Page 2 - 2019-03-CFR Volume 126 - How Commercial Flooring Projects Have Changed - March 2019

Flooring contractors today are faced with unique situations on almost
every flooring project they encounter. From old substrates, that had
flooring material successfully installed on them, being replaced by new
materials that react and behave completely differently than what was
down and having to know, or hope to know, how the new material will
react and not having it fail. To installing new materials that have com-
promising inherent or hidden characteristics that don’t manifest them- The experts at LGM
selves until some time after being installed. Or being told that no third
party expert can tell you what’s wrong with our product because it specialize in consultation, cor-
doesn’t fit into a category of flooring; it’s unique unto itself and only we, rection and resolution for floor-
the manufacturer, know about it. Let that one sink it. This means no ing complaints, claims, installa-
matter what anyone else thinks or knows and the science to prove it, tion and performance issues.
has no bearing on your defense because we’re all idiots but them. Uh,
hate to break it to you boys, but you’re a bit confused on this one and, No issue is too big, too small or
by the way, the law will back this up as well. But nice try for coming up too far away for us to handle.
with an “original” argument otherwise technically described by the term
BS. But, I digress, sorry, I’m letting emotion get in the way of logic so All ads are interactive. Just click
let me go back to the facts. Had to reel myself back in there. on the ad to enter their website.

So, as we were saying, the flooring contractor has to be an expert in We are now posting the
all areas flooring, from what the flooring material goes on and what
might be beneath it and what the flooring is that’s being installed. CFR on LinkedIn. Just click
Plus, the floor prep materials, adhesives, primers and whatever else the image below or search
there is related to the flooring. This was not the case not so long ago. under Lew Migliore and
It seems like the more things change, the more the flooring contractor
has to know and, you know what, they just can’t be expected to nor let’s connect!!
are they responsible for having to know all the information or the an-
swers and shouldn’t be expected to.

Flooring contractors are not experts in, nor should they be expected to
be, experts in concrete. They don’t make it, pour it, finish it or have
anything to do with the process. They should be provided with a con-
crete substrate material and finish on which they can successfully in-
stall the flooring material, that will adhere to the substrate and not be
compromised by anything in it, or on it, that will cause their installation
to fail. If there is a failure of the installation by a condition related to
the concrete, that’s the people responsible for the concretes problem,
not the flooring contractor. Testing for moisture in the concrete is not
the responsibility of the flooring contractors either, as there are spe-
cialists trained to do this who should be responsible for it. And, if after
all is said and done there is a moisture issue, just because the con-
crete was tested, doesn’t mean there wasn’t going to be a moisture
related flooring installation failure. There’s that pesky science thing
again; no escaping that. And, it’s not just concrete and moisture that
has to be a concern but a host of chemicals that are put in concrete
that can be deal breakers.

Page Layout By: Anita S. Drennon

2 Commercial Flooring Report March 2019