1. Scope

1.1 This guide is intended to assist owners and specifiers to determine the location of test sites and frequency of testing for measuring the amount of soluble salt on:

• Uncoated steel surfaces prior to the first application of a protective coating.
• Shop coated steel (primer, pre-construction primer) that will subsequently receive additional coats to complete a coating system.

1.2 Maintenance coating projects or surfaces with a complete manufactured coating system installed are outside the scope of this guide. The guide does not replace nor endorse any of the various test kits/methods commercially available for the measurement of soluble salts (see SSPC-Guide 15). It is not intended for use when determining acceptance criteria for test values of soluble salt contamination.

1.3 Units of Measure: This standard provides both U.S. Customary units and IEEE/ASTM SI 10(1), "American National Standard for Metric Practice" International System Units (SI) units. The measurements are not exact equivalents; therefore, each system must be used independently of the other, without combining in any way. This guide uses U.S. Customary units and provides the SI conversions shown in parentheses for information only.