What each manufacturer requires before a floor goes down
These are not recommendations. Each figure below is a condition the manufacturer attaches to its own warranty, taken from the installation document it publishes. Miss one and the cover on the floor can be refused — not by this site, by the company that made it.
8 brands are recorded here. That is what has been read, not what exists: this is a schedule of eight documents, not a survey of the industry.
| Manufacturer | Slab moisture, relative humidity | Slab moisture, calcium chloride | Flatness | Acclimation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mannington | 85 % ASTM F2170ADURA Rigid Installation Guidelines | 8 lb ASTM F1869ADURA Rigid Installation Guidelines | 3/16 in over 10 ft ADURA Rigid Installation Guidelines | none required Written in the document, not missing from it: the period is set at nought. Where the reading recorded a condition attached to that nought it is printed below; where none is printed the document may still carry one, because this column holds what was read and not a warrant that nothing else is written. Condition: not specifically required; the maker still recommends installing close to the intended service temperatureADURA Rigid Installation Guidelines |
| Cali | 90 % ASTM F2170CALI Vinyl Angle-Angle Flooring Installation Guide | 5 lb ASTM F1869CALI Vinyl Angle-Angle Flooring Installation Guide | 3/16 in per 10 ft radius CALI Vinyl Angle-Angle Flooring Installation Guide | none required Written in the document, not missing from it: the period is set at nought. Where the reading recorded a condition attached to that nought it is printed below; where none is printed the document may still carry one, because this column holds what was read and not a warrant that nothing else is written. Condition: none is required unless the cartons were stored in extreme temperatures, in which case they must first be brought into normal living conditions for 24 hoursCALI Vinyl Angle-Angle Flooring Installation Guide |
| COREtec | 90 % ASTM F2170Resilient Installation Guidelines for SPC Products (COREtec Pro) | 8 lb ASTM F1869for any installationResilient Installation Guidelines for SPC Products (COREtec Pro)3 lbwhere the job carries the 15-year heavy commercial wear warrantyanhydrous calcium chloride test15 Year Heavy Commercial Limited Wear Warranty (COREtec Pro) | 3/16 in over 10 ft Resilient Installation Guidelines for SPC Products (COREtec Pro) | none required Written in the document, not missing from it: the period is set at nought. Where the reading recorded a condition attached to that nought it is printed below; where none is printed the document may still carry one, because this column holds what was read and not a warrant that nothing else is written. Condition: a climate controlled environment, which the maker asks for even where it requires no acclimationResilient Installation Guidelines for SPC Products (COREtec Pro) |
| MSI | 90 % ASTM F2170Everlife Rigid Core Installation Guide | not published No calcium chloride ceiling appears in the documents recorded for this manufacturer. An installer documenting with that method has nothing to compare the result against. No test namedEverlife Rigid Core Installation Guide | 1/8 in per 6 ft Everlife Rigid Core Installation Guide | none required Written in the document, not missing from it: the period is set at nought. Where the reading recorded a condition attached to that nought it is printed below; where none is printed the document may still carry one, because this column holds what was read and not a warrant that nothing else is written. Condition: proper conditions only; cartons exposed below 40F or above 95F must be conditioned for at least 12 hoursEverlife Rigid Core Installation Guide |
| Tarkett | 90 % ASTM F2170ProGen & ProGen Plus Floating Luxury Vinyl Plank Installation Instructions | 6 lb ASTM F1869ProGen & ProGen Plus Floating Luxury Vinyl Plank Installation Instructions | 1/8 in over 8 ft ProGen & ProGen Plus Floating Luxury Vinyl Plank Installation Instructions | none required Written in the document, not missing from it: the period is set at nought. Where the reading recorded a condition attached to that nought it is printed below; where none is printed the document may still carry one, because this column holds what was read and not a warrant that nothing else is written. Condition: the material needs none; the maker still asks for a room between 65F and 85F for 48 hours before and during installationProGen & ProGen Plus Floating Luxury Vinyl Plank Installation Instructions |
| Bruce | 95 % in-situ probeRigid Core Locking Installation System — installation instructions | 5 lb calcium chlorideRigid Core Locking Installation System — installation instructions | 3/16 in over 10 ft Rigid Core Locking Installation System — installation instructions | none required Written in the document, not missing from it: the period is set at nought. Where the reading recorded a condition attached to that nought it is printed below; where none is printed the document may still carry one, because this column holds what was read and not a warrant that nothing else is written. Condition: the material needs none; the instructions still set a 48 hour temperature window for the roomLifeSeal Rigid Core Flooring — product sheet |
| Karndean | 95 % ASTM F2170Karndean Rigid Core Plank and Tile Installation Guide | 8 lb ASTM F1869Karndean Rigid Core Plank and Tile Installation Guide | 3/16 in over 10 ft Karndean Rigid Core Plank and Tile Installation Guide | 48 h Condition: commercial installations; for residential the maker says acclimation is generally not essential where the product is already between 65 and 85FKarndean Rigid Core Plank and Tile Installation Guide |
| Ambient | not published No relative-humidity ceiling appears in the documents recorded for this manufacturer, so a probe reading has nothing here to be held against. No test namedCSI 3-Part Product Specification — Ambient SPC Rigid Core Luxury Vinyl Click-Lock, Section 09 62 23 | 3 lb calcium chloride or equivalent testCSI 3-Part Product Specification — Ambient SPC Rigid Core Luxury Vinyl Click-Lock, Section 09 62 2320 lba second document states this; the figure above is the one this schedule carriesstated without a time period and without a test method, and 2.5 times the highest ceiling any other brand in this register publishesAmbient Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring — Installation Instructions & Guidelines | 3/16 in in 10 ft radius or 1/8 in in 6 ft CSI 3-Part Product Specification — Ambient SPC Rigid Core Luxury Vinyl Click-Lock, Section 09 62 23 | none required Written in the document, not missing from it: the period is set at nought. Where the reading recorded a condition attached to that nought it is printed below; where none is printed the document may still carry one, because this column holds what was read and not a warrant that nothing else is written. Condition: none is required unless the cartons have been below 40F or above 95F for more than an hour, in which case 12 hours unstackedAmbient SPC Rigid Core Luxury Vinyl, Harvest Moon — manufacturer product record and specification table |
Reading the schedule
The two moisture tests are not interchangeable
ASTM F2170 puts a probe inside the slab and reports relative humidity at depth. ASTM F1869 seals a dish on the surface and weighs what evaporates into it. There is no accepted conversion between them, because they do not measure the same thing in the same place. A result in one of them cannot be restated in the other, whatever the numbers look like.
What decides whether a result is usable is the ceiling, not a preference. 6 manufacturers here publish a ceiling for both methods, and against those either test produces a figure with something to compare it to. Where a manufacturer publishes no ceiling for the method that was run, the result has nothing to be held against — not a failure, and not a pass.
Where a document names a test, the words under the figure are the maker's own and not a standard supplied here — and they are not uniform: 6 manufacturers cite an ASTM designation, while Ambient, Bruce and MSI write the test in ordinary words and cite no standard at all. Naming a test is also not the same as ruling out the other one. Nothing in these documents says a method is the only acceptable one, and nothing on this page would support that if it were written.
The flatness figures use different spans
Written as published, these tolerances cannot be lined up: they are stated over 6, 8 and 10 feet, and a tolerance over one span is not the same tolerance over another. Reduced to a common span the order is Tarkett (1/8 in over 8 ft); then Bruce, COREtec, Karndean and Mannington, which publish the same tolerance (3/16 in over 10 ft); then MSI (1/8 in per 6 ft), tightest first. That reduction is arithmetic done here, not a figure any manufacturer published, which is why the table keeps the span each one actually wrote.
The groups matter as much as the order. Where manufacturers reduce to the same figure they are named together, because a list that printed them one after another would put them in an order the arithmetic does not: equal is not a ranking, and the difference between them is nought.
Some manufacturers' own documents do not agree
A manufacturer does not always publish one figure. 2 cells in this schedule sits over documents that state different limits, and in each of them the table shows every reading rather than the one that happened to be read first. Which reading is published is a decision, it was taken by hand with its reason written down, and the reading it was taken against stays on the page.
COREtec — the two figures are not two answers to one question. One is what the installation guideline asks of any installation; the other is a condition attached to a particular warranty, and it is stricter. Neither cancels the other, so both print with the job they belong to. If the work has to carry that warranty, the stricter figure is the one being worked to, and a slab that clears the looser one has cleared nothing that matters to the claim.
Ambient — here the documents do answer the same question and contradict each other, so one reading is published and the other is shown beside it with the reason it was not. That reason is about the sentences themselves rather than about which number is convenient: a limit stated without a time period is not a rate, and a limit stated without a test is a limit no installer can produce a document against. Read both, and settle it with the manufacturer before the floor goes down rather than after.
One ceiling is missing, and missing is not zero
1 manufacturer in this set — MSI — publishes no calcium chloride limit. That is an absence in the document, not permission and not a failure. It means an installer who documents that slab with a calcium chloride test has produced a number with nothing to test it against, and should be asked for a reading against a ceiling this manufacturer does publish.
The acclimation column carries the other half of that distinction. 7 manufacturers set the period at nought in their own document, and the table prints that as none required — a figure that was written down. The words not published are kept for a document that says nothing, and the two states are never printed with the same words.
A figure can also come with a condition of its own. Conditions appear on 8 readings here, seven of them under a nought, so that nought holds only while its condition does — and they are 8 distinct clauses, not one clause written several ways. None is paraphrased into a house sentence: each prints under its own figure in the words the document used, and that is the line to read before a pallet that has sat in a cold trailer goes down.
Every figure on this page carries the document it came from. Where a manufacturer revises that document, the figure here is stale until it is read again — how and when these were read.
One measured field is not printed above. The register also holds a slab pH range, and 2 manufacturers of eight publishes one; a column that would be empty for the rest is a column that teaches a reader nothing, so it is named here instead of shown as four blanks.
The ceiling is not a target
A published limit is the point past which the manufacturer stops covering the floor. It is not the point at which a slab becomes a good idea. Concrete keeps drying for months after it looks finished, and a reading that lands a whisker under a ceiling on the day of the test can sit above it a week later when the heating goes on and the building changes state. Installers who work to a margin rather than to the number are not being cautious for the sake of it; they are testing the slab as it will be lived in, which is what the documents ask for in the first place.
The practical consequence of the spread on this page is an ordering problem. A slab is tested once, but the limit it is tested against belongs to a product that may not have been chosen yet. Test first and choose later, and a reading of 92 leaves five of these seven manufacturers unavailable without anyone having decided that. Two ways out, and both are ordinary: pick the product before the slab is tested, or test against the strictest limit in play and keep every option open.
None of this is exotic and none of it costs much. What it costs is sequence, which is free at the start of a job and expensive halfway through it.