Atelier is right on the money as far as moisture testing is concerned and it is best to slab test on or right after high humidity and rainy days to get the worst-case-scenario test returns. The flooring system integrity will only be as good as it is in its worst day in the enviroment its installed in. After you get test results and compare them to the manufacturers product tolerances, then you can decide on the right product for that application or other remedies to bring it to withing manufacturer tolerances. The key here is prevention. Guessing isnt knowing, and any preventative measures used by guessing might be overkill OR might not be enough for the product. You just dont know without testing and in some cases an area will never be good enough for some products without rectifying the underlying construction causing the problem. Yes, some adhesives and substrate treatments will add a water vapor barrier and stop or stem hydrostatic pressure in the substrate but they all have cap limits. Owens Wood Flooring has a comptehensive information section of their site on Owens Plankfloor Gluedown Installation Owens states the following: "MAKE CERTAIN BUILDING INTERIOR AND SUBFLOOR ARE DRY Interior walls should be dry enough to be painted and a room temperature as required by adhesive manufacturer with a relative humidity of 30-50% should be provided before any installation begins. To determine if a concrete slab is suitable for hardwood flooring, please follow the NWFA guidelines to perform a Calcium Chloride test. If excessive moisture is present, do not lay flooring. Check floor in several locations. Concrete sub floors must be clean, flat and sound and of sufficient compression strength (3000lbs PSI) being sure that the surface is not slick. Sections not flat such as waviness, trowel marks, etc. are to be eliminated by grinding or the use of an acceptable leveling compound. Especially along the walls, the sub floor flatness must be checked and, if necessary, improved. Flat to 1/8" in an 8 radius. In addition to concrete sub floors, these products can be installed over dry, flat wood sub floors, such as plywood. If plywood is used as an overlay over an existing sub floor, the thickness of the overlay material much be such as to yield a total ¾" sub floor thickness. New wood type sub floors should also be checked for moisture using a moisture meter. In general, wood or plywood sub floors should not exceed 12% moisture content or 4% moisture content difference between wood flooring and sub floor." The NWFA is a resource you can only get information from if you are a paying member, so you might want to search around for the same information on calcium chloride tests from a independent source if you or your installer isnt a member. It should be noted that there are different types of moisture testing. 1. Relative Humidity of the Installation Area. 2. Moisture in the substrate itself hydrostatic Pressure. 3. Moisture testing the wood looring itself before the install to ensure its equalized to the within-tolerance installation area humidity. Here is some more information you may find useful: moisture testing hardwood flooring moisture testing for relative humidity in a room hydrostatic pressure in concrete ASTM F2170 ASTM F1869 your installer should be well educated in all of the above. ask them plenty of questions and get a good comfort level in their abilities. ask for and check out their references too.

We just had BR-111 brazillian cherry 5/16 installed on a slab. This was the first time this flooring company had installed 5/16 solid wood. The 2nd day after install floors started cupping just as pictured above. Some areas were worse then others. They sent out one of the flooring inspectors and he measured for moisture. Everything seemed fine and he could not figure out any moisture issues. The next day the owner came out. He brought out commercial dehummidifiers. He kept insisting it was moisture although no proof. My husband issisted on a qualified wood flooring inspector. He was to come the next day. The owner of the flooring place left. Less than 2 hours later he called on the phone and said he was sending some guys out to pull up all 1000 square feet of flooring in my whole downstairs. What was the problem??......... They had used the wrong glue. BR-111 rep said they had a new specific glue for this flooring on a slab. Flooring company had just assumed they could use glue that they usually used on all hardwood. The areas that were the worst were the areas that they had done the second day(thay were here 2 days laying floor) on the 2nd day they used a glue that was more like honey consistincy. These areas were really bad the flooring that was layed the first day did not look near as bad. If they had not changed glue the second day We may not have noticed. The other glue would not have shown the problem so drastically right away. it may have taken several weeks for the other areas to start cupping. This is the information that the certified inspector told the owner of the store. Needless to say he had 2 office personel out at my house tearing up 7500 worth of wood floor in there dress shirt, kakis, and dress shoes. They re-installed a couple of days ago with the glue from BR-111 and so far no problems. What a hassel it has been and I am installing a new kitchen.

Update: I attempted to email the inspector with my questions and such but he did not respond. The builder had told me if I had questions, to ask the inspector, but upon calling an inspector myself to ask about fees and doing an inspection for me, he indicated that they are not supposed to talk to anyone about the issue that did not actually hire them. Since the builder hired them and I did not, then the inspector could only talk to the builder. Once I understood that, I got back with the builder to see where we would go with this issue. Thats when I found out that they had noticed another failure just like mine in a spec house that they did. Same sub did the work. They went in and discovered that the wood floor came back up easy so the planks could be reused, so they redid it using different glue. So now they are doing mine. As I suspected, all of the wood planks have come up very easy with no breakage. There are some spots where the dri tak had held that caused breakage of the planks, but lucky most all were in one confined area since I had previously told them to stop using the dri tak as it was not in my opinion the proper repair. They are using a glue called rocket 7000 i believe. It is a different glue than what he used before. When the planks are pulled up, there is squished glue on the plank and on the concrete, but it is tacky to the touch but does not come off unless you scrape it off, which then it does peel off to some degree. Maybe it is supposed to be that way. Not sure as I have not got into any deep discussion with the builder or the sub about it. I just stay out of their way and am glad they are doing this at no cost to me. Builder and sub have stepped up to the plate to correct this, but it did take some work on my part and some bull headedness on my part. Most of the planks are being reused with some being replaced with new since they can still get them. Any comments or advice?

Thank you jerry_t for letting me know that tests need to be performed so I can ask the right questions to decide who I am hiring to perform the work. One installer who does not sell hardwood but only installs told my friend today, that if someone moves all the furniture and heavy file cabinets and makes the place ready for installing hardwood and if I had ordered the engineered wood already and acclimated it, he would install it for $2.50/sq ft as a floating floor. But then again, he has not done testing. I looked up some glues and some of the more expensive glues sound like they would have less moisture resistance problems. Another place about 1 hour from here would install the floor with glue for $2.40. Another place says $5.00 sq. ft including the best moisture resistance glue. Then there are all the other costs with the quarter-round and floor separating moldings for the three rooms that I am getting prices of $550 to $600. At this point I want someone who knows what they are doing. I do not want someone moving the furniture back in here and scratching my floor. This is getting to be overwhelming due to the office furniture. The family room will be easy to move the furniture back and forth. How should I clean the cement floor to get out any pee smells in case any pee has gone from the padding to the cement floor? The installers want $.50/sq ft to remove the carpet if I do not have it removed which does not include throwing it away for me. My brother told me last night that he would help me install the floor but he is more familiar with installing carpets and did not even know what engineered wood was. I want to make sure I do not have future problems and the job has to be done in about 3 days if possible for about 628 sq. feet so I can get back to work. I was told by one guy 6% waste to buy and another 10% waste to buy. I am pretty sure I am going with the BR-111 Triangulo Engineered Brazilian Cherry in the three rooms and doing tile in the foyer areas. I want to do tile in the kitchen since sometimes I get water in the cups in my dishwasher and it pours on my floor.