I live in a condo building with five units, all built atop a concrete slab. A new neighbor moved in about two years ago and ripped up the carpet to replace it with something newer and noted that there were cracks in the slab that discolored a bit where water had seeped up. I saw the damage myself, they were cracks very thin, but about two to four feet long, and were darker than the rest of the slab and moiste to the touch. My neighbor patched the slabs and put carpet over.
We guessed that part of the problem was that the little front yard area of this neighbor's unit was a sort of small hill that sloped down into the front of his unit. We had the hill flattened and that was that.
After the heavy rains that hit SoCal last month, I noticed that one corner of my downstairs carpet was damp to the touch. Not sopping wet, just a little moiste, about an area 2 ft. by 1 ft. I believe it's a cracked slab allowing moisture up. I put some fans on it and dried it, and since it's not rained much in the past month, the carpet's bone dry, like it should be. I assume it's a crack in the slab, and assume it needs to be patched.
My questions (finally!):
- Can I do this myself? I am not very handy and am worried about causing more damage than not * If I want someone else to do this, who do I hire to take care of this? Is there a yellow pages section, "Slab crack repairers?" * What future belies the neighbors who have hardwood floors? I imagine a wet carpet pales in comparison to a wet hardwood floor, w.r.t. damage and cost to repair.
Thanks!