 Flooring installers traditionally love water-based flooring adhesives for their speed of application, low odor, low VOC emissions and long-lasting adhesion. But an issue is adhesive failures when moisture-rich or recently cured ‘green’ concrete surfaces quickly degrade flooring adhesives so that recently installed, beautiful new floors lift and bubble.
Water at high pH levels can migrate through this green concrete and cause failures even when using the most well-known and widely used water-based adhesives. Contractors have often selected alternate technologies to remedy the situation – epoxy or polyurethane adhesives and/or water barriers such as plastic sheets, but at much higher expense in both time and materials. New Robond™ FL-8400 with AquaBloc™ technology from Rohm and Haas makes those expensive remedies unnecessary. This new polymer has AquaBloc™ technology built-in which solves the problem effectively and economically for formulated water-based adhesives. Concrete surfaces remain active throughout their lives  Concrete is an active surface that allows water and moisture vapor to seep through and out. When moisture seeps up through a concrete floor to reach the surface — a naturally occurring event — traveling moisture extracts ions from the concrete that elevate the pH of water or vapor. This can cause typical flooring adhesive products to break down, so they no longer adhere properly. For flooring companies, the issue is long-standing and especially troubling.
For example, sometimes within days or weeks after installation, resilient flooring will lift at seams or even over large areas. To address this issue, specialty materials company Rohm and Haas introduces Robond™ FL-8400 with AquaBloc™ technology, which provides a far more robust system compared to any other polymer on the market, so contractors can install over ‘green’ concrete and even where the ground beneath the concrete is going to remain moist and never dry completely. | 
