100% Moisture in Florida Concrete Slab 2011 Home
2 weeks ago our tile floor in the kitchen suddenly buckled up in a tent shape. We pulled the few tiles up that were affected and didn’t see any damage to the foundation. We noticed all the adhesive stayed on the foundation and the bottom of the tiles looked new. It did look like some darker spots in the mortar like it could possibly be moisture but we weren’t sure. The house is a 2011, we’ve never had any trouble with our flooring to this point. Over the next few days the tiles kept coming up. We had a flooring person come out with a moisture meter and he was getting high readings everywhere he checked. He went into our living area where we have engineered hardwood and it was reading moisture also. He told us we needed to find the source of the problem before we tried to replace the floor.
We had a leak detection company come out and he was getting a 100 percent moisture reading in every area in the house with tile and hi/lo readings that were sporadic throughout the rest of the house. They found no plumbing leaks. He said either there was no moisture barrier when our home was constructed or it failed. Now that we are aware of the issue we notice the grout in both bathrooms looks wet and some of the wood planks have separated in other areas.
How is this issue addressed so we never have this problem again? Do we empty our house and remove all flooring and have a moisture barrier installed then install new flooring? Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Comments (9)
PROGN Builders L.L.C
5 years ago
PROJohnson Flooring Co Inc
5 years agoRelated Discussions
laying a concrete floor in 100yo house
Comments (3)The general desire is to pour concrete on 'undisturbed soil', which typically means non-excavated soil. I would think soil/stone that has been trodden on for 120 years would qualify as that. I don't see why you can't go with pouring on the current floor, taking note of the added comments below. Basement floors typically don't have metal reinforcing in them. At post or lally column pads the pour would be thicker and may require reinforcement. Evan a one inch layer of pea gravel would establish a drainage plane if things do get wet underneath, so I would recommend that and installing a drainage field with perforated pipe and sump pit (better safe than sorry). And by all means place a 6 mil visqueen vapor barrier over the floor before the concrete is poured; even though the floor appears dry to you now, most every basement foundation/floor is constantly releasing moisture into the home via water vapor. Also plan on sawing control joints to allow for controlled cracking....See More25 year old house, concrete slab, tell me what floor to get, plea
Comments (9)dian, we've done the tape the plastic to the floor thing and didn't find any moisture. Dh & I even talked about painting the slab for a short term cheap solution, but agree that it would look pretty awful. We went to Home Depot & found some vinyl flooring strips called Traffic Master and were on the verge of ordering it when we thought we'd better come home & do some remeasuring first. I got online & found about as many happy people as unhappy, and really, about half the unhappy folks sounded like they hadn't put it down according to directions. Still, even though it would be a short term solution for us, I don't want to look at curling edges for 6-8 months either so we've backed off that for now. Thought we'd visit a Floor & Decor tomorrow & see what other options we have. If the TrafficMaster worked, it would be ideal. It would only cost about $600, and would be able to clean it during construction, and if for some reason we actually loved it, we could patch it in to the new addition & just leave it here....See MoreInstalling (floating) LVP with built in cork backing on concrete slab
Comments (1)All manufacturers have their own installation guidelines. I deal a lot with Coretec which is a vinyl plank product with a cork backing. Their installation requirements state that you will need to check your subfloor with a 10' straight edge for any dips or humps. Any dips or humps greater than 3/16" must be addressed. Humps will need to be ground down and dips will need a floor patch or self leveler. Home Depot sells a self leveler by Custom Building Products, this is a great product that I use on our jobs. If you choose to lay a moisture barrier (we don't with Coretec) the 6mil product you have shown named Blue Hawk will work....See MoreBasement bath concrete floor and walls -shower moisture barrier?
Comments (7)Concrete will just wick moisture everywhere that it’s attached to. The framing and any vanity that touches the floor will rot out pretty quickly. An epoxy kludge isn’t a substitute for proper construction practices that include proper waterproofing for wet spaces. If you want the look of a concrete shower, then you can go the traditional construction method and use a micro topping over the cement board walls. You would need to pay attention to proper detailing to the max and have a capillary break installed all the way around where the micro met the existing. Not cheap. There is nothing magic that is cheap and that would provide acceptable conditions for a wet use area....See More
User
5 years ago
alex9179
5 years agoCrystal Norman
5 years ago- PRO
GN Builders L.L.C
5 years ago 
mark_rachel
5 years ago
PROJeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
5 years ago
alex9179