“Space doesn’t meet floor profile tolerances”, will not be what you wish to see on an FF/FL report as a industrial concrete flooring contractor. The second a check company submits a failing report, issues get critical, and persons are in search of solutions.
Whereas unhealthy service, combine points, and gear issues are the standard suspects, few individuals query the check itself. That’s very true when the outcomes are put collectively in a well-formatted, official-looking, report that simply has an unquestionable air of authenticity about it.
On this article, I’d prefer to cowl three easy-to-spot testing errors that occur throughout information assortment with a strolling flooring profiler that could be recognized at a look and enormously have an effect on your run scores. As a concrete contractor or testing company, your capability to detect these errors could be of nice worth, particularly if the error makes the distinction between a passing or failing rating on a flooring.
3 Simple-to-Spot Testing Errors
- A studying was taken within the air.
- By chance measuring an object caught to the flooring.
- Dangerous calibration/one thing caught to the footpad.
Step one to seeing these is to get your palms on the profile graphs (or plot). Each profiler available on the market can produce these graphs. They might look barely completely different, however all of them show the identical info in almost the identical means. The query is, whether or not or not the check company supplied them with the report. It could be greatest if pre-pour, the testing company is knowledgeable that you really want these graphs included with each report produced for that mission. If you know the way to learn them, they will inform you a large number about screed settings, forming, and even laser points (which can be an article for one more time). For now, let’s get again to the three points and the way to see them on the profile graphs.
To see them you first want to know what a profile graph is and the way to learn it. Profile Graph 1 is a profile graph from an actual run on an actual flooring taken with a strolling profiler.
Profile Graph 1Somero Matson Group
For every step taken with the profiler, an angle is captured and translated into an elevation studying. That’s then plotted on a graph. As you stroll the profiler, captured information creates a profile of the particular flooring, therefore the title “flooring profiler.” On this instance (Profile Graph 1), 60 readings have been taken. The distance is plotted alongside the X-axis. The spacing on the footpads on the profiler was 12 in. which might present us the full size of the run, 60 ft. The elevation studying for every step is plotted on the Y-axis. Runs at all times begin from zero after which elevation is added or subtracted to the next studying. In abstract, all the run of measurements fell inside a 0.174-in. envelope. (Which is round 3/16 in. for many who are like me and have a tough time with decimals.)
Couple that with the FF/FL rating reported for this run of FF 65.5 and FL 64.74, it is possible for you to to raised perceive the whole lot it’s worthwhile to know to rapidly establish the three points. (For brevity’s sake, we’ll not be masking how FF/FL is calculated utilizing this info on this article).
Professional tip: Go on Amazon or Harbor Freight and get your self a pair of low cost digital calipers. You’ll be able to rapidly set it to 0.174-in. to bodily see what that appears like in fractions of an inch, and for future experiences the place you are attempting to determine out simply how large a bump is.
Profile Graph 2Somero Matson Group
A Studying was Taken within the Air
Everytime you see a profile plot that has a ledge that steps up in a single studying (sharp line up inside one studying per 12 in.) as seen in Profile Graph 2 on the 30 mark information level, it’s seemingly a false studying that was taken within the air. This occurs when the profiler collects a studying earlier than its footpad is involved with the bottom. One other approach to create a profile like that is if the operator actually stepped up onto a better floor with the profiler at this level within the flooring. Both means, you will have an issue.
To indicate the influence of this, we added 0.25 in. to at least one single level utilizing the identical information from the baseline information run seen in Profile Graph 1. Bear in mind the baseline run measured FF 65.5 and FL 65.74. That very same run with only a 0.25-in. studying within the air has now dropped the rating to FF 28.1 FL 30.13. This one mistake lower your rating in half for that run.
Profile Graph 3Somero Matson Group
Stepping on an Object
For those who ever have a pointy up and down spike in a graph for one studying it implies that the profiler foot was really on one thing when two readings have been taken. To create this, the profiler takes a studying because it steps onto an object after which when it steps off. One thing caught to the ground or footpad for a single studying could cause this. For those who ever see it on a graph, merely ask the testing company to take you to the situation of the ground the place they took this measurement and present you the object they stepped up on.
For this instance (Profile Graph 3, be aware the spike on the 30 mark information level), utilizing the baseline run once more however added a 0.25-in. step up and a 0.25-in. step down. The remainder of the information was the similar. The run now drops to a rating of FF 17.7 and FL 53.18.
Belief me this may occur. Particularly if a profiler was walked or rolled via particles on the flooring. For instance, a contractor despatched a video of somebody rolling a profiler immediately via a pile of mud left from noticed chopping.
Profile Graph 4Somero Matson Group
Dangerous Calibration / One thing Caught to the Footpad
Merely put, one facet of the profiler is studying increased than it needs to be. This may be attributable to a foul calibration or one thing bodily caught to at least one foot for the run. In both case, it creates a “sawtooth” sample (see Profile Graph 4) within the readings on a strolling profiler. Including 0.0625 in. (1/16 in.) to at least one facet does to the baseline run measurements now scores an FF 11.4 and FL 65.74.
When you understand what to search for these points stick out like a sore thumb. As a concrete contractor, it is at all times in your greatest curiosity to ask for the profile graphs and to start out in search of them. It may imply the distinction between passing or failing.
