“trouble under Foot” Resurfacing Historic Floor Systems

At several school buildings in New York City, initial efforts to replace the tile wearing surfaces on clay tile arch floor systems were fraught with difficulties. Many of the replacement floors began to crack and heave within a few months after installation. The authors conducted in-situ and laboratory studies of the flooring systems, and identified numerous causes that contributed to the failures. These studies included a detailed comparative laboratory study of five cementitious leveling compounds that had been used in floor resurfacing projects.