Flooring: The Next Generation – Ultracompact Surfacing (Removed)
This course is no longer active. AEC Daily will not report completion information for this course.
Large format floor tiles are elegant, classy, and timeless, and create spacious and stylish environments with high-end appeal. This course introduces a unique, cutting edge surfacing material known as ultracompact surfacing (UCS) and explores how it is manufactured, installation considerations, and the attributes that contribute to its superior performance and design potential.
Upon completion of this course, the Learner should be able to:
- Define ultracompact surfacing (UCS) and discuss the innovative production process that creates superior properties that contribute to project longevity and reduced maintenance.
- Recall the installation considerations related to the substrate, materials, and methods that are unique to large format tile projects.
- Discuss designing with UCS in terms of color, texture, format, and general design flexibility, as well as the various applications possible for both interior and exterior applications.
- Identify ten key attributes of UCS, explaining how they influence material performance.
- State the advantages of UCS versus porcelain tile, specifically as they relate to large format application challenges.
Approximately 1 hour. Delivered online, at your own pace.
Presented by Steve DeBerardino on behalf of Cosentino North America. View the Privacy Policy .
Presenter Information
Name: Steve DeBerardino
Title: Commercial Business Director, Cosentino North America
Background: Steve DeBerardino is a 1987 graduate of the United States Military Academy and has an MBA from Charleston Southern University. After serving as a Corps of Engineers officer where he ran large construction projects in Central America, Steve has had a long career in the private sector, primarily in relation to construction products. In various roles at Exxon in the 1990s, he was instrumental in growing the use of geosynthetics. Steve pushed product and material use in stabilization, drainage, and reinforcement applications on a number of fronts: throughout North America as a member of the AASHTO M288 committee, or when presenting cutting edge research at the Transportation Research Board, to state departments of transportation, or at the Geosynthetic Research Institute. In the next decade and a half, Steve ran various business units for Oldcastle of increasing size and responsibility, primarily in the concrete products arena. His last role at Oldcastle started in 2009 when he was President of a multi-site fabrication business in the Southeast, Oldcastle Surfaces. Here, he started a relationship with Cosentino, and joined Cosentino in 2015. He is now the Commercial Business Director, responsible for all commercial business for Cosentino in North America.
