I have an older house, built in the late 50's. The house is built on a conventional foundation with a concrete slab carport/utility room. The concrete sweats horribly. I have fallen several times because it gets so slick. I put a rug in the utility room only to have it soak up water and squish. The carport is the traditional open on one side variety. The utility room is "unfinished" with no drywall or insulation. I've been told that part of the problem is the humidity in the Deep South. I have no idea about plastic barriers or treatments on the concrete before I bought the house 4 years ago. What would fix this sweating problem? Also, if I close in the carport/finish out the utility room, will the sweating continue?

 

sounds like a high water table forcing moisture up thru the concrete, does the house have gutters, and are they set to run the water at least 10 ft from the house? does the soil around the house slope away from the foundation? try diggind a hole about 3 ft deep next to the foundation with a post hole digger and see if water fills it in. if so you might need to add a sump and french drain around your house to stop the water problem.


life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies.

 

Since you apparently have no plastic vapor barrier under conc floor and couple that with the reg air dew factor its a double dip. Pressure wash floor real good and maybe some concrete cleaners and rinse well. Let dry real good. Apply a good concrete sealer to stop moisture from wicking up through concrete. Now this our a vapor barrier of moisture getting to surface of crete from below. The only other factor is Temp change from cold to hotter air mass and solid objects.
For as much Squish that you are getting Follow Speedwrench advice first before sealing the floor and resolve the possibles outside first He gave you perfect advice there. The sealer on the concrete for moisture wicking not stopping moisture in concrete thats sitting in a pool so to speak