Fuse Alliance is a partnership of professional commercial flooring contractors. The organization publishes a popular CEU that helps commercial contractors resolve moisture problems within flooring installations, The course is recommended by the Interior Design Continuing Education Council and has been renewed for 2019.
The course includes sections on different types of flooring and the moisture issues that can occur for each type. Ultimately, the course helps to identify the problems leading to flooring failure due to excess moisture, how to remediate flooring moisture issues and how to effectively carry out moisture testing.
Below are some of the most common moisture problems to occur in different types of flooring surfaces. The guide can help flooring contractors overcome many of these issues.
Wood
- Warping can occur when wood starts to absorb moisture.
- Discoloration can occur with excess moisture in hardwood flooring.
- Persistent water condensation occurs when water droplets appear on the surface due to excess moisture in the board.
Concrete
- Pop-outs are caused by the expansion of moisture close to the surface of concrete.
- Spalling occurs when moisture in the concrete freezes at low temperatures. Small chips can separate from the rest of the floor.
Ceramic
- Loose tiles occur when excess moisture in the subfloor causes the adhesive thinset to fail.
- Odors are caused by moisture contributing to the growth of mold on the floor.
Moisture issues in commercial flooring are one of the biggest challenges the industry faces. These possible problems have become even more challenging the past few years as the industry has been moving towards hard surface products more sensitive to subfloor moisture than soft surface products. There has never been another time where more new product and product types are being introduced in the flooring sector, resulting in professional flooring contractors facing new challenges.
For these reasons it is important to work with a highly professional flooring contractor who keeps up to date with the best practices and has knowledge of all of the latest flooring products.