Perception is everything- Why you should use independent, certified moisture testing #2

Of course, not all flooring installations require certified, independent moisture testing for the concrete subfloor. In fact, you might think not all installations require any testing at all, which we discussed in an earlier post .

If you are installing 50 square metres of carpet in a residential job, it would probably suffice to undertake the testing yourself- especially if it’s just you and the homeowner. No middle men, no consultants, no lawyers, construction company boffins or twenty different stakeholders asking twenty different difficult questions.

Sadly, not all jobs are this simple. There are as many reasons to have independent, certified moisture testing as there are people who need to be assured that it is not as simple as just…slap a floor down and walk away.

Put simply, when you tell that construction company that they need to pay an extra $40,000 to apply moisture mitigation on that large-scale commercial project- mitigation which they will never see, and whose benefit they may never know- they will want to know why. And if they don’t, their customer certainly will. Especially if that customer is a government department.

When you tell them it’s because the moisture is too high and the floor could “blow up” at a later date, their approach will most likely be “of course you will say that, you get to charge me an extra $40,000”!

Independent test results are just that- independent. Demonstrably, and provably, free of commercial affiliations and conflict of interest- perceived or otherwise (in the business world, perception is everything!).

Floor Test Australia have frequently provided testing on sites where testing has already been done. This is not unusual, especially on public infrastructure projects in tourism, healthcare and education. It’s reassuring to see more and more flooring professionals undertake the testing (providing they do it properly), but it proves that, rightly or wrongly, the decision makers in the project often take a dim view to results that mean more expenditure for them. They need to be assured in every possible way that the expenditure is for their own benefit.