Hello everyone,
my neighbor (terraced house) had a major water damage incident, and apparently the water came over the shared concrete slab into our property (the basements are separated by two hollow brick walls, waterproof concrete only on the outside). There was about 2 cm (1 inch) of standing water in our basement for approximately 3 hours.
The drying company started working immediately, but in two of our basement rooms, there is no insulation layer under the screed; it seems the screed is laid directly on the concrete slab, and there is no plastic membrane in between. Interestingly, at the edges, there is the typical plastic perimeter insulation strip usually found with floating screed. Does anyone understand why it was built this way?
Current situation:
Room 1: 8 cm (3 inches) of bare screed (no floor covering). After 3 weeks of drying with condensation dryers, the floor appears to be in good condition again. However, the edges are still more damp than the center, probably because the water was able to penetrate the concrete slab via the perimeter insulation strips. The bottom row of bricks (above which there is a horizontal damp-proof course) is also normalizing in moisture content (35 digits vs. 18 digits in the drier bricks higher up).
How do you assess the chances that it’s just a matter of time before the screed fully dries out? How long might this take? The water was in contact with the entire surface from above for about 3 hours and could have penetrated deeply at the edges.
Room 2: Here I installed tiles, and the grout joints are in good condition. Also 8 cm (3 inches) of screed directly on the concrete slab, with perimeter insulation strips plus tile baseboards and silicone joints at the edges. I measure elevated moisture at three spots along the edges where the silicone joint was not closed (60 digits vs. 44 digits at other places in the room; dry tiles in another room show 35-40 digits).
The drying company claims I should simply leave the baseboards in place, and that over time the moisture will dry out through the grout and the bricks naturally. What do you think of this claim? The perimeter insulation strip is supposed to prevent moisture from the screed from penetrating into the bricks, isn’t it?
I am using a Trotec BM31 (ball head) moisture meter.
Thanks for your assessments!
my neighbor (terraced house) had a major water damage incident, and apparently the water came over the shared concrete slab into our property (the basements are separated by two hollow brick walls, waterproof concrete only on the outside). There was about 2 cm (1 inch) of standing water in our basement for approximately 3 hours.
The drying company started working immediately, but in two of our basement rooms, there is no insulation layer under the screed; it seems the screed is laid directly on the concrete slab, and there is no plastic membrane in between. Interestingly, at the edges, there is the typical plastic perimeter insulation strip usually found with floating screed. Does anyone understand why it was built this way?
Current situation:
Room 1: 8 cm (3 inches) of bare screed (no floor covering). After 3 weeks of drying with condensation dryers, the floor appears to be in good condition again. However, the edges are still more damp than the center, probably because the water was able to penetrate the concrete slab via the perimeter insulation strips. The bottom row of bricks (above which there is a horizontal damp-proof course) is also normalizing in moisture content (35 digits vs. 18 digits in the drier bricks higher up).
How do you assess the chances that it’s just a matter of time before the screed fully dries out? How long might this take? The water was in contact with the entire surface from above for about 3 hours and could have penetrated deeply at the edges.
Room 2: Here I installed tiles, and the grout joints are in good condition. Also 8 cm (3 inches) of screed directly on the concrete slab, with perimeter insulation strips plus tile baseboards and silicone joints at the edges. I measure elevated moisture at three spots along the edges where the silicone joint was not closed (60 digits vs. 44 digits at other places in the room; dry tiles in another room show 35-40 digits).
The drying company claims I should simply leave the baseboards in place, and that over time the moisture will dry out through the grout and the bricks naturally. What do you think of this claim? The perimeter insulation strip is supposed to prevent moisture from the screed from penetrating into the bricks, isn’t it?
I am using a Trotec BM31 (ball head) moisture meter.
Thanks for your assessments!
An expert inspection before the drying process is quite interesting. I would have thought that they can only assess whether everything went well once the drying is officially completed. If they find damp areas beforehand, the drying company could simply argue that the machines are still running for that reason. Could you please explain this point in more detail?
Thank you and best regards!
Thank you and best regards!