FLOORING FAILURES: Contractors shouldn't be scapegoats By Don Procter Special to the Canadian Design and Construction Report When a floor fails in a new building, virtually every head in the project team turns to the flooring contractor for an- swers. Often blamed for problems that can cost 10 times as much to remedy as the original installation price, flooring contractors face bad raps for failures that aren’t always their fault. This is according to John McGrath who led a panel at a seminar at Toronto’s IIDEX Canada (design and architec- ture expo and conference) recently titled Flooring Disaster: Prevention and Recovery. Flooring contractors can’t be scapegoats every time a floor fails, he said. McGrath -- director of INSTALL (International Standards & Training Alliance) – the leading construction industry en- dorsed floor covering installation and training certification program in North America – told the seminar that due dili- gence has to start higher up the contractor chain. The cause of flooring problems is often related to the condition of the substrate. And it can be in poor shape long before the flooring contractor’s arrival on site, said panelist 4 – Winter 2015 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report Steve Zizek, flooring instructor, Resilient Floor Workers Training Trust Fund, Carpenters Local 27. General contractors and other subcontractors must un- derstand that some of their activities can cause substrate problems for flooring installers, ranging from improperly leveled concrete floors to moisture intrusion in the slab. “It is the best insurance policy to protect everyone involved,” said McGrath, who regularly conducts seminars on flooring issues for architects, interior designers, building owners and facility managers on behalf of INSTALL. Flooring contractors are one of the last trades on site – oft-times facing a tight schedule and a substrate that some- times is ill-prepared for flooring, said panel speaker Dave Furlano, owner, Centa Tile, a second generation floorcover- ing company in business for more than 40 years. “Often we’ve got issues of oil spillage on floors (typically oil from hydraulic lifts on site) and we’re told it is our prob- lem.” Oil stains are nearly impossible to clean and today’s flooring contains latex adhesives which won’t adhere to pe- troleum products, Furlano told the seminar audience. The solution? Sometimes the concrete slab has to be ground down and topped with a self-leveling concrete.