Posts Tagged ‘moisture’
“Preparing Slabs: Making Informed Decisions Can Pay Significant Dividends”
“Flooring, by its very nature, is one of the last elements of a construction project to be addressed. As a result, budget dollars and time are often both in short supply when the flooring installation process is about to begin. This budget and time crunch often leads to ill-informed decisions—and short-term solutions that create long-term…
Read More“Flooring Installation Troubleshooting: Problems, Causes and Cures”
“Installation is a complicated process with loads of instructions and lots of steps. Occasionally floors may fail due to an unforeseen issue, but most of the time it’s the result of human error, either through missing a step in the installation instructions (such as forgetting to prep the subfloor) or through plain old application mistakes.…
Read More“What Problems Does Moisture Create”
“All natural systems tend towards equilibrium. A hot cup of coffee transfers heat to the air in the room until they are both at the same temperature (this is related to entropy and the second law of thermodynamics). In chemistry, higher concentrations of a chemical move towards areas of lower concentration (known as Le Chatelier’s…
Read More“Mix Design Fundamentals: Considerations for concrete for slabs-on-ground”
“Concrete cracks and nothing can be done about it” is a common refrain when the material cracks unexpectedly. However, it is too often an excuse when poor design or improper placement has resulted in excessive random cracking. The real problem is too much mix design water, a lack of welded wire reinforcement, insufficient aggregate, or…
Read More“Successful LVT installation: Flooring Forensics-Mar 2014”
Luxury vinyl tile, or LVT, is one of the fastest growing hard surface flooring materials on the market today. Everyone making hard surface flooring, and even manufacturers who aren’t, want to jump on the bandwagon of LVT’s popularity. What drives manufacturers’ desire to enter this product category? First is its versatility from a styling perspective.…
Read MoreMoisture Levels: Do Not Trust, Verify
“For the installation of vinyl-backed sheet products, manufacturers recommend the moisture levels to be at 80% as required by the ASTM F2170-02 “Standard Test Method for Determining Relative Humidity in Concrete Floor Slabs using the in situ Probes.” The ability to achieve these numbers is becoming more difficult to obtain. There are several factors that…
Read More“Relative Humidity Testing for Concrete: ASTM F2170 Becoming the Preferred Method”
“Why do testing?  The simplest reason why is to follow the industry standard: ASTM F710, Standard Practice for Preparing Concrete Floors to Receive Resilient Flooring. The language in the standard is very simple, and uses legal terms like “all,” “shall” and “regardless” that don’t allow for any wiggle room. “All concrete slabs shall be tested for…
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