The Tramex Flooring Installation Quick Check

The Tramex Flooring Installation Quick Check video guide

This video guide describes and explains the Tramex Installation Quick Check concrete moisture test using the Tramex Concrete Moisture Encounter CMEX5 and an infrared surface thermometer.
 
When installing a floor covering on concrete floors and slabs, performing this rapid and effective moisture assessment during installation can help prevent floor failure.  Ambient conditions at the time of install can affect the slab's surface and this can negatively impact the installation of a floor covering.

The Installation Quick Check steps:

1. Take reading of ambient conditions in the room and pay attention to ambient temperature, ambient relative humidity and dew point conditions.
2. Check the surface temperature of the slab. Ensure that the surface temperature is at least 10℉ (5℃) higher than the dew point (noted in step 1). A surface temperature that is less than 10℉ (5℃) higher than the dew point may indicate condensation issues. If there is a dew point issue, watch this video How to correct a dew point issue on concrete.
3. A non destructive concrete moisture test measures the moisture content percentage in the top layer of the concrete slab.

This video provides practical, easy-to-follow steps to obtain accurate readings, help understand the reading results, meet industry standards and ensure successful floor installations.

There are two kits options available for performing the Flooring Installation Quick Check Test:

• Installation Quick Check Kit
• Installation Quick Check Plus Kit

 

Video Transcript:

Hi, I'm David from Tramex Meters and today we're going to talk about the installation quick check for concrete moisture.

Even if pre-installation concrete moisture testing has been performed, conditions can change that will affect your installation of flooring or coatings.

By implementing this easy installation quick check you can prevent failures before they happen.

So, the first data point we're going to collect is the ambient conditions. The nice thing about the CMEX5, it has a built-in hygrometer, which is always listing the ambient conditions across the bottom and we're going to focus more, right now, on the dew point.

So, the dew point is 58°F in the air here for the ambient conditions, and then we're going to scan the surface temperature of the slab, and we're at 76°F.

So, we just want to make sure that the surface temperature of the slab is at least 10 degrees Fahrenheit above the dew point. If you happen to be working in Celsius you're going to keep that number at five °C, but here we have the meter set at Fahrenheit. There is an internal setting where you can switch to Celsius. We're working with a Fahrenheit number and we've made sure that we're at least 10°F above the ambient dew point with the surface temperature of the slab.

Now, the last step to perform, in the installation quick check, is to take a reading with the Concrete Moisture Encounter on the surface of the slab. The nice thing about the Concrete Moisture Encounters is that they're reading three-quarters into the depth of the slab and giving an actual quantitative percentage of moisture content reading.

So, when we take the surface reading, we want to make sure that we have a clean area. So, we've abraded this a little bit and gotten any residue off the surface of the slab and avoiding any paint or drywall mud. We're just going to press the meter on the surface and get a reading and, in each place, we take a reading. We want to go around the horn as we say, so we're going to do one at 12 o'clock, we're gonna take another reading at three o'clock, we'll take another one at six o'clock, nine o'clock, back to 12 o'clock, and then we're gonna take the highest number. So, my highest number was four percent in this area. So, we'll note the four percent number.

Industry professionals generally recommend a number of 4%MC percent for floor coverings and 3.5%MC for concrete coatings. When taking surface readings you want to make sure you take at least eight readings in the first thousand square feet, and five readings in each additional thousand square feet thereafter.

Industry standards say that if no pre-installation moisture testing was performed, and flooring or coating encounters a failure due to moisture after install, the responsibility falls on the installer.

Tramex recommends our Installation Quick Check as a way to protect yourself against any moisture-related claims after your installation.

There are two kit options that can be used to perform the Installation Quick Check for Concrete, the first, which I was using, includes the CMEX5 digital Concrete Moisture Encounter with an Infrared Thermometer, this is the Installation Quick Check Plus Kit - IQCPK. The second kit includes our analog CME5 Concrete Moisture Encounter with Infrared Dew Point Scan Thermometer this is the Installation Quick Check Kit - IQCK. Both come in a convenient carry case and are equipped with Bluetooth to connect to our Tramex Meters App.

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