I have a concrete porch over a basement storage room that has been leaking in one form or another since I moved in two years ago. Judging by some spalling concrete and rusting rebar below the problem has been going on before then.

I initially stripped and sealed the concrete. When leaks continued I used crack filler to fill hairline cracks and painted the surface with latex paint. This worked, but now a new leak has sprung up. I belive it's from an control joint in the concrete. I'm going to clean out some old caulk from there and fill with concrete sealer.

If this doesn't work, is there a waterproof sealer for a horizontal application? At least something that I could just put down once a year and not have to worry about leaks every three months?

Thanks

 

My experience is: Once concrete is cracked, very difficult to seal the crack with anything. The DAP product (sealer) cracks very soon after applying.

If it was my problem, I'd try the following in this order:

There are roofing products that you can walk on that should last at least 5 years. I believe its called Modified Bitumin and is self-adhesive. If you clean the concrete it might stick to it pretty well. Its used for flat roofs. I know Certainteed makes the product. Seem to recall the price was $64 for a 50' roll approx. 36" wide. It should be overlapped a bit, but I would put two layers down to have an attractive mating seam.

Another product you may wish to try is NU-Cote (or some similar spelling) that you can buy from your Rinker Concrete dealer. For applications from virtually nill thickness to 2". Its supposed to work very well and is sometimes used to level and fill cracks.

If the Nu Cote doesn't work, would try using a bonding agent and Surface Bonding Cement in a thin layer over the top.

As a last resort, cut a section of about 6" on both sides of the crack , drill some rebar in there and join it back up with 5000psi fibercrete.

Hope you find a solution that works for you.

 

Yeah, I'm leaning towards covering the whole thing with the thickest nastiest coating made by man, then covering the whole thing with an attractive veneer stone. That way I wouldn't have to worry about all these patches everytime it rains.

Probably a spring project at this point though (hopefully all the patches to this point hold through the winter).

thanks for the advice