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Salitre rears its ugly head yet again


Arjay

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Our electrician has recommended a contractor he's been working with who is experimenting with a new method of treating salitre which involves mixing a type of epoxy with sand and laying it over cement. They are very optimistic that this is a good method for treating salitre.

Does anyone have any experience with this method or any useful thoughts on the subject of treating salitre.

Thanks.

:wacko:

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Salitre is a moisture problem. To solve the problem, you have to keep moisture out of the cement.

Moisture either comes from outside or out of the ground. A good weatherproof coating outside will cure that problem, If it is coming up out of the ground, that's a whole different story and almost impossible to correct. Short of removing the house, putting in a good vapor barrier and rebuilding the house, there is no cure for ground moisture problems. Good drainage away from the house will help some.

Putting a coating inside will not cure anything. It will just trap the moisture inside the walls and eventually the coating will fall off as the base deteriorates.

Cement will wick water like a sponge. You either cure the water problem or you will have the problem forever.

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Our electrician has recommended a contractor he's been working with who is experimenting with a new method of treating salitre which involves mixing a type of epoxy with sand and laying it over cement. They are very optimistic that this is a good method for treating salitre.

Does anyone have any experience with this method or any useful thoughts on the subject of treating salitre.

Thanks.

:wacko:

What is the name of the epoxy?

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If you tile over the area it will hide what is happening under the tile, but it is still coming out of the wall, just hidden from view. I have an area with salitre that has a mirror over it - you can see it happening under the glass and removing the mirror finish.

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It's all about stopping the moisture before it gets into the wall. We had a problem with a hall wall outside of which was a concrete paved atrium/light shaft. No amount of coating, sealing the wall helped. Finally we allowed the concrete floor of the atrium to dry out totally over the dry season, then our contractor sealed it, tiled over it and sealed that.

At the same time he opened up the bottom part of the wall and that was allowed to dry out for some months. We then replastered and painted just before the wet season. This year, absolutely no signs of salitre anywhere on any of the wall adjacent to this light shaft.

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You can stop the moisture from going up the walls by opening the base of the wall and putting a sealant. In Chiapas the humidity is awful and we have plastic under he tiles all over and the base of the walls are all sealed.The probem with plaastic is that if you have a leak in some of the pipes underneath it is hard to find. The plastic eventually breaks down and the salitre shows up on the grout ..

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Ok, my Handyman is very honest, he tellme is very hard to kill the salitre, sometimes it works, because the salitre comes from the foundation, only you can control fo a years, he fix my salitre problems, and I Have 3 years and look like is ok for now, I Have 4 years for guarranty, and I Think hr make a good work. Good look.

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  • 7 months later...

It's all about stopping the moisture before it gets into the wall. We had a problem with a hall wall outside of which was a concrete paved atrium/light shaft. No amount of coating, sealing the wall helped. Finally we allowed the concrete floor of the atrium to dry out totally over the dry season, then our contractor sealed it, tiled over it and sealed that.

At the same time he opened up the bottom part of the wall and that was allowed to dry out for some months. We then replastered and painted just before the wet season. This year, absolutely no signs of salitre anywhere on any of the wall adjacent to this light shaft.

And still no sign of moisture and salitre on this wall.

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I am told that the silatre problem comes from the particular mix of concrete in this area. Someone may wish to comment on this.

In the meantime, while we locals MAY SOMEDAY learn to mix concrete that does not have this problem, look to preventing moisture overhead and at foundation level. It IS possible to combat this problem. But, it is, in my view, a never-ending problem. Hence the scurrying around we do every year prior to and after rainy season. And people wonder what we do to occupy ourselves here!

Just think of this as one of the small prices you pay to live in paradise.

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There is a waterproof concrete that is used to make pools. The Romans found the formula 2000 years ago. However, no one ever uses it outside of pools here.

I watched a friend of mine build a garden pool without a liner using standard concrete. The water dropped an inch a day.

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SunshineyDay's

My Handyman fixied, my humidity salitre problems, and when he make He tellme just we goint to control the salitre, He tellme we goint for sure to have 4 years or warranty, and probably more, this men he was in the university of architectural in Guad, He make home desing and build houses to, so I trush to much in Hem, is a nice very responsability person. He have a big references.

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Ok Hes name is Raul, but we call Rully, he used diferences materias, he need to make a inspection and them he now what to used, He used, SR66, thats is like a seal plastic to stop the salitre , he used products for SILkA materials, and FESTERBOL, and the rest is a material like cement, sand, and membrane something he install in the walls, Hes cell phone is 3334595533, suerte.

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Fester CR-65 Render%20Saco%20Fester%20CR-65%2025Kg.jpGeneric Description Waterproofing Cementitious Waterproofing

Composite cement base, powder gray mixed once takes a creamy, smooth and easy to apply consistency. And dry forms an impermeable layer. Only needs water for its preparation.

A great product that must be applied with exact adherence to the instructions. It is the only solution I have found, short of "hiding" the problem with tiles...CR-66 I'm told is superior since it is an epoxy base.

http://www.fester.com.mx/Profesional/Producto.aspx?i=29&v=s&s=4

http://www.fester.com.mx/Profesional/plantilla_productos.aspx?s=4

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The salitre might be triggered by humidity, but humidity is not the cause: bad cement is. We've lived in the tropics for years, where himidity is higher than at Lakeside, and we never had salitre anywhere. We didn't know about sallitre before we moved here.

An excellent way to get rid of it before fixing the wall is vinegar. The acidic effects (and pH) of the vinegar will quickly neutralize the salitre and kill the bacteria that is in the weak cement (because of the unwashed sand).

We have used it and the problem was solved permanently--and it's cheap. -- Just thought of sharing our success story.

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