water sealing concrete
 

parents installed wood floors last september and here in so cal, we had heavy rains the past winter. well, it seems the rain water may have seeped into the concrete and come up from under the house. the floors buckled everywhere. we called insurance and since it's not water pipe damage, they're not covering it.

we pulled the strips out carefully and pulled up some plywood. lots of it is wet. a contractor told me of some concrete sealer that would prevent seepage of water. does something of this sort exist? i've looked at thompson's but that seems to more protect the concrete. i'm gonna spend the summer laying down the wood floors again and i don't want to have to do it again. so i'm hoping to seal the concrete and make sure water doesn't come up again.

thanks in advance

well, im going to assume the guys who set up for your house didnt use any visqueen. This is a code violation in some areas since it causes things like you just experienced. The only thing i have personally used for post setting has been some evil tar substance that we use on building edges to protect from seepage. There are quite a few sealants on the market but make sure you use something with lifetime or at least as long a gaurantee as you can find. Just google it for more info.

yeah who ever built the place should have used plastic sheeting underneath the slab. im assuming its a slab on ground.

id agree that some sort of brush on waterprrofing product should do the job, but my best bet would be to get a contractor to do it for you (supply and apply the waterprrofing membrane) and certify the job and give u a guarantee. that way if it happens again, he'd gotta come back and fix up your floor boards. make sure he puts it in writing for you. or otherwise write it up yourself or through your solicitor and get him to sign it

Concrete waterproofing is typically a product which is absorbed into the surface of the substrate and protects it on the positive side-that is the side from which the water is coming. Putting a coating on the negative side will often result in failure, because water will always try to move from an area of higher vapor pressure to an area of lower, and will cause disbonding and bubbling of the coating. It sounds like you're dealing with hardwood installed above plywood underlayment, and I assume the plywood underlayment was fastened to the slab with PAT fasteners, and they would create a path for intrusion of water. The best thing to do is to direct water away from the slab with corrugated piping set in a bed of 3/8" washed stone, and wrap the whole thing in geotextile cloth. Slope the pipe to discharge (1/8" in a foot) and by giving ground water a path of lesser resistance, the slab should stay dry.

come to think about it kazzoo, ure right..sub soil drainage would be ideal

be careful that the product you use does not contain asbestos, like Bondex used to. Currently Bondex is being sued for having asbestos. The old house I grew up in was built in the 1880's and had a stone foudation that contantly leaked water. My mom used Bondex on the interior and it worked and she's still alive at 82. But be careful...