Expert: Stephen Hayes - 11/19/2004

Question
I live in Florida on the Gulf coast in a new high rise condo building. Our garage floor is concrete and open to the outside about 50%. The floor has a smooth finish and a sealer on it. When the circumstances are just right the floor, walls and ceiling sweat and water accumulates on the floor and is VERY slippery to walk on. We used Muratic acid to remove the sealer coating on the floor and now it's much better, As we understand a finish coat of some kind must be put back on or the concrtete floor or the concrete will deteriorate. What should we use that is NOT slippery when wet and will protect the concrete as well. Cost is important and we are willing to do the application ourselves if possible.
Thank you for any help you may have, Doug

Answer
You must first identify the origin of the sweating.  Perhaps there is no proper plastic type moisture barrier under the concrete.  Perhaps there is moisture in the walls and/or ceiling, and, if so, its origin must be identified.  We moisture tests taken, was the original sealer proper for this concrete, did your removal of the sealer cause degredation of the concrete below its surface (since concrete is absorbent and always moves), was the slipperiness you encounter really related to the water and sealer, or was there an oil based residue in the water that remained on top of the sealer, when was the concrete poured for the garage floor and was it sealed to quickly so the concrete could not properly cure and moisture feed will always be a problem.  There is no simple remedy for your problem.  You should call in a concrete engineer to make an assesment, along with moisture tests both calcium chloride and surface drill tests.  Maybe the builder was in a rush to complete construction and did not properly cure the concrete.  Is the concrete high or low density.
Call in a concrete engineer before you consider a simple fix that will fail, in the long term.