.
Why does an ESD floor pass at 50 percent humidity and fail at 12 percent?
Because some static control depends on moisture. Surface-active antistats draw a thin water layer to the surface, and it thins as the air dries, so resistance climbs and charge generation rises. Qualification is run at both 12 plus or minus 3 percent and 50 plus or minus 5 percent relative humidity at 23 degrees C, and the dry run is the one that separates a built-in path from a borrowed one.
Is NFPA 99 still the standard for conductive flooring in hospitals?
No. That requirement was written for operating rooms using flammable anesthetic gases and was dropped from the 2015 edition onward once those anesthetics went out of use. Healthcare spaces specifying static control today generally write to ESD or IEC electrostatic standards.
Can an antistatic additive alone reach conductive flooring levels?
Usually not. A liquid antistat metered into a PVC compound or plastisol typically brings the system into the 106 to 109 ohm band. A conductive result at or below 1.0 x 106 ohms normally needs a conductive filler such as carbon, with the additive used alongside it.
Building a static-control floor?
Send the polymer, the plasticizer you build on, the process, and the standard your customer writes to. We will confirm what the additive reaches on its own, recommend a starting dose, and ship a sample.
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