# Sweaty Floor



## McCarthy D+B (Feb 12, 2010)

Got a client that lives on a big lake. They have a 20+ year old home that has a sub-grade lower level with walkout, that has condensation build-up on the the rolled-linoleum floor quite often. Found that the carpet pad sucks up just as much, if not more of that condensation, and has all but destroyed the pad. Knowing the location and the history of home-builders in that area, corners were cut and vapor barrier was not used. The owners don't want to tear out all the concrete slab - but I don't think that just putting down a 4-mil VB over the slab is going to do it...not to mention new carpet pad won't stick. Any thoughts?


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Tile over Ditra :thumbsup:


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

angus242 said:


> Tile over Ditra :thumbsup:


Angus, will the Ditra allow any moisture to escape? Seems this guy needs to get rid of water. I like the idea of Ditra, but my knowledge of tile is that it generally comes in squares and is hard.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Ditra will allow air movement under it so that should help with evaporation. If he is getting actual water, not just vapor, there's no flooring that's going to solve that problem.

I'm not saying Ditra fixes the issue if there's excessive moisture coming through. But it there's occasional vapor coming up, Ditra will block it.


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## Jeff G (Apr 5, 2010)

I've had to remedy this problem in the past. And the HO wanted wood floors to boot. I ended up putting down a floating sub floor. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the product I used, but was pretty much the same thing as DRIcore. 

http://www.dricore.com/en/eIndex.aspx

I then installed (stapled) an engineered wood floor over this. This was a few years ago, and there hasn't been any problems with moisture since.


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

angus242 said:


> Ditra will allow air movement under it so that should help with evaporation. If he is getting actual water, not just vapor, there's no flooring that's going to solve that problem.
> 
> I'm not saying Ditra fixes the issue if there's excessive moisture coming through. But it there's occasional vapor coming up, Ditra will block it.


Angus, If you had water weeping through the slab, and you had a way of day lighting or venting the Ditra would it allow the water to drain out? Would you use Ditra in a situation like this? Would the Ditra adhere to a damp slab situation or "float"?


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

To me, there's a difference between water and vapor. If there is water coming up (eg A LOT of vapor :laughing, you need to fix the issue.

If you have vapor occasionally coming up (eg sweat), Ditra should help. There's 2 ways to think about it. Do you want to keep all vapor under the Ditra or do you want the Ditra to retard the vapor but still allow some to evaporate up?

To suppress the vapor, you need to address the Ditra seams with Kerdi-Band along with the floor/wall transition. This creates a complete vapor barrier to the slab below. There are the waffles in the Ditra that will allow evaporation of the vapor from underneath. You could also gap the Ditra (1/8") and not use Kerdi-Band. Use a cementitious grout that will also allow vapor transmission and you are slowing the entire process.

I'm getting mixed feelings about the stated problem. If it's occasion sweat, I don' see why using Ditra wouldn't work. If there's enough moisture to "soak" carpet padding, the problem needs to be fixed, not bandaged.

Whether using a Dricore product or Ditra, if the excess moisture is too aggressive and not able to evaporate, mold will eventually start growing. :sad:


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

Thanks Angus:thumbsup:

You da man:notworthy:notworthy

I really do respect & appreciate your knowledge & expertise.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

griz said:


> your knowledge & expertise.


Boy do I have you fooled :laughing: :jester:


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## griz (Nov 26, 2009)

angus242 said:


> Boy do I have you fooled :laughing: :jester:


Not really. My wife said I have to be nice sometimes.:jester:


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

I hate when that happens.

Reminds me off when I had to go to the wife's Christmas party for her job. She works in a legal department so there were a lot of paralegals & lawyers attending. She made me go shopping for new clothes because Dickies were not allowed :laughing:


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## BKM Resilient (May 2, 2009)

Koester is a proven system

http://www.koesterusa.com/vaporproducts.html


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## Floordude (Aug 30, 2007)

Radiant heated floors!

It is a dew point problem. The floor is cooler than dew point.

I'd install ceramic with radiant heat.


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