Flooring

Standards

• Carpet

  Tufted, woven, fusion-bonded, and needle-punched carpet in modular tile and broadloom formats installed over concrete, wood panel, and raised access floor substrates in commercial, institutional, healthcare, educational, hospitality, and multi-family interiors. Covers format and construction, pile configuration, face fiber and dye method, face weight, pile thickness and density, appearance retention, tuft bind and delamination strength, modular tile and broadloom backings, critical radiant flux and smoke density, static control, colorfastness, low-emitting and sustainability certification, accessibility of the walking surface, substrate acceptance for carpet including concrete moisture and alkalinity testing and mitigation, releasable adhesive, direct glue-down, double-glue, and stretch-in attachment, separate cushion, seaming, transitions, field inspection, cleaning, warranty, and attic stock.

• Ceramic Tile

  Ceramic, porcelain, quarry, glazed wall, and mosaic tile, and gauged porcelain tile panels and slabs, installed by the thin-bed (thin-set) method over interior and protected exterior floors, walls, wainscots, tub and shower surrounds, and countertops in commercial, institutional, healthcare, educational, hospitality, and multi-family construction. Covers tile selection and water-absorption classification, slip resistance, setting materials (dry-set and modified mortars, organic adhesive, epoxy), bonding mortar selection by substrate, crack-isolation and waterproof membranes, grout type selection (cementitious and epoxy), movement-joint design, substrate preparation and flatness, large-format and gauged-panel installation, field testing, and warranty.

• Entrance Flooring and Walk-Off Systems

  Permanently installed entrance flooring and walk-off systems that capture moisture, soil, grit, and snowmelt from foot and rolling traffic at building entrances before it reaches the interior finish floor. Covers recessed and surface-mounted rail grilles with replaceable tread inserts in lift-out, hinged, and roll-up construction, recessed and surface-mounted link and modular mats, and walk-off carpet tile and broadloom in the interior wiper zone. Addresses the arrangement of the exterior scraper, threshold scraper-wiper, and interior wiper zones, walk-off length, rail and frame materials, recess depth and drainage, rolling load rating, tread inserts, accessibility of the walking surface, slip resistance, flammability and low-emitting requirements for textiles, installation, cleaning, warranty, and attic stock.

• Natural Stone Tile

  Interior and protected exterior natural dimension-stone tile, cut-to-size stone, and gauged thin stone slab — granite, marble, limestone, travertine, slate, quartzite, sandstone, serpentine, onyx, soapstone, and basalt — set on floors, walls, wainscots, stair treads and risers, thresholds, base, and countertops. Covers stone type and the governing ASTM dimension-stone material specifications, physical-property and abrasion testing, slip resistance, form, dimensions, and surface finish, pattern and vein match, setting method and bonding mortar, crack-isolation and waterproof membranes, joint filler and joint width, movement-joint design, substrate preparation and moisture, installation, field inspection, cleaning, and sealing.

• Polished Concrete Flooring

  Mechanically ground, honed, and polished concrete floor finishes produced in place by progressive bonded-abrasive diamond processing of a structural or topping concrete slab, including chemical densification and optional coloring with dye or stain. Covers true bonded-abrasive polishing (full grind-hone-polish to a measured gloss and clarity), grind-and-seal finishes, and burnished guard finishes; aggregate exposure selection (cement fines, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate), gloss and clarity levels, densifier chemistry, joint and crack filling, slip resistance, abrasion resistance, and the coordination required to protect a finished slab that is also the building's structural floor.

• Resilient Flooring

  Interior resilient floor coverings and resilient wall base in commercial, institutional, healthcare, educational, hospitality, and multi-family construction: luxury vinyl tile and plank, rigid core vinyl plank, vinyl composition tile, homogeneous and heterogeneous sheet vinyl, rubber tile and sheet, sheet and tile linoleum, resilient wall base, resilient stair treads, transition strips, and the adhesives, seam welding, integral flash cove, and static control grounding that go with them. Covers product type and class, wear layer and overall thickness, critical radiant flux and smoke density, slip resistance, static load, chemical resistance, low-emitting materials, static control resistance, substrate acceptance including concrete moisture and alkalinity testing and topical moisture mitigation, full-spread adhesive, loose lay, and floating installation, heat and chemical welding, field inspection, initial finish, cleaning, warranty, and attic stock.

• Resinous Flooring

  Fluid-applied, seamless resinous floor finishes installed over concrete in commercial, institutional, industrial, food and beverage, healthcare, laboratory, and cleanroom applications. Covers epoxy, polyurethane, cementitious urethane (urethane mortar), methyl methacrylate (MMA), and polyaspartic resin chemistries; thin-film coating, broadcast (sand, quartz, or vinyl flake) media, and trowel-applied mortar system types; slip resistance, chemical and thermal-shock resistance, abrasion, and electrostatic-dissipative and conductive (ESD) systems; concrete surface preparation and profiling, moisture testing and topical moisture mitigation, integral cove base, and seamless wall-to-floor detailing.

• Steel Deck

  Cold-formed steel floor and roof deck furnished and installed under the Steel Deck Institute standards: composite floor deck acting with the concrete slab above it, non-composite form deck serving as a permanent form, roof deck carrying the roofing assembly, and acoustical roof deck. Covers the division of design responsibility for the deck and its diaphragm, manufacturer and installer qualification, sheet steel and metallic coating selection, the basis for profile, depth, gauge, and section properties, diaphragm design basis, attachment to supports by arc spot welds, arc seam welds, powder-actuated fasteners, and screws, side-lap fastening, the deck's role in a composite slab including shoring, concrete placement loads, and the sequence for shear studs welded through the deck, roof deck uplift attachment and FM Approval, openings and their reinforcement, pour stops, closures, and sump pans, placement and OSHA decking requirements, field cutting and coating repair, field inspection under the SDI quality standard, delivery and storage, and the warranty for the deck work.

• Terrazzo

  Poured-in-place terrazzo floor and base finishes for commercial, institutional, civic, educational, healthcare, and transportation interiors — epoxy (resinous) thin-set terrazzo and the cementitious systems (polyacrylate, monolithic, bonded, and sand-cushion). Covers matrix system selection, marble/granite/glass/recycled aggregate, divider and control strips, substrate flatness and moisture testing, physical-property requirements for the resin matrix, crack-isolation and joint detailing, grinding/grouting/polishing/sealing, integral cove and topset base, and precast terrazzo bases and stair treads. Suitable for new construction and for terrazzo restoration where the existing system is sound.

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