NFCA The gap between Divisions 3 and 9
An unresolved issue For many years, the same old scenario has repeated. The floor covering installer and general contractor butt heads over who will correct the concrete slab prior to floor covering installation. Over and over, we hear the same thing: “It’s the floor guy’s job to prepare his surface (sub-floor) and you should have included it in your price.” One of the pressure points is that there is often no money set aside for this extra work. So in order for the floor covering contractor to keep his customer happy, get paid on time, save the working relationship and land the next project, the installer will agree to do the work at cost, cutting corners to save money, over-watering product Chris Maskell to make one bag do the work of two, NFCA c.e.o. and so on. So, what’s the solution? Well, it starts at the top in the written spec, and hinges on making it a win-win for all parties that have a vested interest — architect, general contractor, flooring contractor, hydraulic cement underlayment company, flooring manufacturer and client.
Solutions and silo-smashing It is for this reason that NFCA recently formed the HCU (Hydraulic Cement Underlayment) Committee with a mandate to find a solution to a decades-old problem that has cost untold billions. We believe the answer lies in developing a specification that is win-win for every-
one, that can be effectively disseminated to, and gain traction within, the construction industry. To do this, we brought together a cross-section of the industry…a group of related trades, all experts in their field, who in some way deal with concrete slabs on a weekly basis. We agreed that this is not about fixing it all, because that’s not possible. But it is about creating a long term, cross-industry solution that takes into consideration each party’s specific challenges so that everyone can get behind it. Construction is massive. Committees are small. Getting the word out has always been a roadblock. But today we have the means to quickly and simultaneously connect people, companies and industries to good information, thereby breaking down the silos that separate us.
Flatness and levelness — something missing in the middle Understanding the problem raised the issue of subfloor surface flatness and levelness measurement techniques, their timing in the process and shortcomings. This raised a lot of questions. What is really being measured and why? By who? Who delivers the results? Which trade is any one process actually serving? What impact does it have on other connected trades such as floor coverings? Why the floor covering contractor rejects the slab? What happens when a slab is rejected? Are available measurement standards being used or followed? And so-what if they are? Pouring a slab that meets the specified tolerance in January and expecting that same slab to meet the same tolerance in August when flooring is scheduled is a “fail” waiting to happen. Yet this is what construction does. There are standards that
HCU Committee participants include Monica Baillie of Landmark Architecture; Matt Dalkie, Lafarge; Don Styka, Tarkett; Kathleen Kompauer of KDR Engineering; David Sherley with Custom Building Products; Rob Visscher of Atmosphere Floors; Michael Pereira, EllisDon; Kelvin Klapak of Yellowridge Construction; David Randall, Mapei and Diana Klingner with Canadian National Trades. 22
March/April 2020
