wet concrete garage floor problem

I live in a house built in 1951 and concrete drive and garage floor are not in great condition and should be replaced. May be a couple of years before I get that done however. For now I would like to do a fix on the concrete in the garage.

Not sure why, but much of the time the concrete is damp and some of the time there is standing water, mostly on the north side. The garage is attached to the house, but is couple feet lower. The garage concrete sits well above grade and no problems with gutters, and no leaks in roof. I guess the water just wicks up?

Is there some product I could use to seal this old concrete and stop this problem?

The floor was also painted at some point, but 90% of the paint is gone on the north side, which is where the problem is. There are however small patches of paint here and there.

Looking for a fix that can last a couple of years at least.

Reply to
cheapdave
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Without determining the source of the water and addressing that, no solution is possible. Also, if the concrete garage floor is in such bad shape that it should be replaced, it's hard to contemplate a solution worth pursuing that's going to be worth it. If it needs to be replaced, what's the point in say painting it? And any prep work to get it to the state where it could be flat, ready to be painted, isn't likely to be worth it if it still needs to be replaced in a few years.

But first step in any of that is determining what the water problem is. IDT anyone here can do that withoug even seeing it.

Reply to
trader_4

I'd be reluctant to put anything ON TOP of the slab to prevent moisture from accumulating on top of the slab. That's because whatever you put on top of the slab WON'T prevent water from rising up into the slab, and the more water there is in there, the greater the liklihood of freeze/thaw damage if it gets cold enough in the winter for that slab to freeze. (I don't know where you live.)

Another possible source of that moisture is condensation. A concrete slab has a lot of thermal inertia. If it gets cold, it'll stay cold for a long time before warm weather warms it up again. If the weather turns hot and humid, you can have enough condensation forming on that cold slab to make it wet.

You might try duct taping some vapour barrier down over the worst area of the slab when it's dry, and then checking to see if the moisture forms above or below the plastic when it's wet there. That will tell you whether the moisture is accumulating from below or from above. Could the condensation be forming over the entire surface of the slab, and then draining to the north end of it by gravity? Is your garage slab smooth enough to test that hypothesis with a ball bearing? I'm thinking you could let the ball bearing loose on the garage slab, and see if it rolls to the north end of the slab.

The fact that the paint has peeled off in the area where the water is worst certainly suggests that the water is rising up from below, but if that were the case, one would expect mold to be growing both on and IN the concrete in that area. If it were condensation, you'd have much less mold growth because there would be no minerals or nutrients in the condensation that could provide a food supply to the mold.

Your best bet is to wait until you replace the slab, and put a moisture barrier down over the compacted limestone before you pour the concrete. That way you're preventing the moisture from even entering the slab, and dry concrete is happy concrete.

Reply to
nestork

please tell me you don't have cast iron water piping. circa '51, it's time for it to start failing, and leaking, and supplying water in all kinds of surprising places.

Reply to
RobertMacy

I had a leak in the downstairs bathroom. Water on the floor, but no idea where it was coming from. Never saw a drip anywhere for weeks. Finally, I found a leak in a flex section of the baseboard heat where it had to make a little zig-zag.

Replaced it, then about 6 years later it leaked the same way. Replaced it with PEX. That has been OK for years now.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

One possibility: Was there ever salt or other hydrophilic chemicals stored there? If so then maybe the first step is to just give it a good washing.

Reply to
Mayayana

What if the garage floor has a water supply pipe buried in or under it?

My house was built in 1965. During a 2000 renovation, it was found that both sewer and water pipes were buried in or under concrete. I never had a problem that I knew of, but there are now new pipes routed outside around the concrete!

Fred

Reply to
Fred McKenzie

Does the darage have gutters on the roof? What is the slope of the surrounding land? Sounds like you have a SERIOUS drainage issue!!!

Reply to
clare

Mu brother-in-law bought a house in Levitown, PA. Built in the 1950's they had copper tubing in the floor for radiant heat. In the 70's and

80's, homeowners started putting in baseboard heat when the copper started to corrode away.
Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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