Question about subfloor prep after a chat with an old pro

I was installing LVP in a house in Phoenix last week and an older guy walked me through how he checks moisture in concrete slabs. He said most new installers skip the calcium chloride test and just pray it works. Has anyone else gone back to doing more prep after talking to someone with 30 years in?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles94628d ago

Parker_thomas, I feel your pain on that cupping job. Makes you realize the old timers weren't just being paranoid.

parkerp8028d ago

But man I learned that lesson the hard way too, now I test every slab because my gut feel is usually wrong about what I ate for lunch let alone concrete moisture. That old guy probably saved me from torching another job where the LVP turns into a wavy mess three months in. Took a few failures to realize the calcium chloride test is cheaper than ripping up a whole floor and starting over.

parker_thomas28d ago

Stopped doing moisture tests for a while myself, just relied on gut feel. Then a slab I laid LVP on started cupping a few months later, so now I always toss a calcium chloride kit on it no matter how dry it looks. Saved my butt on two jobs since then.