New Construction and Flooring

by | Dec 17, 2018 | Polished Concrete, Polished Concrete Floors

Constructing a new building is a massive undertaking. To even begin, you need to be sure you’re complying with zoning laws, buy the land, secure funding, find contractors and confirm their reliability, as well as the reliability of their subcontractors, make sure everyone is bonded, licensed and insured. You need to make sure the specifications of the building are suitable to it’s intended occupancy, and that the exterior is aesthetically pleasing if you want to stand out in your city. There’s a lot that can go wrong, and it’s no wonder that new constructions are often delayed. Having a well-established flooring contractor is an important piece of this process.

One of the most important decisions you’ll make when constructing a new building is how quickly you want things to go. There’s an old design rule that says you get two of three things: fast, good or cheap. In the world of flooring, it’s not so simple; the level of moisture is an important, hard to detect part of ensuring your flooring is well installed. When the substrate is too moist, the flooring can develop defects rather quickly. Flooring contractors have a good idea whether things are dry enough to continue installation, but in order to be sure they need to test for moisture; the tests take a long time, and if it’s too wet, they need to be repeated later. You might opt to save time by not conducting those tests, but that’s ill-advised, because the costs will hit you later if the ground was too wet. In this case, you can get great flooring at an amazing price, but you probably don’t want it installed too fast.

There are also safety issues when it comes to construction, and flooring is no different. Concrete in its liquid form is caustic and quite dangerous to touch; the fine dust from construction materials can also cause lung cancer and other serious health problems. The solution here is to hire a well-trained flooring contractor; their employees will be well aware of the dangers of a construction site and will wear appropriate equipment in order to mitigate risk.

A great flooring company will also know how to communicate with other contractors. Flooring will generally be installed after most of the construction is done; you need the skeleton of the building to be complete in order to properly install flooring. The last thing you want is miscommunication between contractors about the specification, or who is going to build when; constructing a building is a group endeavor, and all the players need to be on good terms. An experienced flooring contractor will have built relationships with other contractors, and will have a communication style that makes clear who is responsible for what activities. Conflicts can delay a construction project substantially, so clear, concise communication is absolutely key.

When you’ve hired a contractor to build for you, make sure they’re subcontracting an expert in flooring. Failed flooring means business will not be able to continue operating in your building, so it’s not worth the risk. Once your building is constructed, if you find there are flaws with your concrete flooring, you’ll have to contact a concrete repair company to patch things up.

Michael-Rosenblat-

Technical Concrete Finishes

CEOMichael Rosenblat

With over 20 years in the field of technical concrete finishes, I offer a deep experience and precision in design and application of concrete floors. As founder of TCF West, I lead my team in crafting durable, aesthetically striking industrial floors. In this blog, I share industry insights to help elevate your space through quality flooring. Let’s connect to transform your environment with custom floors that meet your needs.