I have a 1000 sq ft workshop area I'm finishing off in a 100 year old barn. Humidity control is critical to the work I'll be doing in this shop. I have insulated walls and ceilings and drywalled. I'm now left with the floor. It's rough - in texture, and has its ups and downs like 50-75 year old floors do. I have a friend who does concrete coatings/floors and is willing to help me grind it the best we can, fill the cracks, and coat with a polyaspartic finish to seal the slab. It won't be "right", but it will be usable. A new slab would allow me insulate underneath making for warmer floor in the winter. Complicating my decision is I am unsure how long I will be in this shop/location and my two bids for a new slab were $6k and $7k with ME doing the tear out and prep. Lots of beam posts to work around makes things challenging for pouring and finishing. I'm torn on how to proceed. I can coat it for about 1/3 of what subbase, foam, rebar and new slab will cost me. Should I just grind and coat it and get moved in (new equipment is ready for install and holding up new products), tear it out and start over, or does someone have an alternate idea on how to proceed? Thanks in advance
Save or replace an old concrete floor - need to control moisture
- Thread starter OldNeons
- Start date
nadogail
Well-known member
Can you install an elevated wooden floor above the concrete floor. Just a few inches of air space may make it possible to better control the temperature and humidity.
thanks for the suggestion - unfortunately about 1" is all the space I would have to raise due to door swings/thresholds. Even that might be pushing it since nothing is straight/square/level and seems to move alot. I'm curious what other ideas might be out there for different products to cap, seal, coat, overlay??
If you choose to pursue the coatings path make sure you fully understand Moisture Vapor Transmission [MVT] levels. Unfortunately, this is hard to quantify accurately in the middle of summer as Calcium Chloride tests represent a snapshot in time.
If it were my 50 year old floor and I had to make a decision before the end of summer on what to do knowing that humidity control is a paramount concern, I would err on the side of caution and proceed as if winter MVT levels will be higher than "normal" i.e. in excess of 3.5lbs per 1,000ft. I would start with a thorough diamond grind, make any necessary repairs such as chasing and filling any cracks with either our TrowelEase or IntegraFlex, apply 20mil of BondTite 1102 (instead of our std 1101) followed by 20mil LiquaTile 1143 CFLC and call it a day. If I had 1st hand knowledge that high MVT is a known issue then I would consider substituting shot blasting in for diamond grinding.
Then I would
If it were my 50 year old floor and I had to make a decision before the end of summer on what to do knowing that humidity control is a paramount concern, I would err on the side of caution and proceed as if winter MVT levels will be higher than "normal" i.e. in excess of 3.5lbs per 1,000ft. I would start with a thorough diamond grind, make any necessary repairs such as chasing and filling any cracks with either our TrowelEase or IntegraFlex, apply 20mil of BondTite 1102 (instead of our std 1101) followed by 20mil LiquaTile 1143 CFLC and call it a day. If I had 1st hand knowledge that high MVT is a known issue then I would consider substituting shot blasting in for diamond grinding.
Then I would
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