Wasted a whole day on a glue down job because I didn't check the slab moisture first

Last week I started a 500 square foot vinyl plank glue down in a basement over a concrete slab. I just went ahead and started spreading the adhesive after a quick visual check. Two days later, the planks were bubbling up in the middle of the room. Turns out the slab had a moisture reading of 8 pounds, way over the 3 pound limit for that adhesive. I had to pull up all the planks, scrape off the adhesive, and start over, losing a full day of work and about $200 in wasted glue. Has anyone else had this happen, and what's your go-to test now?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_hill277d ago

My buddy had a similar nightmare with a big tile job in a sunroom. He used a calcium chloride test kit after the fact and found the slab was putting out crazy moisture, like 10 pounds. All the tiles popped loose after a month. Now he swears by those plastic sheet tests too, just taping a square down overnight to check for condensation. He won't touch a slab without doing both checks first.

matthewgonzalez7d ago

Yeah, that plastic sheet trick is a solid backup for the test kit @jana_hill27 mentioned. Catching a moisture problem early saves so much time and money later.