We have developed a new demographic in our client pool. Floor covering contractors have ask us to look significant installations prior to the beginning of work on carpet, wood flooring, rubber flooring dimensional stone, linoleum, cork, sheet vinyl, vinyl tile, ceramic tile and other flooring treatment installations. We have been asked to interface with the construction management team and present explanations for anomalous site conditions and prepare installation protocols that are not covered by boilerplate.

Moisture vapor emissions have been the primary cause of failure in , wood flooring, rubber flooring, linoleum, sheet vinyl, vinyl tile, cork flooring, and all other materials.

As an expert in the floors, I have been asked to identify and test for moisture in sub-floors of all types. This new standard will bring a new awareness to the potential damage caused moisture. The construction industry cannot take short-cuts, a technician schooled in the performance of F-2170 must be used. The installation contractor must be present when these test probes are read.

It will be interesting to see how the new standard is implemented by of the other materials manufacturers, such as vapor barriers, and adhesives, and vinyl.

You think it’s easy to choose a floor expert, well it’s not! There are no college degrees in Flooring. The expertise is garnered over years. Niles Bore said, “An expert is someone who has made every conceivable mistake in a given field”

Designers, Specifiers, Contractors, and Lawyers make the mistake of accepting a person as an expert without fully understanding the breath of knowledge and experience needed to fully “know” floors. The expert in the Forensic Science of floors most not only know how the materials work, and acceptable industry standards for “Tradecraft”, that person must also be trained in the gathering and organizing evidence for a court. In most cases, being a flooring contractor or a materials sales representative does not qualify a person as an expert. I have sat in several depositions where a contractor or materials technician was asked a question and the objection is “the answer calls for an expert opinion”.

When looking at the qualifications of an expert in vinyl flooring, rubber flooring, wood flooring, ceramic tile, dimensional stone, slip resistance, you must also look at the experts experience in working with hotel flooring, restaurant flooring, hospital flooring, retail store flooring, institutional flooring, and transportation flooring.

The best step is to look at the individuals client list, look case involvement list. Seek referrals. Look at industry associations, and involvements in the science of floors.

The standard for safe slip resistance, whether it be for vinyl flooring, rubber flooring, wood flooring, ceramic tile or dimensional stone, are published by OSHA, ANSII, ASTMI, and The American With Disabilities Act.

As a floor safety expert (Member ASTM F-13 Committee, passageway safety), we focus on the materials used for flooring, and how they provide a safe environment for public use. Flooring used in, Hotels, Restaurants, Hospitals, Retail Stores, and Schools, have special requirements.

We get involved in slip & fall cases where the appropriateness of the floor covering is questioned. The issue revolves around the safety of the floor based on the Static Coefficient of Friction (SCOF, the amount of drag created when a shoe sole interfaces the floor). The products involved include vinyl flooring, ceramic tile, wood, stone, rubber flooring, epoxy coating, and polished concrete.

Floor covering materials are tested in a laboratory, using the James Machine, to identify the SCOF prior to sales. Polished concrete is a field application, and laboratory testing cannot be performed.

OSHA, and ANSI identify slip resistance of 0.5 as being safe.

The damage to the floor will depend on the materials used. A resilient floor (rubber or vinyl) can wear excessively, and if it is a tile the seams will not line up.

The effect on a wood floor will depend on whether it is a glue-down or nail-down installation. In a nail-down you can have excessive flex, manifested as squeaking, or bouncing under foot. In a glue-down installation, the boards can de-bond and loosen (more likely in engineered wood than solid wood).

The floor-covering contractor is told to evaluate the site condition prior to the installation of any flooring, and prepare a plan to flatten the sub-floor, whether it be Hardwood, Sheet Vinyl, Vinyl Tile, Linoleum, Cork, Rubber, or Carpet.

Key: Hardwood, engineered wood, solid wood, Sheet Vinyl, Vinyl Tile, Linoleum, Cork flooring, Rubber flooring, Carpet, flatness, level.

How does this happen? Complete cleaning, using detergent, and water takes place after store hours. Does this mean the floor is safe when the store opens?

Not necessarily.

Many detergents leave a viscose residue on the floor, even after rinsing.  There are daily cleaning processes that change the floor surface conditions. There are environmental influences that can contaminate the floor surface. We take samples of the surface, and we analyze it. We have testimony from Wal-Mart employees that identify procedures that can make a floor unsafe.

Remember, the exclusive use of a slip meter for the evaluation of a safe floor is no longer scientifically sound.

Two words are used interchangeably, level and flatness. The American Institute of Architecture, and most materials manufacturers specify the amount of difference off of plane that is acceptable for their product. But this doesn’t account for undulations common in concrete.

An acceptable tolerance of 3/16 inch in 10 feet does not leave a lot of room. When a sub-floor slopes down ¼ inch in 2 feet and then up a gain, this represents a slope of 1-1/4 inch in 10 feet, a violation of the standard.