The Flooring Site Assessment SOP

Purpose

No install starts on a surprise. Every expensive flooring callback this shop has traced back to the estimate visit came from something that was there to be found: a second layer under the first, a slab nobody tested, a dishwasher that will not come out once the new floor goes in, a top stair step that will end up tall. This visit finds those things before a price is written, so the price covers them and the crew arrives with the right plan. It also keeps people safe: a floor of unknown age is not cut, scraped or quoted for removal until the shop knows whether it contains asbestos or sits under lead paint.

Scope

Covers the measure-and-estimate visit for residential and light commercial hard surface, carpet, tile and refinish work, from the office's first call to the handoff to the estimator's quote. Does not cover the takeoff arithmetic, which is in Measuring Rooms and Ordering Hard-Surface Flooring; the full slab RH test, which is a separate visit per How to Run an In-Situ RH Test on a Slab; or sampling suspect material for asbestos, which is done by whoever your state allows to sample, per Asbestos in Old Resilient Floors and Adhesive. Commercial coordination with a general contractor is The Commercial Flooring Coordination SOP.

Roles and the handoffs

The rule that makes the handoffs work: no price leaves the shop while a flag on the sheet is open.

The assessment sheet

One sheet per room, filled on site. Blank fields are not allowed; a field that does not apply says "none" or "n/a".

ROOM: Kitchen               JOB: 24-0318   DATE: 10/14
Existing floor, top down: sheet vinyl / sq tile? / plywood
Age of top layer: est. 1990s   Home built: 1962
Layers counted at: dishwasher opening
Suspect resilient or black adhesive: YES -> HOLD
Substrate: 3/4 plank subfloor, joists N-S, crawl
Subfloor MC, species set: 9.8 / 10.2 / 10.0  avg 10.0
Slab: n/a        RH test needed: n/a
Flatness, 10 ft edge: 1/4 low at sink run
Heights: hall 0, kitchen +3/8 over hall
Stairs: none     Thresholds: back door slider
Appliances: range (gas), fridge (ice line), DW
Toilets: none    Access: driveway, 1 step
Painted trim, pre-1978: YES -> lead SOP
Photos: 7        Flags open: asbestos, lead

The procedure

1. Office pre-fills the sheet before dispatch. Ask the year the home was built, every floor in scope and what is on it now, whether anyone knows of older flooring underneath, the appliances and toilets in the rooms, stairs, pets, and when the home will be occupied during work. Acceptance: home age and room list filled in before the estimator drives out. Wrong looks like "customer not sure" on home age, which is the one field that decides the lead and asbestos questions; the office looks it up in the county property record. Stop rule: no home age, no dispatch. Hazard: none at this step, but tell the customer not to pull up any flooring to look before the visit, because a homeowner lifting a corner of old vinyl is how the exposure the visit exists to prevent happens anyway.

2. Walk the job with the customer and photograph every room before touching anything. Wide shot from each doorway, then close shots of thresholds, stair nosings, toilet bases and existing damage. Confirm which rooms are in scope and mark them on the sheet. Acceptance: at least one doorway photo per room and every threshold photographed. Wrong looks like scope that grows during the walk ("and the hall closet too") with no photo of it; stop and add a sheet for the new room. Hazard: watch for loose stair treads, soft spots and pets underfoot, and do not step on a soft spot to test it.

3. Count the layers without cutting anything. Read the edges that are already open: the dishwasher opening, a floor register, a threshold, a closet edge, the cut where vinyl meets carpet. Write each layer top down. Acceptance: every layer named, or marked "?" with where you looked. Wrong looks like resilient sheet or tile, or black or dark adhesive, under the top layer where it could have been installed in 1980 or earlier, or its age is unknown. Stop rule: that is a hold. Presume it contains asbestos until tested (OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1101 treats asphalt and vinyl flooring installed no later than 1980 this way unless shown otherwise), do not cut, scrape or pry it to look further, and send it to the office for a sampling referral. Hazard: this is an inhalation hazard only when disturbed, so the protection is not disturbing it.

4. Name the substrate and look underneath where you can. Tap and look at a register to tell a wood subfloor from a slab, note subfloor thickness and joist direction, and look in a crawlspace or unfinished basement for water staining, plumbing leaks and sagging. Acceptance: substrate type, thickness where visible, and joist direction written down. Wrong looks like a damp crawlspace with standing water or no vapor retarder on the ground, which makes a wood floor above it a moisture claim waiting to happen. Stop rule: record it, photograph it, and flag the quote to include moisture correction or exclude the floor. Hazard: in a crawlspace, check for exposed wiring and standing water together before entering, and do not crawl in if both are present.

5. Take moisture readings and say what they can and cannot tell you. On wood, take at least three readings per room with a pin or pinless meter set to the species. On a slab, record that the slab exists, its age if known, and whether an ASTM F2170 in-situ RH test or ASTM F1869 calcium chloride test will be needed before the chosen product goes down; a surface meter reading is a screening note, not a test. Acceptance: three readings per wood room with their average, and every slab marked test-needed or not with the reason. Wrong looks like a slab marked "dry" from a surface meter alone. Stop rule: any product going over a slab is priced with the test or marked subject to the test result; acceptance is per the flooring and adhesive maker's limits. Hazard: none.

6. Check flatness and write down what you found, not what it means yet. Lay a 10-foot and a 6-foot straightedge in each room in at least two directions and note the worst low and high with its location. Acceptance: a measured worst deviation and location per room. Wrong looks like "looks flat." Stop rule: any reading outside the product's tolerance in Floor Flatness Tolerances by Floor Type goes on the quote as leveling work, with an allowance or a measured area. Hazard: none.

7. Measure the heights that the new floor will change. Record the existing finished floor height at every doorway, transition and stair top, the new floor's total build-up, the clearance under the dishwasher's countertop opening, the toilet flange height relative to the finished floor, and door bottoms that will need undercutting. Acceptance: a height difference recorded at every transition. Wrong looks like a new floor stacking on the old one up to a stair, which changes the top riser; that question belongs to Stair Riser and Tread Rules When Flooring Changes Height. Stop rule: a dishwasher that will be trapped or a stair that will end up out of tolerance is flagged and the solution written into scope before pricing. Hazard: none.

8. Record every fixture and who disconnects it. List each appliance and how it is fed: gas, water, electric. Gas and water connections are disconnected and reconnected by the licensed trade where your state or locality licenses that work, never by the flooring crew; write who that will be. Acceptance: every appliance listed with its connection and the trade assigned. Wrong looks like "crew will move the range" on a gas range. Stop rule: no gas or water disconnect goes on the flooring scope. Hazard: do not slide a gas range out to look behind it; ask, or look from the side with a light.

9. Flag lead and finish the handoff. In a home built before 1978, any work that disturbs painted trim or sands a floor finish is treated as work under the EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule (40 CFR Part 745, Subpart E) unless testing shows no lead-based paint or the work falls under the rule's minor-repair threshold; mark the flag so The Lead-Safe Floor Work SOP is priced in. Then complete the takeoff per Measuring Rooms and Ordering Hard-Surface Flooring and return the sheets the same day. Acceptance: every flag marked open or clear, photos uploaded. Wrong looks like a quote drafted with an open flag. Stop rule: the owner or lead estimator signs off on how every open flag is priced or excluded before a number goes out. Hazard: none.

The record this produces

Per room: the sheet above, the photo set, and the readings with the meter setting used. Per job: the list of open flags, who they were referred to, and the date each was cleared. The record lands in the job file and is read three times: by the estimator writing the scope, by the crew lead the day before install to check that what they will find is what was written, and by whoever handles a callback, who needs the assessment-day moisture readings as the baseline.

Worked pass: a 1962 ranch, kitchen and hall

The office pre-filled the sheet: home built 1962 from the county record, kitchen and hall in scope for rigid core plank, gas range, refrigerator with an ice line, dishwasher. Step 1 passed.

Step 2: seven photos, both thresholds and the slider shot. The customer added the hall closet during the walk; a third sheet was opened for it and photographed. Passed.

Step 3 triggered its stop rule. At the dishwasher opening the estimator saw sheet vinyl on top, then a layer of small square tile, then plywood. In a 1962 house that middle layer is presumed asbestos-containing. The stop rule triggered: nothing was cut or pried, the layer was photographed through the opening, the sheet was marked HOLD, and the office referred it for sampling.

Steps 4 through 8 went on, since none of them disturbs the floor. The crawlspace was dry with a ground vapor retarder in place. Subfloor readings in the kitchen, meter set to the subfloor species, were 9.8, 10.2 and 10.0 percent, averaging 10.0. The 10-foot straightedge found 1/4 inch low along the sink run, outside the chosen plank maker's stated tolerance, so patching went on the quote as a measured area. Heights: the kitchen sat 3/8 inch above the hall. The range is gas and the ice line is water, so both went to the customer's plumber on the sheet.

Step 9: built 1962, painted trim coming off, so the lead flag was marked too.

The quote went out a week later with two scopes the owner signed off on: one if the lab result came back none detected, with removal down to plywood, and one if it came back positive, installing over the existing layers on a new underlayment rather than disturbing them, with the height consequence at the hall noted. The customer chose after the result. Nobody was surprised on install day, which is the measure of this SOP.

References

• ASTM F2170 and ASTM F1869, the slab moisture test methods, as the flooring and adhesive maker's instructions call for them
• OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1101, asbestos in construction, for employees disturbing presumed asbestos-containing flooring
• EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, 40 CFR Part 745 Subpart E, homes built before 1978
• See related: Measuring Rooms and Ordering Hard-Surface Flooring; Asbestos in Old Resilient Floors and Adhesive; Floor Flatness Tolerances by Floor Type; Stair Riser and Tread Rules When Flooring Changes Height