Page 1 - 2019-03-CFR Volume 126 - How Commercial Flooring Projects Have Changed - March 2019
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No longer are commercial flooring contractors expected to just install carpet
and hard surface flooring materials of all types. Today they are expected to
be experts in concrete, moisture, mitigation, adhesive and prep material
and any other type of flooring or substrate related issue. Flooring contrac-
tors now install every type of flooring material there is, from broadloom car-
pet and carpet tile to hard surface vinyl, rubber, ceramic and stone as well
as polished and stained concrete. In addition, they must be aware of and
be able to install a multitude of substrate preparation systems and know
about every flooring material and flooring related product being offered by
manufacturers. They are literally inundated with new materials, products
and information on a daily basis being offered by manufacturers of all
kinds, many of whom know very little about the products themselves.
There are very few flooring manufacturers who have their own technical and field services people and far
fewer yet who know anything about chemistry or physics. The sales and pseudo marketing people
would rather not have any technical people involved
when they come up with new products. Rather, they
want the sales staff to present what they have to sell.
Everyday the next, “best thing since sliced bread” prod-
uct is perpetrated on the flooring community and when
there’s a failure of the new wonder products or materi-
als it gets blamed on everything but the product or ma-
terial itself. And the warranties, whatever they offer in
the first paragraph they take away in those that follow. LVP EDGE LIFT
Most are as worthless as the words used to write them.
Why is it the flooring contractors’ fault when something fails when what they did had no influence on the
failure, which by the way is always provable by science. You remember what that is right? The short
and simple definition of science is “a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the op-
eration of general laws such as biology, physics and chemistry all of it based on evidence” In other
words, the reality of things. This would not be the thought of what’s real, by people who know nothing
about the science of the products and then try to argue that installation caused the problem or, I shudder
saying this, that “the building moved which is why the flooring is reacting.” The next time I hear someone
use that as an excuse I’m going to have to use some Sicilian rectification to enlighten their sorry self.
This can be compared to a guy selling bullets trying to tell the military how to win a war. Simply ludi-
crous. And it’s not the only senseless statement made to justify a flooring installation or material failure
that has no basis in fact.
1 Commercial Flooring Report March 2019
