AirSprayTech Academy Certificate Program

Secondary Containment Coating Systems for Industrial Contractors

Article 24 of 24

Estimating, Documentation, Warranties, and Contractor Responsibility

Turning technical requirements into a complete proposal, controlled installation, defensible project record, and professional closeout

The Estimate Becomes the Project

A secondary containment lining project is won or lost long before the crew begins surface preparation. The estimator must understand the exposure, substrate, details, specification, access, safety requirements, testing, schedule, and responsibilities well enough to price the actual work.

An incomplete estimate does not become more complete after the contract is signed. Missing surface repair, decontamination, environmental controls, testing, cure time, or difficult details will eventually appear as lost production, a disputed change order, reduced quality, or an unprofitable project.

Learning Objectives

After completing this article, the reader should be able to:

• Identify the information required before pricing a containment-lining project.
• Develop a practical scope of work, material takeoff, labor estimate, and project schedule.
• State assumptions, exclusions, allowances, and owner responsibilities clearly.
• Control additional work through written change procedures.
• Prepare a complete quality-control and project-closeout record.
• Describe warranties accurately without promising performance outside the contractor’s control.

Do Not Price an Undefined System

“Coat the containment area” is not an adequate scope. A responsible proposal identifies the substrate, exposure, preparation standard, repair requirements, lining system, thickness, details, testing, acceptance criteria, schedule, and limits of responsibility.

If the owner has not provided enough information, the contractor should request clarification, propose a paid investigation, establish allowances, or decline to provide a fixed price. Guessing is not estimating.

The Bid or No-Bid Decision

Before investing time in a detailed estimate, determine whether the project fits the company’s capabilities and risk tolerance. Consider:

• Experience with the specified chemistry and substrate.
• Availability of trained applicators, supervisors, and quality-control personnel.
• Required accreditation, licensing, bonding, insurance, or manufacturer approval.
• Ability to provide required surface preparation, ventilation, environmental control, and testing.
• Chemical, confined-space, respiratory, fire, silica, lead, and waste-handling risks.
• Availability of specified materials within the required schedule.
• Access, shutdown, cure, and return-to-service limitations.
• Contract terms, liquidated damages, indemnity, warranty, and payment conditions.
• Consequences of lining failure.
• Whether the available project information supports a responsible price.

Review the Contract Documents

The estimating file should include and reconcile:

• Invitation to bid and instructions to bidders.
• General and supplementary conditions.
• Technical specifications and coating schedules.
• Drawings, details, equipment layouts, and containment calculations.
• Addenda, substitutions, requests for information, and written clarifications.
• Coating manufacturer’s current technical and safety data sheets.
• Chemical-resistance confirmations and application instructions.
• Inspection and test plan.
• Owner safety, security, training, and permit requirements.
• Proposed contract, insurance, warranty, and closeout requirements.

Conflicts should be resolved in writing before pricing whenever possible. The contractor should not quietly select the least expensive interpretation of conflicting requirements.

Walk the Project

Drawings rarely show every crack, penetration, weld, curb, anchor, obstruction, repair, contamination source, or access limitation. A site visit allows the contractor to compare the documents with actual conditions.

Record measurements, photographs, access routes, power and water availability, drainage, ventilation, lighting, staging areas, waste routes, nearby operations, shutdown limitations, and locations that cannot be inspected. State any inaccessible areas in the proposal.

Define the Service Exposure

Before accepting responsibility for a lining selection, document:

• Every chemical or mixture that may enter the containment area.
• Minimum and maximum concentrations.
• Normal and maximum temperatures.
• Expected exposure duration before cleanup.
• Frequency of drips, splashes, spills, washdowns, or immersion.
• Cleaning agents, sanitizers, neutralizers, and maintenance chemicals.
• Mechanical traffic, impact, abrasion, vibration, and thermal cycling.
• Outdoor weather, ultraviolet exposure, ponding water, and freezing.
• Any anticipated future change in process or chemical storage.

Obtain written system recommendations from the coating manufacturer when chemical resistance or service suitability is part of the contractor’s scope.

Survey the Existing Substrate

The prebid survey should identify, as far as access permits:

• Substrate type, age, construction, and general condition.
• Existing coatings, linings, membranes, sealants, and repairs.
• Cracks, joints, spalls, laitance, corrosion, pitting, and deterioration.
• Oil, grease, chemicals, salts, moisture, and other contamination.
• Evidence of moisture-vapor transmission or hydrostatic pressure.
• Drainage, slope, ponding, low points, and blocked outlets.
• Coves, curbs, penetrations, terminations, trenches, and equipment bases.
• Conditions hidden beneath tanks, piping, pallets, or equipment.
• Hazardous materials that may affect preparation, exposure controls, or waste disposal.

Use Allowances for Concealed Conditions

Surface preparation often reveals conditions that could not be measured before the work began. Hidden deterioration, contamination, weak concrete, failed repairs, deep pitting, and moisture pathways can substantially change the work.

Instead of pretending these conditions do not exist, establish measurable unit prices or allowances for crack repair, spall repair, joint reconstruction, steel replacement, additional preparation, waste disposal, moisture mitigation, and other uncertain work.

Build the Quantity Takeoff

Measure more than floor area. The takeoff may include:

• Horizontal floors and equipment pads.
• Vertical walls, curbs, berms, and tank pads.
• Coves and inside or outside corners by linear foot.
• Cracks and joints by type and linear foot.
• Drains, sumps, trenches, and collection pits.
• Pipe penetrations, sleeves, columns, anchors, and equipment bases.
• Welds, edges, bolts, seams, and stripe-coat locations.
• Reinforcement, fabric, mortar, fillers, sealants, and termination materials.
• Protection, masking, temporary barriers, ventilation ducting, and containment materials.

Separate areas by substrate, preparation requirement, system, thickness, color, access, and application method. Combining unlike work into one square-foot quantity can hide significant labor and material differences.

Estimate Material From Required Thickness

Use the manufacturer’s published theoretical coverage at the specified thickness, then account for actual conditions. Coverage stated at one thickness should not be used for a different thickness without proper conversion.

Material requirements may be affected by:

• Surface roughness, porosity, and profile.
• Primer absorption into concrete.
• Stripe coats and irregular details.
• Wet-film and dry-film thickness requirements.
• Material volume solids.
• Transfer efficiency and application method.
• Material remaining in hoses, pumps, containers, rollers, and mixing equipment.
• Pot-life losses and unusable partial units.
• Overspray, masking loss, spillage, and cleanup.
• Waste factor and sufficient reserve material for repairs and closeout.

Do Not Use Theoretical Coverage as Guaranteed Field Coverage

Theoretical coverage assumes ideal conditions and no loss. Field coverage is affected by the substrate, details, application equipment, crew technique, environment, and material handling. The contractor must apply a realistic loss factor based on the actual project and company experience.

Estimate Labor by Operation

Labor should be estimated for every project activity, including:

• Mobilization, orientation, permits, and site-specific training.
• Isolation, protection, masking, and temporary containment.
• Removal of existing materials and waste handling.
• Cleaning, decontamination, and substrate preparation.
• Crack, joint, spall, cove, penetration, and termination work.
• Material receiving, conditioning, staging, mixing, and delivery.
• Priming, stripe coating, reinforcing, lining, and topcoating.
• Environmental monitoring and control.
• Quality-control inspection, testing, reports, and hold points.
• Repairs, touchup, punch-list work, and retesting.
• Cleaning, demobilization, and project closeout.
• Supervision, project management, safety, administration, and coordination.

Productivity should reflect actual access and detail complexity. A crew’s production on an open floor should not be applied to a containment area crowded with tanks, piping, penetrations, curbs, and equipment.

Include Equipment, Controls, and Indirect Costs

• Surface-preparation equipment and tooling.
• Mixers, pumps, spray equipment, hoses, rollers, and application tools.
• Vacuum collection, dust control, ventilation, and filtration.
• Heating, cooling, dehumidification, lighting, and power distribution.
• Scaffolds, lifts, platforms, ladders, and access systems.
• Gas detection, environmental instruments, and coating-inspection instruments.
• Personal protective equipment and respiratory protection.
• Waste containers, transport, profiling, testing, and disposal.
• Freight, taxes, permits, insurance, bonding, lodging, and travel.
• Small tools, consumables, equipment cleaning, and maintenance.
• Contingency appropriate to the defined project risks.

Build a Realistic Schedule

The schedule must include more than application time. It should account for access, shutdown, cleaning, substrate preparation, repairs, hold points, coat application, minimum and maximum recoat windows, cure, testing, repairs, retesting, and return to service.

Temperature affects pot life, working time, recoat time, and cure. A schedule based only on published cure times at standard laboratory conditions may not be achievable in the field.

Coordinate the work of other trades. Welding, piping, equipment installation, anchoring, scaffolding, and traffic performed after lining installation can damage finished work.

Cure Time Is Part of the Work

Cure time is not free time that can be removed from the schedule when production falls behind. The lining must receive the required cure under acceptable environmental conditions before testing, traffic, cleaning, water exposure, or chemical service.

The proposal should state who controls the area during cure and who is responsible for heating, ventilation, environmental monitoring, security, and protection from other operations.

Write a Complete Proposal

A professional proposal should identify:

• Project name, location, owner, and proposal date.
• Documents, drawings, addenda, and site information used to prepare the price.
• Areas, quantities, substrates, and details included.
• Surface preparation and repair included in the base price.
• Exact coating or lining system, number of coats, and required thickness.
• Inspection, testing, and acceptance requirements included.
• Access, utilities, shutdown, ventilation, environmental control, and schedule assumptions.
• Owner and other-trade responsibilities.
• Allowances and unit prices for uncertain conditions.
• Specific exclusions.
• Price, payment terms, proposal validity, and schedule.
• Warranty terms and limitations.
• Procedure for changed conditions and additional work.

State Assumptions and Exclusions Clearly

Assumptions explain the conditions on which the price is based. Exclusions identify work that is not included. Both should be specific enough that the owner can evaluate the proposal fairly.

Depending on the project, exclusions may address:

• Structural engineering or structural repair.
• Correction of hydrostatic pressure or subsurface moisture sources.
• Removal of hazardous materials not identified before bidding.
• Unknown contamination or concealed substrate deterioration.
• Equipment removal, piping modification, electrical work, or plumbing.
• Containment-capacity calculations or regulatory design certification.
• Performance against chemicals not identified in the proposal.
• Damage caused by other trades after completion.
• Testing or inspection beyond the stated scope.

Qualify Exclusions—Do Not Hide Behind Them

An exclusion does not permit a contractor to ignore an obvious condition that will prevent the lining from performing. If a known moisture, contamination, structural, or chemical-resistance problem makes the proposed system unsuitable, identify it and obtain direction before contracting.

Manage Changes in Writing

Changed conditions should be documented when discovered. Record the location, condition, effect on the work, proposed corrective action, price, schedule impact, and responsible party.

Except when immediate action is required for safety or property protection, additional work should not proceed without written authorization from the authorized party.

Verbal direction should be confirmed in writing. Daily reports and photographs should document work that will become concealed.

Quality-Control Documentation

The contractor’s daily record should document information such as:

• Areas worked and operations completed.
• Crew members, supervision, and hours.
• Ambient temperature, substrate temperature, relative humidity, dew point, and ventilation conditions.
• Substrate condition and surface-preparation acceptance.
• Profile, cleanliness, moisture, contamination, and repair results.
• Product names, batch numbers, quantities, storage, and conditioning.
• Mixing ratios, mix times, induction times, pot life, and application times.
• Application method, wet-film thickness, dry-film thickness, and coverage.
• Hold points, inspections, tests, and acceptance.
• Nonconforming work, repairs, and retest results.
• Delays, access restrictions, changed conditions, and work by others.
• Photographs showing preparation, details, completed layers, testing, and repairs.

If It Is Not Documented, It Is Difficult to Prove

Good documentation protects the owner and the contractor. It demonstrates what was installed, the conditions under which it was installed, how the work was inspected, how defects were corrected, and when the system was authorized for service.

Understand the Warranty

A warranty is a contractual commitment. Its terms should be reviewed before bidding and stated clearly in the final agreement. The contractor should understand exactly what is covered, for how long, under what conditions, and what remedy is provided.

A warranty should address:

• The warranted work and defined performance requirement.
• Warranty start date and duration.
• Required inspection and notification procedures.
• Owner maintenance and operating responsibilities.
• Covered repair or replacement remedy.
• Manufacturer and contractor responsibilities.
• Conditions that may suspend or exclude coverage.
• Documentation required to support a claim.

Conditions Commonly Outside Contractor Control

Warranty language may need to address conditions such as:

• Structural movement, settlement, or cracking.
• Hydrostatic pressure or moisture-vapor transmission.
• Chemical exposures not disclosed or approved.
• Concentrations, temperatures, or durations beyond stated limits.
• Mechanical abuse, impact, abrasion, or traffic outside the design.
• Fire, flooding, severe weather, or other extraordinary events.
• Damage or modification by the owner or other trades.
• Failure to inspect, clean, maintain, or promptly repair the system.
• Premature return to service or failure to follow cure requirements.

Warranty terms should be reviewed by qualified legal and insurance professionals. This course does not provide legal advice.

A Manufacturer’s Warranty Does Not Replace Contractor Responsibility

A coating manufacturer may warrant that its product meets stated manufacturing requirements or may provide additional project-specific coverage. That does not excuse improper storage, mixing, surface preparation, application, environmental control, thickness, or curing.

Obtain the manufacturer’s warranty requirements before work begins. Required inspections, approved applicator status, notification, documentation, testing, and manufacturer site visits cannot always be arranged after installation.

Project Closeout

A complete closeout package may include:

• Approved submittals, technical data sheets, safety data sheets, and specifications.
• Product, color, batch, quantity, and installation-location records.
• Daily reports and environmental records.
• Surface-preparation, repair, mixing, application, and cure records.
• Inspection, thickness, holiday, adhesion, and other test reports.
• Nonconformance, repair, and retest records.
• Manufacturer technical-service reports and written approvals.
• Marked drawings showing system boundaries, repairs, and test locations.
• Final photographs.
• Cleaning, inspection, maintenance, and repair instructions.
• Approved chemical-resistance information and service limitations.
• Required cure period and authorized return-to-service date.
• Warranty documents and claim procedures.
• Final acceptance and completed punch-list documentation.

Contractor Responsibility

A professional contractor is responsible for understanding the agreed scope, identifying conflicts and unsafe conditions, providing qualified supervision and workers, following approved procedures, controlling the work, documenting the installation, and refusing to conceal nonconforming conditions.

The contractor should not approve structural design, chemical compatibility, regulatory capacity, or engineering matters outside the contractor’s qualifications and contracted responsibility. Those matters should be referred to the responsible owner, engineer, manufacturer, environmental professional, or other qualified party.

Professional responsibility includes knowing when to stop, ask a question, document a condition, obtain written direction, or decline work that cannot be performed safely and correctly.

The Most Important Contracting Rule

Do not promise what has not been defined, do not price what has not been understood, do not install over a condition known to be unacceptable, and do not place a containment system into service until the work has been inspected, documented, and properly accepted.

Key Takeaways

• A reliable estimate begins with a defined exposure, substrate, system, scope, and acceptance requirement.
• Use site investigation, testing allowances, and unit prices to manage uncertain conditions.
• Measure details, repairs, and difficult areas—not only square footage.
• Base material quantities on required thickness, realistic field coverage, and actual project losses.
• Estimate labor for preparation, details, environmental control, inspection, cure, repair, and closeout.
• State assumptions, exclusions, allowances, and owner responsibilities clearly.
• Control changed conditions and additional work in writing.
• Document the installation while the work is being performed.
• Understand warranty requirements before bidding and installation.
• Professional responsibility includes recognizing the limits of the contractor’s authority and expertise.

Technical and Professional References

Consult the current edition of every referenced standard and the requirements applicable to the specific project. Standards and regulations may be revised after publication of this article.

• AMPP QP 8 — Installation of Polymer Coatings and Surfacings on Concrete and Other Cementitious Surfaces
• AMPP QP 8 Standard — Evaluating Contractors That Install Polymer Coatings, Linings, Surfacings, or FRP Composites
• AMPP QP 1 — Field Application to Complex Industrial Steel Structures and Other Metal Components
• ACI PRC-515.2-24 — Selecting Protective Treatments for Concrete—Guide
• OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200 — Hazard Communication
• OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1153 — Respirable Crystalline Silica

Course Completion

You have reached the final article in the AirSprayTech Academy course, Secondary Containment Coating Systems for Industrial Contractors.

If you have completed all 24 articles, continue to the course assessment. A score of 80% or higher is required to proceed to the Certificate of Completion request page.

Professional responsibility: Estimating, contracting, warranty, insurance, engineering, environmental, and regulatory requirements vary by project and jurisdiction. This article provides educational guidance and is not legal, engineering, environmental, insurance, or financial advice. Use qualified professionals to review contract terms, system design, chemical compatibility, regulatory requirements, safety obligations, warranties, and project-specific risks.

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