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About to pour

nonhog

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Question #1 when installing vapor barrier should I stop pour at garage and man doors to keep the apron sections from letting moisture in slab ?
Then pour seperate aprons ?

#2 what should I seal slab with that I can get local ? It seems like I won't have time to mail order anything .
 
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bmwpower

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Question #1 when installing vapor barrier should I stop pour at garage and man doors to keep the apron sections from letting moisture in slab ?
Then pour seperate aprons ?

#2 what should I seal slab with that I can get local ? It seems like I won't have time to mail order anything .

It's always better to make one, continuous pour and include the aprons in that pour. And if you're using rebar, extend the rebar to those aprons no avoid shear.

As far as vapor barrier goes, I ran mine out the door as much as a could, but I don't think it's a big deal as moisture tends to travel up not sideways as much.

What I would DO is, just inside the garage doors, raise the floor 3/4" or so, so that any water that does get past the garage doors, stops there.

I did the same thing to the man door.
 

bmwpower

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Whoops, forgot...

Don't buy the clear plastic stuff from Home Depot. Call around to any/all concrete places. You want 5mil minimum. You want something that is standard rated for best results.

I know some places around me had other brands of stuff, but in bulk quantity.
 

boiler7904

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BMWPower took care of #1 but didn't mention anything on #2.

Answer to #2 depends on if you want to add epoxy later. If you do, avoid sealing the floor and keep it as clean as possible until you can put the coating down. That will cut way down on the amount of prep work (i.e. removing the sealer since epoxy doesn't bond with typical concrete sealer) when it comes to doing the epoxy. If you aren't doing epoxy, go with an off the shelf curing / sealing compound. If Lowe's or Home Depot don't have it, any local construction supply house should have it. Just spray it on even with a hand pump garden sprayer.
 

bmwpower

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BMWPower took care of #1 but didn't mention anything on #2.

Answer to #2 depends on if you want to add epoxy later. If you do, avoid sealing the floor and keep it as clean as possible until you can put the coating down. That will cut way down on the amount of prep work (i.e. removing the sealer since epoxy doesn't bond with typical concrete sealer) when it comes to doing the epoxy. If you aren't doing epoxy, go with an off the shelf curing / sealing compound. If Lowe's or Home Depot don't have it, any local construction supply house should have it. Just spray it on even with a hand pump garden sprayer.

oh...I thought by seal he meant vapor barrier...oops.
 
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N

nonhog

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Whoops, forgot...

Don't buy the clear plastic stuff from Home Depot. Call around to any/all concrete places. You want 5mil minimum. You want something that is standard rated for best results.

I should have done more checking but ended up going with 1 layer of 4 mil
and covered that with a layer of 6 mil , 4 was clear 6 was black both said
use as a vapor barrier . I am taping all the joints and went up the sides a couple of inches . In some areas the sheeting is triple thick .

BMWPower took care of #1 but didn't mention anything on #2.

Answer to #2 depends on if you want to add epoxy later. If you do, avoid sealing the floor and keep it as clean as possible until you can put the coating down. That will cut way down on the amount of prep work (i.e. removing the sealer since epoxy doesn't bond with typical concrete sealer) when it comes to doing the epoxy. If you aren't doing epoxy, go with an off the shelf curing / sealing compound. If Lowe's or Home Depot don't have it, any local construction supply house should have it. Just spray it on even with a hand pump garden sprayer.

I don't feel good about epoxy at this point , and not a big fan of the click noise from plastic type floors . Probably do some floor covering where I park my bike not sure yet . I think I would be happy with a clean sealed floor .
 
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X73

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Dec 16, 2007
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What you might want to consider is adding color to the concrete. I'm not a fan of epoxy either so I'm having my concrete colored to a light gray & then will seal with a good sealer my concrete guy suggested that has a lot of solids in it.
 

SC-Eric

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I'm not a fan of epoxy either so I'm having my concrete colored to a light gray & then will seal with a good sealer my concrete guy suggested that has a lot of solids in it.

The first coat of sealer should be lower solids to help it penetrate into the concrete. After that first coat dries, higher solids sealers will add performance. A sealer that is too high in solids for the first coat can actually hurt performance if it doesn't penetrate the laitenance formation.
 
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nonhog

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They have poured ! looks pretty good , wondering has anybody done relief cuts with a skill saw and proper blade ? Seems to me it would work o.k. judging from the accidents I have done cutting a 1/8" line in my floor years ago and not knowing it till it was too late.
I could buy a few blades based on what they rent those concrete saws for.
 
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