Revised Joint SSPC/NACE Standard – SSPC-SP 13/NACE No. 6, Surface Preparation of Concrete

Committee Name: SSPC C.7.7, Revision of SSPC-SP 13/NACE No. 6, and NACE TG 417.

Committee Chair Name and Company: Bill Jenkins, Akzo Nobel

Description of Contents/ Technical Revisions:
SSPC-SP 13/NACE No. 6 was first issued in 2003. The basic content of the standard is still relevant, but has been updated with current pertinent companion standards and technology from technical papers. Some specific responsibilities for establishing acceptance criteria are still assigned to the specifier (for example, the procurement documents are to include requirements and acceptance criteria for determination of Moisture Content if that is a contractual concern).

The major substantive revisions are summarized below:

Table 1, Classes of Surface Preparation per ICRI 310.2 was added in 2018.
Surface preparation methods have been given classifications to make them easier to specify (New Table 1).

Definitions have been updated.

Minimum acceptance criteria have been strengthened from being suggested to being mandatory, but can be superseded by the procurement documents, or more stringent requirements by the intended coating manufacturer.

Section 6: Table 2, “Minimum Acceptance Criteria for Concrete Surfaces Before Coatings Are Applied,” which was in a non-mandatory Appendix in the 2003 version, has been moved into the body of the standard.

Section on Flame Cleaning (Section 4.3 in the 2003 version) has been removed from the 2018 revision.

The Appendices have been reorganized and now include sections on surface preparation methods, concrete surface tensile strength and coating adhesion testing.

Stakeholders Value Statement (how the standard can be used):
Specifiers and installers determine whether the service environment for the flooring installation is “light” or “severe,” and then select an appropriate method for surface preparation of the concrete substrate, considering the condition of the substrate and the suitability of the profile produced by the selected method for the flooring system to be applied. The standard provides a sequence of procedures for evaluating a concrete surface to determine its condition prior to surface preparation, for selecting the method of surface preparation to be used, and for inspection of the prepared surface prior to coating application. The references list and the appendices contain additional supplemental information and commentary about concrete cure, repair of surface defects and imperfections, identification and removal of contaminants, evaluating surface profile, and testing for concrete tensile strength and substrate moisture content prior to the application of the coating.