Sources
Where the facts on this site come from, and when they were retrieved
Each registered calculator constant is listed with its source on the methodology page, and each passage quoted on a page carries its own source and retrieval date where it appears. The federal documents behind the figures these guides use are grouped below, and the two ASTM test methods are cited by title from ASTM International's own pages. Derived figures are arithmetic on sourced ones; assumed figures — our own planning allowances, such as grinding productivity and the cure rule of thumb — are listed with that label on the methodology page.
Why federal documents rather than industry cost guides
This site derives quantities — gallons, kits, machine hours, a moisture margin — rather than publishing a national installed-price figure, and the documents behind those derived quantities are legal definitions and regulatory tables rather than market surveys. A cubic-inch definition of a gallon does not go stale the way a regional labour rate does, which is why the sourced constants below carry a retrieval date on the methodology page rather than a cost guide's annual refresh.
The methodology page lists each registered constant the calculators read, with its source, its arithmetic if it is derived, or its disclosure if it is assumed. This page is the narrative version — grouped by document, with why each one matters to a specific decision on a specific page.
Packaging and labelling: what a gallon is, by federal definition
Statements of fluid measure shall be in terms of both the U.S. gallon of 231 cubic inches and quart, pint, and fluid ounce subdivisions thereof and SI metric liters or milliliters
What that changes for your floor This single sentence, combined with the definition of a mil as one one-thousandth of an inch, is the whole arithmetic behind 1,604.2 — the square feet one gallon covers at one mil, at full volume solids — from which the gallon and kit figures on this site scale. Used on the takeoff page and throughout the methodology page's derived-constants section.
Construction specification: the cure-time and moisture clauses these guides use
UFGS 09 90 00 is a federal construction specification (USACE / NAVFAC / AFCEC) rather than a residential code. These guides use two of its clauses: paragraph 3.6.1 a, which sets a 90-day cure before coating a slab on grade, and paragraph 3.6.1 d, which judges a concrete floor by a quantified moisture-emission test rather than the taped-plastic-sheet method it keeps for walls. Paragraph 3.6.1 a is used on the moisture verdict page, the permits guide and the when-not guide; paragraph 3.6.1 d on the moisture verdict page, the permits guide, the when-not guide and the guide to reading a quote.
Workplace silica standard: what controls a grinder needs
29 CFR 1926.1153 (OSHA, Respirable Crystalline Silica for construction) sets the 50 microgram-per-cubic-metre exposure limit this site cites, and the Table 1 rows for walk-behind floor grinders and handheld grinders used on the dust control page and the permits and federal rules guide. Shot blasting has no row in that table. The standard binds employers rather than a homeowner working alone, which this site states plainly rather than implying a broader legal reach than the standard actually has.
Air-quality coatings table: the VOC ceiling a product is sold under
40 CFR part 59 subpart D (EPA architectural coatings) sets the 400 and 450 gram-per-litre rows this site cites on the film build page and the permits and federal rules guide; the price drivers guide uses the 50 g/L gap between them. Several states and air districts publish tighter limits than this federal ceiling, which this site notes rather than treats as the only number that could apply to a given product.
Accessibility standard: why no slip-resistance number appears anywhere on this site
The guide to the ADA Standards explains that the standards require accessible surfaces to be slip resistant while stating plainly that no consensus measurement method exists for rating it. This site quotes that refusal rather than inventing a coefficient-of-friction figure the standard itself does not publish; used on the finish systems page and the permits and federal rules guide.
Test methods cited for title only
ASTM F1869 and ASTM F2170 (and D4263, which the federal specification names for walls) are cited by name and title only, because the body of an ASTM standard is copyrighted. Neither F1869 nor F2170 publishes a pass-or-fail limit for a coating; that limit comes from the product's own data sheet or, on projects built to it, the federal specification. The methodology page explains this refusal in full under "Why no moisture threshold appears anywhere on this site" (meaning no pass/fail limit from those two ASTM test methods).
What is deliberately absent from this list
There is no consumer cost-guide citation here and no national installed-price figure anywhere on this site. The installed cost page explains that refusal directly: preparation is set by a slab's condition that cannot be seen from a distance, and a published average would read as personal guidance while being an aggregate of jobs unlike yours.
Regional cost tables will appear here only when they can be quoted from a named, dated source.
Update log
The dated log of what changed on this site, including when these guides were added, is kept in one place: the update log on the methodology page.