Water issues

[fireball05]

Hello all,

Just recently found this forum and have been reading around - I have a detached 2 car garage behind my house that the previous owner had severely neglected. I have finally begun to clear it out and make plans for try and emulate some of your dream garages I've seen here!

It is a simple 24x24 garage, poured concrete floors (must be 30+ yrs old). Walls are 3 stacked concrete blocks and then the bare framing with exterior covered with plywood only. Now that it is cleaned out I had plans to prep the floor for one of the DIY epoxy coatings I've read about here. Problem is that when it rains I seem to have some serious moisture seeping either up from the floors or through the block perimeter.

Does anyone know what steps I could take to eliminate this water from getting in? The block perimeter has never been sealed or painted, and I'm sure the concrete floor is bare as well (save for lots of dirt and oil spills!) I'm worried that with this amount of moisture seeping through, I'll have no luck at all with the epoxy coating.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - please keep a tight budget in mind when giving any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RPH]

Start by checking the grade outside the walls. Make sure it slopes away and doesn't pool water in the area. Lay down some plastic on the concrete and tape in place. If water condenses on it this can indicate seepage through the concrete.

 

[fireball05]

Start by checking the grade outside the walls. Make sure it slopes away and doesn't pool water in the area. Lay down some plastic on the concrete and tape in place. If water condenses on it this can indicate seepage through the concrete.

I will lay down some plastic this weekend - silly question but am I looking for condensation only after the next rain, or would it show up right away?

Here are some pics - I don't have a whole lot to work with, but at least it's something! What about some sort of sealant on the concrete block walls? I would imagine that would help a bit.

 

[boiler7904]

Once you tape the plastic to the slab, you're looking for two things. 1 - Is the concrete under plastic darker than the surrounding slab? 2 - Is there visible condensation on the plastic sheeting? If either question is answered yes, the moisture is permeating through the slab. You will continue to have moisture problems in the space. With a detached building that old, you more than likely don't have a vapor barrier under the slab.

Looking at the exterior photo, you have a bad combination. Big trees, a low pitch roof, and gutters. When was the last time they were cleaned? Clogged gutters will dump a lot of water right at the foundation during a rainfall. Do you get snow in your area? If so, make sure that it isn't allow to pile up in contact with the wall. Melting snow held against the building will also permeate the building.

There are two other things to look at:

The joint between the slab and the interior side of the block walls. Is it damp or darker in color than the surrounding material? Is there a sealant of some type there?

How is the condition of the mortar in the block wall? If there are cracks or missing pieces, I can guarantee that you'll get water in the building. Grind old degrading mortar out and replace it with new material.

They make a paint for masonry that is supposed to stop the transmission of water but I'm a fan of it. If you have water moving from the exterior to the interior and it stops before exiting the interior face, you have a wall full of water. Obviously not good.

 

[PoorOwner]

In my opinion it looks like a bad candidate for epoxy. If you don't do any welding I think a tile system will work alot better. What I see in the picture is the building is slightly below grade, you can trust the plastic or sealer around the foundation to hold for a while, but water is so powerful, any moisture that gets under the epoxy would lift the epoxy.

I am thinking my garage doesn't have vapor barrier too, since it feels somewhat cheapy built, but it is significantly above grade.

 

[sdurgala]

I see your rain gutter down spouts are draining right near the garage. The first thing I would do is: get some extensions on the down spout(s), to get the water to run "away" from the garage.

Next, I would check out if there is any water running near the garage, the next time it rains. It could be running right into the garage.

Finally, if all else fails you could put down some plastic pipe around the garage (under the ground) to drain the water away from the garage.

My 2 cents: If you don't get the water issue under control now, you'll pay the price later when the concrete starts cracking...
(Good Luck!)

 

[fireball05]

Thanks for the feedback. The backyard does indeed slope towards the side of the garage. I don't feel the pitch of the roof is a problem, or the gutters/downspouts as they have been recently cleaned and although the downspout shoots the water away from the garage.

We had a steady rain for a few hours this past Saturday night. Woke up sunday morning (rain had stopped 2-3 hrs prior) and shot these photos of the side walls. No moisture or discoloration was visible on the floor.

What do you think of these photos?

 

[1320stang]

Theres a block sealing product called, I believe, UGL that you can get in a few different colors.

 

[safetyfast]

UGL is good, but it won't stick to the effloresence (the white stuff oozing out of the block), so you'll have to scrub that off with muriatic acid first. You probably ought to dig a trench around the foundation and put in a french drain.