On March 10, 1746, in a letter to his son, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, wrote, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” Who would have ever thought that 271 years later we would still be quoting the British politician and statesman about proper preparation?
Think about it. A marathon is 26.2 miles long. You wouldn’t run a marathon without training, right? 
You wouldn’t take the MCAT to apply to law school or the LSAT to apply to med school.
The same holds true with flooring installation
Proper surface preparation is the first and most important step to an easy and successful flooring installation. The complexity of the preparation depends on the condition of the existing floor. Surface preparation techniques include:
Diamond Grinding – Using diamond saw blades, a thin layer of the concrete surface is removed to get rid of surface irregularities and provide a level flooring surface.
Shot Blasting – Also used to remove the top of layer of a flooring surface, blasting the floor with small steel balls (shot) crushes the flooring finish that needs to be removed. This is a very effective way to remove existing resin or epoxy flooring without damaging the concrete surface underneath.
Acid Washing – It’s never a good sign when acid etching is the recommended surface preparation for coatings. Acid is an outdated prep technique that has proven itself to not be effective. We only recommend diamond grinding or shot blasting the floor to give it a mechanical profile before coating.
Preparation of New Concrete – You’d think that new concrete would be ready for finishing without any additional preparation, but you’d be wrong. Traditionally, new concrete must be cured for at least 28 days prior to coating. Shot blasting or diamond grinding is used on newly cured concrete to roughen the surface for maximum flooring adhesion.
V-8’s Rev M.V.P. (Moisture Vapor Protection) – New concrete can be coated with V-8’s new moisture vapor protection product 24 hours after pouring. Using this product properly seals new concrete without having the wait for 28 days and greatly reduces flooring preparation time.
Vacuuming – Finally, removing the accumulated dust by vacuuming the floor helps reduce airborne dust and allows for a cleaner and easier flooring installation.
Proper preparation greatly increases the ease of installation of your new flooring. More importantly, it reduces chances of problems, errors, and added expense. You can be assured that every V-8 certified flooring installer has been completely trained in proper flooring prep. Make sure your flooring investment is protected with proper preparation.
After all, anything worth doing is worth doing well – have it done well by contracting with V-8 High-Performance Floors certified contractor.
