How to Avoid Value-Engineering the Quality Out of Your Building's Floor

When value engineering first came into play in the mid-twentieth century, the intention was to find ways to lower the cost of products, goods, and services while preserving quality as much as possible. Nowadays, though, many people have lost sight of what value engineering is meant to be and view it as a mere cost-cutting exercise with little regard for performance and functionality. Flooring is an area that often takes a hit during value engineering, oftentimes because of misguided perceptions about flooring selection, preparation, and installation. This usually results in a loss of quality, poor performance, premature failure, high repair or replacement costs, loss of productivity, and buyer’s remorse.

One very common occurrence in construction projects that can lead to flooring problems is poor concrete slab preparation. Flooring installation is typically scheduled months in advance and usually happens in the late stages of a project. Because other trades must vacate the space, putting a temporary halt to their work, flooring installation is often rushed against the best advice of flooring manufacturers and contractors. This means that floors are often installed over concrete slabs that contain too much moisture or haven’t been properly acclimated to an environment where the HVAC system has just been started. Compounding this problem is that the quality of the flooring materials has previously been reduced during value engineering, making the floors all the more likely to fail.

When flooring is installed over concrete that contains too much moisture, and/or lower-quality materials have been selected, problems that building owners may face after their project has been completed include excessive wear, premature failure, mold and bacteria growth, odors, adhesive failure, delamination, cracking, bubbling, peeling, discoloration, slippery surfaces, and deterioration of the concrete slab. Repairing and replacing failed flooring can be very costly and extremely disruptive to business when workers are forced to vacate the affected space.

The fact is, many renovation and construction projects fall into this trap, and some issues are hard to control once work is in motion. Tight schedules and tight budgets are the way of the world, and hard choices have to be made during the course of a project. As a specialty flooring contractor, our message is to drive home the fact that flooring material selection is much more important (and more complicated) than some might think, and allowing an experienced flooring installer sufficient time for concrete slab preparation and moisture mitigation is absolutely crucial to the ultimate success or failure of a floor.