Page 3 - 2019-03-CFR Volume 126 - How Commercial Flooring Projects Have Changed - March 2019
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Other substrates also offer challenges like plywood.
This stuff can contain a host of chemicals or be treat-
ed with them that
can cause an in-
stallation to fail.
And now another
issue is taking
hold and that’s
the threat of mold
forming under the
flooring. Think
about this for a
minute. With
more flooring ma-
terial being float- WOOD TO PLYWOOD
ed on substrates, PEELED OFF EASILY
more incubators
are being built into the installation that provide a petri
dish for mold and mildew to form beneath the floor-
ing. Who owns that problem? Is it the flooring con-
tractor, the specifier, the flooring manufacturer, build-
ing owner, GC or architect? Someone’s going to get
dinged for this and guess what, the low hanging fruit
in this contest is, you guessed it, the flooring contrac-
tor.
Flooring contractors have to deal with every conceiv-
able issue that can make or break a successful floor- LGM and ASSOCIATES
ing installation. And if a flooring material fails, which
will inevitably happen from time to time, they don’t
make the flooring and may not have had any influ-
ence in what was specified for a project. Flooring BEFORE YOU START YOUR NEXT PROJECT
failures today are like playing Russian Roulette. You
never know when the chamber is going to come up CONTACT US FOR GUIDANCE ON SELECTING THE APPROPRIATE
loaded but believe me, it does for somebody every FLOORING MATERIAL AND SUBSTRATE SPECIFICATIONS SO WE
day, unfortunately. CAN HELP KEEP YOU OUT OF TROUBLE.
Flooring contractors actually know more about floor-
ing than the people making and selling it to them in
that they know what works where from experience
and what they’ve used in the past to combat chal-
lenges in installation. They know what adhesives
have worked successfully on projects where they
face similar conditions. They know what manufactur-
ers’ products perform well and those that don’t. In
short, they know what they can trust to work on any
given project. And further to change, most of the
flooring contractors today belong to groups where
they share information between and amongst them-
selves. From these associations they have a wealth
of knowledge and experience to access.
3 Commercial Flooring Report March 2019