Predominant Material and Condition

5. Floor

Section: Predominant Material and Condition of ____

The three questions that follow in the dwelling form refer, each one, to the Predominant Material and Condition of: the Outside Walls (question 3) The Roof (question 4) and The Floor (question 5). It concerns in these cases observing of which materials are built the walls, the floor and the roof of the dwelling in the census moment, to register its state, according to which part it corresponds to.

Question 5: Predominant Materials and State of the Floor

[Below the text is a form.]

The Most Predominant Material Possible

Here you have to register the material that is found in the majority of the floors of the rooms, sleeping quarters or bedrooms of the dwelling, that is to say, that covers a greater area of these.

If the floors in the majority are made of "Wood", the class of this material that is used and the form (for example, parquet) is not important. When the majority of the floors are "Mosaic", you should take into account in this classification also what is known as terrazzo, terracín [type of tile], palladian, and as it occurs with the other questions that we have examined up to now, also is left the possibility that the Predominant Material of the floor is made of "Other" type for example, rug over cement, rug over wood, polished cement, brick, other, etc.

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On the other hand it can be that the floor of the Dwelling is made of earth, that is to say, there is artificially built material over it. In this case you should mark the response that says "Does not have (dirt floor)".

{Polished floors are those that have been scrubbed and covered, generally with red or green ocher.}

The State of the Predominant Material

In the effort of establishing certain norms so that you evaluate the predominant material in the floors, in the manner that your judgments coincide with that of you fellow enumerators, and with those of technical statistics, we mention the following criteria to be used.

• "Good": When the predominant material in the Floor does not show any deterioration such as a crack, hole, sagging base, etc.
• "Fair": if the predominant material requires repairs of some importance, by having damages in its components or in its base.
• "Bad": The floor is required to be substituted by having sagging or rotten bases, with evident danger for the inhabitants of the dwelling.
• When the floor is made of earth the state is not established.

{An observation with respect to the state of predominant materials}

It can be that with a simple view the predominant materials both in the outside walls as well as in the floor and in the roof of the dwelling give the impression of being found in a good state. Because of this, it is advisable that you do not trust superficial observations and that you try to investigate with these enumerated persons if there exist problems with the material of which the outside walls, the floors and the roofs are constructed in the greatest form.

In addition to some places where there have been tremors and even earthquakes, many things can occur that change your judgments about the state of the predominant materials in the dwelling. For example, it is possible that in some houses you see cracks in the walls and floors; nevertheless, you should be careful about the time of classifying as good, average, or bad, the state of these materials.

Example No. 1: It results that many of the cracks are only superficial and that many families have asked for the evaluation of an engineer or an expert in construction to know if these apparent damages are serious or not.

Example No. 2: In many cases, a technical report has been clear in expressing that they only are cracks without importance, that the only thing that they require is a superficial repair, more than anything so that they are not seen as "ugly".

Example No. 3: In other cases, on the other hand, the opinion of the architect or engineer is that repairs of some consideration or structural repairs like changing or reinforcing columns, materials should be made. In the first example you should classify the predominant material as "good"; in the second as "average" and in the third as "bad". Consequently, you should explore with more detail when these situations present themselves to form a more exact opinion that will permit you to classify the material of these cases.