Hi
I would be grateful of any comments that anybody might have.
We plan to build our dream house in the near future.And it will have a full concrete basement.
My question is has anybody have any experience with adding xypex to the pour for waterproofing purposes.
what ratio to add?
does it effect any exterior coatings?
thanks in advance
Replies
I have used Xypex to stop water infiltrating through several damp basement walls with excellent results, but I brushed it on. Are you sure it can be used as an admixture in concrete? I've never heard of it and no batch plants here offer it.
My own preference for new construction is to first limit the water reaching the foundation by providing good drainage, and applying a good exterior coating to the walls and footings so that the moisture that does penetrate the basement is small enough to be easily dried to the interior.
Are you in a water table or something? If not, I would probably use Blueskin Peel n stick instead of Xpex. That is a self adhering membrane that is commonly used as a waterproofing element below grade. I used XPEX in my suspended garage slab (yes it works as an admixture) over the basement, and have used it in Resevoir repairs. In this case it might be overkill. It does retard the concrete set a lot. My slab was poured at 8am, the finisher wanted to start trowelling a several hours later and but ended up waiting until about midnight until he could start. The slab mix in my case also had a super plasticizer, but that has been proven many times not to have any effect on set times. Kryton is another waterproofing product that shows up a lot in commercial projects. Sika also makes numerous speciality concrete products. As to the mix, that is best left to your supplier or your engineer. I dont know what products you are planning to apply over the concrete as most of the times you get into a product such as this you are talking about below grade applications, water tables, or potable water storage, so applying finishes is somewhat uncommon.
Brad
I don't think it's a good idea at all. Most forming systems use some type of tie to prevent the forms from spreading (snap ties or the cross ties in ICF's). Xypex or no, these will be potential leak points.