This standard describes a procedure suitable for laboratory and field use to determine conformance to specified surface profile on concrete substrates using Method 1: Depth micrometer as described in ASTM D8271, Method 2: Concrete Surface Profile (CSP) Chips (CSP 1-10) as described in ICRI Guideline No. 310.2R, or Method 3: Replica putty as described in ASTM D7682 (Method 3A-visual or Method 3B-quantitative).

Proper bonding of coatings and linings to concrete surfaces requires proper cleaning and frequently requires the concrete to be roughened to increase the surface area. The roughness, also known as surface profile, can be imparted into concrete by abrasive or water blast cleaning, acid etching or various impact/scarifying power tools. The resulting surface profile depth can influence coating/lining adhesion and performance. Coating/lining manufacturers and/or facility owners frequently specify cleaning and roughening of the concrete surface prior to product installation. 

Coating/lining manufacturers and/or facility owners frequently specify cleaning and roughening of the concrete surface prior to product installation. The specifications may reference qualitative methods including visual assessments using comparison coupons or quantitative methods including surface profile depth measurements. However, prior to this Technical Report, there was no known data to inform a conversion between qualitative and quantitative methods. The outcomes of this Technical Report enable coating manufacturers, engineers, specifiers, and contractors to convert well-established qualitative methods to quantitative values based on an interlaboratory experiment. While current quantitative methods can measure up to 6 mm (250 mils), extremely rough concrete surfaces (exceeding ~1.5 mm, or ~50 mils) were not included in the experiment due to the inability to stabilize the instrument probe and obtain accurate data.