Will Urban Surfaces’ flooring be damaged in a flood?

Yes. Urban Surfaces engineers its flooring products to withstand common liquid spills and messes. However, standing water will most likely damage flooring material, especially when exposed for long periods of time. Keep in mind, water is not the problem. It’s the pH in the water.

What is pH?

This is a scale from 1 to 14 that measures the acidity or alkalinity of a liquid. Distilled water sits in the middle of the scale, showing a neutral pH of 7. An acid has a pH below 7, and anything with a pH above 7 is an alkali or base. For example, vinegar is very acidic. It has a pH of about 2.

Damage Caused by pH Water

Flood water from above, or a slab leak from below, often changes the pH of a cured concrete slab. This is likely what your subfloor is made of and what your flooring is installed on. If water seems to have deformed Urban Surfaces flooring, it was actually extreme pH levels that caused the failure.

What You Should Do Before Installing Flooring

Test the concrete subfloor to determine the pH level, alkalinity, and RH before installation. It’s important. Any pH level below 5 or above 9 can cause the adhesive to fail and break down the flooring, weakening its integrity and longevity.

Urban Surfaces has several different adhesives and subfloor coatings that can increase RH tolerance, increase pH tolerance, and protect against alkali attack.