We just finished the most rewarding seminar we've ever conducted, "The Concrete Moisture and Substrate Seminar -Flooring Failures on Concrete Slabs," to rave reviews. This is the only class of its kind and the only one ever conducted on this subject. Peter Craig of Concrete Constructives and Kelly Mortensen of Full Spectrum Flooring Technology -two of the top three experts in this field -taught the program. The other instructors were Sim Crisler and Benny Wood with LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services.

I am sharing this program in my column because moisture in substrates is the most costly cause of flooring failures in the industry generating massive amounts of losses for all parties involved. It is common for floor covering installation failures due to moisture in concrete to exceed six figures. In a residential installation the losses can be thousands of dollars. Moisture in concrete affects all floor covering- carpet, vinyl, wood, ceramic and laminate. The best way to stop it is with a polypropylene sheet moisture retarder placed just beneath the concrete. If there is no barrier or a flimsy one, there can and will ultimately be a reaction in the form of a floor covering problem.

This program covered the material beneath the concrete and the conditions, the concrete itself, lightweight concrete, retarder materials, moisture vapor emission, alkalinity and surface treatments. Reactions of flooring materials were shown and discussed as well as the influence of internal environmental conditions inside a facility and the effects of the HVAC system (heating ventilating and air conditioning).

Some "how to" lessons on various forms of testing equipment were covered, as was the Calcium Chloride and Relative Humidity test. Adhesives and the effect moisture and alkalinity have on PVC backings and plasticizer was also discussed.

The most compelling reason to attend this program is that ultimately and inevitably you are going to be faced with an installation failure of flooring material you supply or install, and you will be blindsided by the most astronomical expenses you will ever encounter from a claim.

This is a seminar that flooring dealers and contractors, flooring manufacturers, general contractors, architects and specifiers, insurance companies and major end users must attend.

Let me just share with you a couple of the claims that came in last week for substrate moisture issues. One for welded seam sheet vinyl flooring installed over existing VCT tile, which had been down for years without problem, but the sheet vinyl lifted off the floor. The cause: moisture in the slab. The VCT allowed moisture to migrate out at the seams of the tiles, but once covered with sheet vinyl the moisture was trapped and a failure occurred. Another case- a sheet vinyl flooring material had mold growing under it from moisture in the slab necessitating not only replacing the floor and remediating the concrete but also dealing with getting rid of the mold and the paranoia that goes with it.

We are having another of these seminars in February. Make sure you're there. This will keep you from suffering the most catastrophic monetary losses from a claim that you will ever experience in the floor covering business.