Rules
Part of A sustainable material brand checklist: twenty things to verify first
Sustainable material brands under review: the good, the weak and the verdict
Questions for suppliers and the trades who install their products, covering technical support, documentation duties and the dust workers carry home.
What to take away
- Ask the supplier and the installer the same technical questions and compare the answers.
- A supplier who will speak to your installer before purchase is worth more than a discount.
- Documentation duties sit with the supply chain, not with you. Ask for what they are required to hold.
- Trades carry dust home on clothing, which is a genuine hazard in older housing.
Ask both sides the same questions
The most revealing exercise in sourcing is asking a supplier and an installer the identical set of technical questions and comparing what comes back. Where they disagree, you have found the risk in the project.
Use five questions. What is the substrate requirement? What is the moisture limit? What adhesive or fixing system is approved? What is the acclimation requirement? What voids the warranty?
Disagreement is common and usually resolvable. An installer who says "we always do it this way" against a manufacturer instruction that says otherwise is telling you who will be blamed when the floor fails.
The resolution is straightforward when it happens early. Send the manufacturer's instruction to the installer and ask them to either follow it or get the manufacturer to approve the alternative in writing. Most technical departments will do that in a day.
What does not work is discovering the disagreement halfway through installation, when the only options left are expensive. Getting that approval in writing is the same discipline that sustainable materials products worth testing require before ordering.
What the supply chain has to hold
Documentation obligations run through the chain rather than starting with you. EPA publishes resources and guidance materials, with translations, for the composite wood products rule, aimed at manufacturers, importers, distributors, fabricators and retailers who have to comply with labeling and record requirements.
The practical question to a supplier, therefore, is not "is this safe" but "what compliance documentation do you hold for this product, and can I have a copy?"
That is a request for something that already exists, not a favor.
Questions about the people doing the work
| Question | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Are your crew trained for work in older housing? | Names the certification and who holds it |
| How do you contain dust? | Barriers, negative pressure, HEPA vacuums |
| What do workers do with clothing and boots? | Change on site, wash separately |
| Who cleans at the end of each day? | Named person, HEPA pass, not sweeping |
| What happens if you find something unexpected? | Stop, notify, test |
The clothing question is not fussiness. CDC describes how lead can travel home on skin, clothing and shoes from jobs, hobbies and other activities involving lead, which is a risk to the worker's own household as well as to yours. A crew that changes and washes separately is a crew that takes the rest of it seriously too.
Get the technical answers in writing
Verbal technical guidance evaporates. Ask for the substrate, moisture, adhesive and acclimation answers by email, and keep them with the order.
Two years later, if a floor cups or a panel delaminates, the manufacturer's first question will be whether their instructions were followed. An email thread showing the supplier's own technical guidance is worth considerably more than a recollection of a phone call.
Screen the suppliers themselves against the method in our twenty checks for a material supplier, and apply the trade-specific questions in what to ask an interior contractor alongside them.
Common questions
Should I buy direct or through the installer? Through the installer usually, so responsibility for defects and quantities sits in one place.
What if the supplier and installer disagree? Follow the manufacturer's written instructions, or get the manufacturer to approve the alternative in writing.
Is technical support a real differentiator? Yes. It is the difference between a problem solved in an afternoon and a dispute lasting months.
How do I check a crew is certified? Ask for the certificate and the name on it, then confirm the person named will be on site.
