Selitre expert?

[Tiny]

Phase 1: All of your first level walls peeled back to brick.

Phase 2: Holes drilled. The picture shows this phase.

Phase 3: Holes injected with product. I think they said that they also spray the bricks.

Phase 4: Refinished from floor to ceiling.

[cedros]

I wonder if you will be reviewing it long before the warranty is up and has disappeared.

[barcelonaman]

That looks more like a treatment for rising damp not salitre.

[Tiny]

31 minutes ago, cedros said:

I wonder if you will be reviewing it long before the warranty is up and has disappeared.

Of course, I was joking about waiting 15 years.

[cedros]

1 minute ago, Tiny said:

Of course, I was joking about waiting 15 years.

Okay. I don't have much faith in the various solutions.

[Tiny]

39 minutes ago, barcelonaman said:

That looks more like a treatment for rising damp not salitre.

What method of treating salitre are you talking about?  There are several methods.  The prep for damp and this method for salitre may look the same, what product do they apply for damp? 

[Tiny]

19 minutes ago, cedros said:

Okay. I don't have much faith in the various solutions.

Over 20 years, we have use the more common method which only lasted 5 to 6 years. This method has been used in Europe quite a few years.  The product is from Germany.  Our recommendations are from two construction engineers, my wife worked with one engineer at a construction company (he had his house done and use it other projects) and the other is my brother-in-law.  

[mudgirl]

1 hour ago, barcelonaman said:

That looks more like a treatment for rising damp not salitre.

Salitre is the result of rising damp, or moisture entering the structure somewhere.

[Tiny]

So what is the treatment for salitre?

[Tiny]

2 hours ago, cedros said:

Okay. I don't have much faith in the various solutions.

PM'ed product description.

[mudgirl]

7 hours ago, Tiny said:

So what is the treatment for salitre?

Are you being serious or sarcastic? (sometimes it's hard to tell in posts). Rising damp or moisture entering the building somewhere are the causes of salitre (altho I know that there are some people who insist that it is inevitable because of materials used in building here, which I have not found to be true). Salitre is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.  Just like sciatica is a symptom of an underlying problem in your back or sacroiliac, not a condition in itself.

Eliminate the moisture entering, let it dry out for awhile (like months, not days) and then treat the salitre (remove any crumbling plaster, wash with muriatic acid, rinse off the acid, replaster, use a quality sin salitre product, seal and paint)  and it won't come back.

However, if the foundations have not been sealed, or if the ground just stays wet under the foundation because of your location, then it is pretty impossible to eliminate, although the method you are talking about I have read about before and may in fact work, according to the claims of its success.

[Alpha1]

This actually does help... 

http://www.fester.com.mx/es/productos/impermeabilizantes/cementosos/cr66.html

You must apply it exactly as the instructions state for it to work properly. 

[vista lake]

This are the best products for salitre 

1.- afther remove the plaster in salitre area problem clean the bricks whit muriaric acid.

2.- them apply the seal.

3.- apply the first coat of plaster whit river sand, grey cement and the sikalite.

4.- apply the last coat of plaster whit fiber grass to make more solid the plaster, because all new plaster make cracks.

5.- when the work area is ready to paint we apply the special primer bio muros.

6.- and the final the paint.

[mudgirl]

All new plaster doesn't crack. It cracks when there is not enough sand in the mixture (too cement-rich), when water is added to the mix AFTER it has already been mixed and slaked, or if it is not kept damp for several days after plastering, or if the base cement that you are plastering on top of has not been wetted down first.  None of my plaster has cracks.

[Tiny]

9 hours ago, mudgirl said:

Are you being serious or sarcastic? (sometimes it's hard to tell in posts). Rising damp or moisture entering the building somewhere are the causes of salitre (altho I know that there are some people who insist that it is inevitable because of materials used in building here, which I have not found to be true). Salitre is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.  Just like sciatica is a symptom of an underlying problem in your back or sacroiliac, not a condition in itself.

Eliminate the moisture entering, let it dry out for awhile (like months, not days) and then treat the salitre (remove any crumbling plaster, wash with muriatic acid, rinse off the acid, replaster, use a quality sin salitre product, seal and paint)  and it won't come back.

However, if the foundations have not been sealed, or if the ground just stays wet under the foundation because of your location, then it is pretty impossible to eliminate, although the method you are talking about I have read about before and may in fact work, according to the claims of its success.

Thank you all for the pictures of products.  Some we have used and it has last 5 to 6 years.  I have been told that the problem is the building material. What dampness does is washes out the salitre and other stuff.  I have told that in some cases, if the washing out over time can damage the walls.

This method both seals the face of the brick and inject at the bottom with the product. Not just applying it on the face of the walls.  Here is a translated description of the product.

"PROPERTIES
Due to its composition SALITREX gives rise to a film that guarantees a deep waterproofing action in the
as it penetrates into the pores of the wall, even wet, and reacts with the moisture that it contains.
The resulting film has excellent mechanical properties and a high adhesion to the carrier.
It is a ready-to-apply product, even under adverse conditions of temperature (negative) and relative humidity (high)."

All I was trying to do is share my experience with this treatment, but I guess I can not.

[mudgirl]

What dampness does is create the conditions necessary for the mineral formation of salitre. It doesn't "wash out" salitre. You will be told a lot of things that aren't true re salitre. I remember someone posting awhile back that their builder told them that salitre was a form of mold. 

[Tiny]

 

3 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

What dampness does is create the conditions necessary for the mineral formation of salitre. It doesn't "wash out" salitre. You will be told a lot of things that aren't true re salitre. I remember someone posting awhile back that their builder told them that salitre was a form of mold. 

I guess I should tell two construction engineers that they are wrong.

[mudgirl]

8 hours ago, Tiny said:

 

I guess I should tell two construction engineers that they are wrong.

Oh no, don't do that. Believe everything they tell you. 

I've had plenty of so-called experts in various fields, give me incorrect information, which they presented with a huge sense of authority and  infallibility. I tend to learn from experience, reading and advice from others who have been there. It's worked well for me so far. My new house had no salitre anywhere for 9 years until the french drain got plugged up and water sat against the side of my house during rainy season, then salitre appeared on the inside walls in that area. Had the problem area fixed, so water now drains properly again. Treated the inside walls for the salitre and it hasn't come back. That is my personal experience. I was trying to help. But if you prefer to trust some "authority", that's fine.

[Ferret]

Yup. If construction engineers were always right, there wouldn't be any salitre at all.

 

[Tiny]

25 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

Oh no, don't do that. Believe everything they tell you. 

I've had plenty of so-called experts in various fields, give me incorrect information, which they presented with a huge sense of authority and  infallibility. I tend to learn from experience, reading and advice from others who have been there. It's worked well for me so far. My new house had no salitre anywhere for 9 years until the french drain got plugged up and water sat against the side of my house during rainy season, then salitre appeared on the inside walls in that area. Had the problem area fixed, so water now drains properly again. Treated the inside walls for the salitre and it hasn't come back. That is my personal experience. I was trying to help. But if you prefer to trust some "authority", that's fine.

 

21 minutes ago, Ferret said:

Yup. If construction engineers were always right, there wouldn't be any salitre at all.

 

So should I go and tell my brother-in-law he is wrong. So you are attacking my family?

 

[Tiny]

1 hour ago, Ferret said:

Yup. If construction engineers were always right, there wouldn't be any salitre at all.

 

The reason you still have it is because people use the cheapest material to build with and the cheapest method to treat it. If you give a ____.

 

[Ferret]

And sometimes it's because the source of the "damp" or water hasn't been dealt with and MudGirl gave you an excellent example. What's on the other side of your "salitred" wall?

We had no salitre in our house on the coast and everything drained away from the house. We caused salitre to form in our house in San Miguel because we put in a big planter at the front of the house. Even drainage holes at the bottom to slope down the driveway wasn't enough. We had to empty the whole thing of its dirt and plants... allow the wall to dry... put two layers of chapapote on the wall, on the bottom (which sloped away from the house) and inside front of the planter... put the soil back in and replant. Then fixed the small section of wall where the salitre showed up and repainted. The salitre never came back.

The house where my mother lived for 25 years in Toronto, developed a problem in the summer kitchen in the basement. When the subfloor was pulled up, there was standing water on the concrete. It turned out that a section of eavestrough (gutters in the U.S.) was canted the wrong way... as in away from the drain pipe and, over the course of those 25 years, the rain flowing the wrong way and spilling over onto the fieldstone outdoor BBQ caused the mortar to give out on the chimney and work it's way down to the basement. Fix eavestrough, fix problem. 

There are a million ways to fix a problem but if you don't find the source of the problem then it will return. Drainage or lack of it will always be my number one suspect.

[Ferret]

And I don't have any salitre in my house here.

[pedro malo]

On March 4, 2017 at 3:48 AM, CHILLIN said:

You need silica sand. It is not only the cleanliness of the sand, it is also how "sharp" it is. Portland cement is actually quite soft (around 600 p.s.i. for lower grades) so the strength and waterproofness depends on the aggregate used. The cement is just the glue which holds the aggregates in place, the aggregates lock together to do all the real work. The size of aggregates depends on the application - a sidewalk is different from a mortar or plaster. The concrete products which come out of the bag, are usually for things like fence posts and sidewalks - they have lots of pebbles in them.

Here is a company in Guadalajara which makes silica sand. I have no idea about delivery costs. If you do place an order let me know, I would like a few bags myself.

silica sand

Hello CHILLIN,

Do you or anyone know if it is possible to find a grade of cement in Mexico to be able to achieve a M15 or M20 grade of concrete (3000psi & 4000psi respectively)?

I've never seen concrete so soft as here in Mexico.  I've already noted a company you recommended for clean aggregate some years back.

Thank you!

[RVGRINGO]

The cement is probably fine, but the sand and gravel used are often the culprits.  After all, CEMEX, supplies all of North America with cement products, but not the stuff you mix it with. In fact, they are a global player in the cement industry.