The importance of concrete polishing in construction has been given official recognition with the creation of a new section in the MasterFormat system, published by the Construction Specifications Institute and Construction Specifications Canada.
The new section number and name, 03 35 43 – Polished Concrete Finishing, gives design professionals a unique category for specifying appropriate polishing materials and performance requirements.
The new section was created in response to a proposal initiated by David Loe, a veteran concrete polisher and president of Lythic Solutions Inc., makers of colloidal silica-based densifiers. Loe perceived a significant omission in the MasterFormat concrete finishing sections, which previously had section numbers for techniques such as colored concrete, stamped concrete and grooved concrete, but none for polished concrete.
The current version of MasterFormat was published in 2004, but as of 2009, it has instituted an annual revision process to keep it current with industry needs and practices. Proposals submitted by April 30 are reviewed at a meeting of the MasterFormat Maintenance Task Team in July and posted to its Web site in September. MMTT is a group of CSI and CSC members appointed annually by the presidents of CSI and CSC.
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