Sealing concrete?? I think?? help

[383 240z]

I've got water problems in the shop. First I had a leaking roof, fixed that to take care of the wet floor. Next problem was my driveway was higher than the garage doors, water ran under the doors, flooding me out. Fixed that, and put drainage across the front of the shop. Thought I had my water problems fixed.

We had 8-10" of snow melt in 2 days here last week (it went from high 20's to low 60's overnight) I walked into the shop yesterday to find the floor all wet, not flooded just very wet. GRRRR!!!!!! Only thing I can think of is with the ground pretty near full saturation, the water backed up under my stone base, and weeped up through the concrete. I'm 100% certain the water is not coming from above. Nothing else is the shop has water on it.

So what I'm thinking is can I "seal" the concrete? Sort of a water proof paint type of stuff? I know "paint" wont work/last but am I on the right track? Any floor pros want to chime in? Keith

 

[Shea]

If you have a stone base that is just letting water migrate up through the cement occasionally, you may want to consider a penetrating sealer. In most cases you just spray them on with a pump sprayer. It is easy to prep the floor for these and most products are not too expensive either. Check out this article on penetrating sealers to learn more.

If you are thinking of epoxy (epoxy paint), then you will need to run a moisture vapor transmission test to make sure that you are dealing with just water migrating up through your stone base and not hydrostatic pressure. There are some good epoxy primers available that actually resist moisture vapor transmission up to 4 pounds per 1000 square feet per 24 hours. If your floor isn't doing anything more than that, you can most likely do a nice epoxy coating.

 

[rburke65]

Are you sure it's noy just condensation.....the warm, high humid air hitting the cold concrete? I had the same condition here in the Youngstown area.

 

[bobscogin]

(it went from high 20's to low 60's overnight) I walked into the shop yesterday to find the floor all wet,

The air warmed up but the slab was still cold, and the humidity in the air condensed on the slab. Moisture barriers or sealers will not prevent that from happening.

Bob

 

[pauloman]

check out www.epoxyproducts.com/vee4u.html for internal concrete sealers (which leave nothing on the surface). Try this easy and cheap step before going to a concrete sealer like esp 155 - no down side to the internal bio vee seal sealer, but once you apply a surface coating you've gone down a path you cannot easily undo.

paul