Minimise the Risk of Delamination in Concrete

Concrete NZ has produced a new technical document - Guide to Minimising the Risk of Delamination in Concrete - in response to requests from members.

Delamination is defined as a zone of weakness or separation along a plane parallel to the concrete surface caused by a either material, processing and/or environmental factors. These surface defects vary in size, depth and timing depending on the cause and other related factors.

The prevalence of delamination problems is mostly associated with floor slabs, which has increased in the last twenty years as larger industrial floors have given rise to modern finishing systems.

Delamination of finished floor slabs represents a failure of the wearing surface such that the highly finished and hard layer is replaced by a rough and irregular indentation. These surface defects are a significant serviceability issue since they disrupt the otherwise hard and smooth surface of finished concrete.

Repairs to restore the aesthetics and resistance of the concrete surface have been undertaken successfully but these need to be thoroughly investigated beforehand.

The Guide was written to provide the necessary awareness of risks and mitigations strategies for the delamination of concrete, with specific focus on finished floor slabs.

Download the Guide to Minimising the Risk of Delamination in Concrete.

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