Which Concrete Floor sealer?

ombligo

I'm getting ready to put down laminate atop a concrete slab. There will be underlayment and a moisture barrier, but I'm wondering about a sealer as well.

Should I rollon a concrete sealant just to be safe?

if so, what brand do you suggest?


TIA,
Ron

housedocs

Personally I'd put nu-heat under a tile floor if it was me, but alot of folks like the laminates. Not my thing so I just don't do them. In answer to your question, a coat of dry-loc couldn't hurt anything I would think. Hope that helps.

Sorry we didn't get back to you sooner, I guess that's why you reported the post?

__________________
All you need is ignorance and confidence and success is assured. - Mark Twain

floorman

Armstrong reccomends that you do a moisture test on the slab to test for the amount of moisture present.

What you do is take some 6 mil plastic ,cut into 1'x1' sheets,you will need 3 for the first 1000 square feet then another 1 for every 500 square feet.Tape them to the floor using duct tape and seal the edges real good,let sit for 24 hours.After that you need to check for any darkness in the concrete or drops of water if they are present then you would need a calcium chloride test to see how much moisture is there.Armstrong says 5.0lb/1000 square feet /24hours.
I don't know if i would just seal the concrete without testing first,sorry Dell,without testing the concrete first cause if there is significant moisture there then the sealer would not do any good anyway.
Is this slab on grade?Below?
I'm with Dell on the nu-heat thing much better sysem than the easy heat,you try that yet Dell?Real pain in the a##

Pilot

Hey Ombligo,

Let me encourage you to use SOMETHING in the way of a sealer on the floor first. For one thing it's the cheapest insurance you can buy. Of course that only begs the question - which sealer? I don't know a lot about it, but I can tell you this much there are thousands out there! The best resource I found was at www.mightyseal.com Their educational tips has some of the best explanations of what to use and when. For my basement floor I learned that an acrylic coating would probably be a bad call because I would have flooring over top of the concrete and acrylics break down with time. So the choice for me was for a penetrating concrete sealer that was permenant. Read some over there and the tech guys really know their crap!

Just a homeowner,
PR