Page 3 - 2017-06-CFR Volume 105 - Update - What to Include in a Flooring Specification - June 2017

Consider first the products being specified for
use on a project:

Relative to the product specified for the project and
application; it is the responsibility of the specifier to
determine the suitability of the flooring material for
the intended use. Don’t just take someone’s word
for it. Research the products yourself, objectively.
This may mean having the flooring products being
considered for use independently tested prior to be-
ing specified and having the test results evaluated by
an informed, objective third party. Regardless of
what the product is represented to be able to do or
its capability of performance, it should still be deter-
mined whether or not it will actually live up to the ex-
pectations of the end user. It’s better to find out if
changes need to be made at this stage of the project
than after the flooring is installed and being used.
Remember too, that for carpet you can tell the manu-
facturer what you want the flooring product to do
(this is called a performance spec) but not how you
want them to do it (this is called a construction spec).
There is always a product available that will perform
exactly how you expect it to, even if you have to find
another manufacturer. Include in this aspect of the
spec the ancillary products as well such as adhe-
sives, floor prep materials, cushion and substrate
treatments and mitigating processes.

Let me go back and describe the two specs stated in
the parenthesis above. A carpet performance spec
tells a manufacturer the type of product you want
and how and where it is going to be used. This way
they can represent the appropriate product best suit-
ed for the application. These products can be select-
ed from the manufacturers running line. You can
make minor changes to them to “customize” them for
the specific application such as dialing up or down
the pile height, altering the stitch rate a bit, or altering
the color shades – taking the bright yellow for exam-
ple and making it more of a brown shade. If you tell
them how to build or make the car-
pet, this is a construction spec which
means that you want the product
made exactly to a specific construc-
tion. For example you can say you
want a product that is tufted on a
10th gauge machine (10 needles
per inch acrossed the width), 12
stitches per inch, a density of 6800,
with a trilobal nylon fiber and a tuft
bind of 20 pounds.

3 Commercial Flooring Report June 2017