Stop the delamination callback with Simiron MVB

Picture the worst version of this job. A clean pour over a slab that was placed last month, on grade, no vapor retarder underneath. It cures, it looks great, the customer pays. Then moisture works its way up, the film has sealed it in, and the pressure peels your coating off in sheets. That is the delamination callback, and it is almost never the resin’s fault.

Why green and on-grade slabs lift

Concrete holds water you cannot see. As it cures and as the ground feeds it from below, vapor moves up through the slab under pressure. A topcoat is a lid. When the vapor reaches that lid and cannot escape, it builds force at the bond line until the film lets go. Fresh slabs are the obvious risk, but so is anything on grade and any basement, because the moisture supply does not stop.

You do not eyeball this. You measure it with a calcium chloride test or an in-situ relative humidity probe, and you read the number before you commit a coat. If the slab reads high, the build stack needs a barrier at the bottom of it.

A moisture vapor barrier is not a cost. It is the cheapest insurance on the whole job.

Where Simiron MVB sits in the stack

Simiron’s MVB is a high-tolerance moisture vapor barrier that goes down first, against the bare profiled slab. It seals the concrete so the system you build on top of it can cure and stay put. From there the stack is straightforward, and each layer has a job.

• Grind the slab to a clean, open profile so the barrier actually keys in
• Lay the Simiron MVB primer to spec and let it reach its window
• Build the body with 1000HS, the 100% solids epoxy base
• Add your decorative layer, chip or metallic, while the window is open
• Seal with a UV-stable topcoat so the whole system holds color and traffic

The math that makes it easy

A barrier adds a step and a little material cost. A callback costs you the grind-back, the new system, the lost weekend, and a customer who no longer trusts you. One of those numbers is small and known. The other is large and shows up three weeks after you thought the job was done. Run the barrier when the test says to, and the choice makes itself.

If you are not sure what your slab is doing, that is exactly the call to make before you order anything decorative. Tell us the slab age and your test numbers, and we will spec the Simiron stack with you so the MVB is sized right for what you are fighting.

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