Kim Basham, PhD, PE, FACI, is president of KB Engineering. He specializes in concrete construction, troubleshooting, nondestructive testing, forensics, and repair. E-mail [email protected]; visit www.kbengllc.com.
As an industry editor I hear from lots of suppliers about how their product will solve one concrete problem or another. I listen patiently, because sometimes there’s a great story to tell.
When coatings applied to concrete surfaces fail, the cause usually is inadequate surface preparation. For a coating to bond properly, the concrete surface must be sound, clean, free from surface defects, and dry.