This bulletin is issued to highlight that those involved in concrete placement need to consider the long-term requirements of concrete floors being constructed.
At many construction sites, concrete finishers are achieving burnished, hard, power-trowelled concrete floor slabs for areas where floor coverings are to be installed at a later date, and then having to ‘diamond grind’ the concrete to make the surface suitable for the installation of floor coverings.
It is important that either the concrete layers are made aware of the need to achieve a finish that is suitable for the installation of floor coverings, or there is a value allowance to prepare the concrete floor to produce an absorbent surface. Burnished finish concrete floor slabs are typically so hard, progress sanding alone is not sufficient to produce an adequate surface, and diamond grinding will be required to achieve the necessary surface profile and absorbency. Many floor installers in the industry do not consider on large commercial sites that progress sanding is sufficient to prepare concrete floors, as this process does not remove gib-stopping residues or construction debris.