I remember not long ago where a church had decided to install a new high performance terrazzo flooring product in their basement meeting hall. The original VAT (yes, it was original 9 x 9 asbestos tile and cost the church an arm and a leg to remove) had been installed in the late ‘60’s and performed flawlessly for what…. 30 plus years. They had dances and parties and church services and breakfasts and meetings almost every day for decades and this floor NEVER caused them a problem.

Well the flooring contractor arrives after demolition and abatement, and after making his layout lines and a few tests on the concrete, begins his installation. After a few bags of patching compound to cover some black marks from the adhesive (get an idea yet of the problems coming??) he spreads the new latex adhesive and begins installation of the new hi-tech floor. The installation is pretty sharp, good cuts, tight seams and joints and they even applied a high quality floor polish to shine it up nicely.

Within 2 weeks the floor has extreme problems with it, ranging from discoloration in the new tile to adhesive ooze to blistering of the new tile. Examination revealed the culprit(s): 

The old cutback (black asphalt) adhesive was never removed sufficiently, even though the abatement removal team had sprayed an “asbestos encapsulant” sealer on the floor.   The cutback adhesive released from itself in areas and brought the “encapsulant”, the patch, the new adhesive and the new floor tile with it. The black adhesive also transmitted through to the new flooring product, showing distinct blotches and cross hatch lines where the old VAT had originally been installed.

The next most noticeable (and by far the most revealing problem with this job) was the new adhesive had emulsified (liquefied and lost adhesion) and adhesive was literally coming up through the tile joints everywhere.   Combined with the residual black adhesive, the patching product being compromised and the now gooey-glue, it all formed to make one terrible mess.

When the testing guys arrived and began their assessment, it became strikingly clear that the basement concrete (did I say basement earlier?) had a severe moisture emissions problem. Testing indicated levels ranging between 11lbs/1000 square feet/24hours (Calcium chloride test) to almost 20 lbs in one area. This severe moisture was surely the cause of the failure correct???? 

Yes….and……no.

YES, because it was the physical force of moisture movement that acted in a completely expected way and did exactly what moisture will do in these situations. You see, the moisture was in that concrete since the church was built, it was there during construction, it was there during installation of the flooring and it was there for 30 years, unnoticed, without causing a single problem to the flooring. Why, because the installed flooring was capable of breathing, of releasing the moisture emissions, of allowing the floor to “vent” without blocking the concrete moisture in. Once removed and covered with the new high performance “non breathable” flooring, the dynamics changed, the equilibrium changed, the moisture was trapped, dissolving alkaline salts inherent in the concrete and allowing this trapped moisture and alkalinity to attack the new adhesives. This was most definitely the cause of the failure…..and

NO, while moisture was the cause of the failure, it was not the underlying “fault”. That, my friends rested with the flooring contractor, who failed on so many levels to follow the manufacturer’s installation criteria. He did not address the room as a whole, taking note of the two installed sump pumps in opposite corners of the room. He did not take into consideration the placement and requirements for a large dehumidifier unit installed (as a church elder later shared, “because this room was always kind of musty”, nor did the contractor address a thorough and complete removal of the residual cutback adhesive, providing a suitable and sound surface for installation of the new floor. The flooring contractor ran one (1) type of test, using a pin-type electronic probe to test if the concrete was dry. He did not run the required calcium chloride tests and he did not even run a plastic mat test. All indications to him were that this floor was dry, clean, abated and ready to install patch and flooring products. The resulting failure cost the flooring contractor tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue, time, manpower, and more importantly credibility and reputation. 

Had he run even the simplest of tests as required by the flooring manufacturer, this installation would have been halted prior to ANY work being done by the flooring contractor. Testing would have indicated the extreme degrees of moisture present in the basement concrete and would have allowed discussion and options regarding installation. An informed customer makes better decisions and will appreciate your involvement and taking the time to explain these things to them, so they will NOT have a failure down the road. Pre-installation testing would have revealed a problem, the problem could have been dealt with then and there and alternatives investigated. But the flooring contractor proceeded on, and paid the price many times over. The church ended up using a stained concrete overlay and I might add it was quite gorgeous, and of course, all courtesy of a flooring contractor who failed to run moisture tests prior to installation of the originally specified product.

In wrapping up this rather lengthy posting, I cannot stress enough folks, TEST THE CONCRETE, use the appropriate methods, run the calcium chloride test, run the new humidity probe as required, confer with the GC or owner, document the results, log the data within your records and by all means; make certain the flooring to be installed is capable of being installed within those test results. If your moisture levels are too high for installation of your floor covering materials, call us here @ Arizona Polymer Flooring. We have the products, the technology and the expertise to solve your concrete moisture issues and allow installation of your client’s flooring materials. 

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