Being the moron that I am, I went out and bought cases and cases of bamboo flooring (solid) when it was on sale, and I had not even gotten the linoleum off the cement slab yet..... Well, now that I spent the better part of 6 weeks, doing about one square yard a day, and obviously taking a couple off, I discover that there are 4 long cracks in the slab which are now high spots, and various other spots on the slab which look to be either really low, or high... I mean, half an inch off over 6 feet..

Now with a 6-foot level and a 10 board, which is about a straight as I can find, the floor looks to be really messed up. So, since the house was only 4 years old, I called the builder to come out and take a look
(KB HOME) and of course, they tell you everything looks fine despite some spots (High/Low) but that it was good to go as far as gluing down the bamboo flooring and that they would not do a thing.

Now here is the hard part..... I don't believe them and I want to go to court and force them to flatten the dam floor out, so I have been trying to find a good way to measure it and the only thing I have been seeing is the F-numbers system which can only be done with very special devices...
And also, what would be the expected flatness of a 4-year-old slab on grade foundation..? ACI charges for all their publications, so its really hard to find out what to consider acceptable or not...... Any help would be appreciated....

Oh, yes I almost forgot, the space for the floor is a kitchen with a island in the middle and a hallway on one end which leads out to a garage at a 30 angle so as you can tell using anything longer that 6 feet is almost impossible to measure with...

Thanks,

The typical industry standards for a direct glued down wood floor are that the subfloor needs to be flat to 3/16" within a 10' radius. A 10' length of stiff 1.5" diameter steel pipe could be used as a gauge. Just roll it around to find the high and low places and use a measuring tape to measure the variances. Personally, I wouldn't count on being successful in a legal action with KB Homes. They have deep pockets and teams of attorneys and could tie you up in court for years. If you could get your municipality to declare your slab to not meet local building codes, then perhaps the municipality could force KB to correct the problem. This has happened in municipalities near me with KB.

The standards for residential concrete foundations, from the concrete industry, are 1/4" in 10 feet. Anything out of that spec, and the concrete slab does not meet the concrete industry specs. The concrete contractor, is responsible, to bring the foundation up to standards and specifications.

You may want to call and find where you can get the specs for residential conctrete standards. I had it all bookmarked on my old computer, but not this one.


But did do a google and found these...


http://www.uc.edu/architect/documents/d ... ne2004.pdf


http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/build97/art021.html


http://www.concrete.org/education/edu_S ... minarID=61

I have to ask. WHY are you taking the vinyl flooring off of the concrete? If it were well attached, you could have glued directly to it with the right adhesive. There are even cementious leveling compounds that bond to vinyl floors. And vinyl flooring over concrete is a decent vapor retarder. So unless the vinyl floor was a perimeter adhered type or completely shot, you just made a lot of extra work for yourself, IMO.

the specification for flatness is only a specifcation of the pour, nothing else.
In other words, if the slab moves or cracks, this is not a relationship to the pour. However, the substrate must be properly prepared prior to the pour.
That slab can be repaired and brought into flatness specifications far less costly than a lawsuit.
My suggestion is to test the concrete for vapor emissions, repiair the slab, place slip sheets over the cracks, seal the concrete and install the floor.

Gary,

The reason I took off the vinyl was that everyone including manufacturer said that if I left it on, it would void the warranty on my flooring. Not to mention the “how to” on this very website, stated that the main reason for failure of glue down wooden floors is improper floor preparation.

I have to say the reason it took me so long was that my fear of the floor failing due residual glue and crap on the slab. Actually that concern made me go to the point of actually using a cordless drill with a 2.5inch wire brush attachment to remove every speck of glue.. Kind of excessive I know, but the thought of pulling up the Bamboo floor because its failing and trying to get the urethane glue up, was just too much of a nightmare for me to think of..

Also, I found that vinegar in a 5% solution is better at taking the glue off (With the wire Brush/drill) than anything else I found including adhesive remover at $10 a 16 ounce bottle…