Concrete floor sealer problems

Built pole shed last August concrete floor poured Sept . Decided to seal floor this week. Purchased L & M Dress and Seal WB and applied it Tuesday according to directions , dryed and looked fine. Applied second coat Wednesday , it dryed and looked fine, Looked at floor this morning and it had dryed conpletely and I was satificated. Purchased another 5 gallon can this afternoon to do the other half of the shop. Went in the shop about 4:00 Pm and the floor was wet and malky with about 1/4 inch of water on it.

What happened. the tem yestesday was about 65 degrees and today it rose to about 80 degrees.
At 4opm the floor was wet and malky and looked terrible.

I called the fractory rep and he didn,t have any ideas.

He really implyed that I had a leak , the shop doen,t have any water access.

I do not want to finish the rest of the floor if it is going to look like this.

The untreated part looks fine.


Looking for suggestions and ideas


Robert in Md.

I imagine the temperatrue of the slab was 65 degrees or lower, and that warm 80 degree air had lots of moisture and humidity, and the moisture condensed out as water on top of the concrete. Don't know if the milky look ruined the sealer. Maybe, maybe not.

I have no idea, but spring time as frost is coming out and temperature extremes are going on and humidity comes about in a hurry is a poor time to do any of those types of jobs.

My climate in Minnesota might be harsher than yours and my words might not apply at all to you at this time, but it wouldn't try anything like that until June here, ESP on a cold wet spring like this.

Paul

I started to seal the floor in the garage, the fine print said the concrete should cure one year. I took the sealer back.

condensation is what happened , should have waited till floor was warm

Like Dblair said it is just condensation. It happens all the time. The sealer just provides a more abrupt surface for the moisture to condense on. then after it condenses it is able to slowly penetrate the sealer and it turns milky the same as the finish on a composite tile floor will if the water sits on it. Nothing to worry about.

Cold floor + hot air= condensation.
Sealer was probably dry but not cured that's why it got milky.

The water has to go somewhere. If you put a vapor barrier under the slab, it has no choice but to come to the surface. I suspect the floor will look OK in time, but it might look like hell for the next year or two.

Sould have waited at least a year and sealed it during a hot dry spell.You've trapped the mositure so it may or may not clear up.

Just one of many reasons I will never seal a concrete floor.
Richard in NW SC

>You've trapped the mositure [sic]

That was his intention. The longer the concrete stays wet, the stronger it will cure.

I don't understand the 1/4" of water. The floor was poured last September, this is mid May. Although its possible that some moisture still came out of the concrete, not 1/4" deep worth. That would have been some pretty soupy concrete mix even to have that much come out the day after it was poured. That's a whole lot of water. If it didn't rain and you took on a whole lot of water, I can't figure that one out either. Even condensation from rising and lowering temps won't produce a 1/4" of water on concrete. Got me.

In one of my barns in northern Indiana where we get hot, cold, dry, rain, snow, I too sealed the new floor. Looking back, I don't know why, but I did. Poured it about Sept, Oct, Nov and waited until about Spring to seal it, no walking or driving on it until then. Even cleaned and prepped it before sealing. Mine was milky for a day or few until the sealer dried, but nothing like you are describing. 1/4" of water on the floor, above or below the sealer. That's a new one to me, although I'm no expert. To be honest with you, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't even pour a floor in that barn, beyond a maintenance pad and for an office since I don't store fertilizer or seed in it, but I got carried away. They say that hind sight is always 20/20 though.

Good luck.

Mark

The 1/4" may be an exaggeration, because 1/4" of water on the sealed side would certainly be running on to the unsealed side.

I think it is just condensation. It will pool on the sealed side because... it's sealed! It can't soak into the concrete and dissipate.

Toeal a oncrete floor properly it should be sealothers said, should be fine.ed as soon as possible after it has been poured, unless you are using a dust sealer.

Just condensation as

Yea but if he traps the moisture it'll screw up the sealer which is why he needs to wait until its hydrated some more and do it when its hot and dry as concrete will draw moisture like a sponge from the air

I may have overstated the 1/4 inch of water a little bit , but where it pooled on the low spots it was that thick.
The floor looked some better today but still has water and a milky look in the lower spots.
The floor had plastic under the concrete and should have dryed out since last August.

Now I can,t decide whether I want to seal the other side or not.
Before I sealed half the floor, I would get some moisture but it would dry up quickly not just lay on the floor wet and now slippery.

(quoted from post at 13:05:11 05/09/14) Before I sealed half the floor, I would get some moisture but it would dry up quickly not just lay on the floor wet and now slippery.

Click to expand...

So you had a condensation issue before sealing the floor. Of course it would dry because the unsealed concrete could absorb some surface water. Now the sealer won't allow that absorption to occur. It's not the sealers fault.