For most trowels used for floor-covering installations, the correct angle to hold the trowel is 45 degrees to the floor. There is a reason for this angle. First, the angle creates a bit of a hydraulic pumping action by compressing the liquid adhesive and forcing it through the notches. If you were to hold the trowel at a 90-degree angle to the subfloor, you wouldn’t get the compressing action and would just cut through the adhesive on the floor. Without the compression from the 45-degree angle placement, the adhesive may actually skip through the trowel notches and leave you with an undesirable result.
Because you will be directly touching it with an adhesive and flooring material, both of which may not function properly when in contact with a damp substrate. For example, if your goal was to install a solid vinyl sheet flooring over a damp concrete slab using a wet-lay, water-based adhesive, once you covered the adhesive with the sheet vinyl there would be nowhere for the moisture in the adhesive to absorb into; the existing moisture would remain in its liquid state and the installation would be a mess. Another example would be to install prefinished solid wood flooring using a urethane adhesive over a damp concrete slab. The urethane adhesive would cure nicely because it cures by coming into contact with moisture, but the wood flooring would absorb moisture coming from the slab and cup, warp, curl or swell – causing a nightmare of a problem. The bottom line is that there's a reason for the moisture-limits statements of adhesives and flooring materials. As such, the installer should calculate the appropriate measurements for moisture to determine if he can proceed or if he needs to do something more to isolate that moisture from the flooring installation.
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