Water Under Vinyl Flooring Concrete

There are a number of vinyl plank flooring options.

Water under vinyl flooring concrete. If you ve noticed moisture appearing on the concrete in your basement or have some bare concrete in your home you d like to cover easily and cheaply vinyl plank flooring could be the thing you are looking for. Water is an inherent part of the hydration process of concrete. Without water it wouldn t be concrete. Once the slab is poured the excess moisture must leave the slab in order to strengthen the concrete bond.

Vinyl may be water proof from water sitting on top of the floor but it is not a vapour barrier. Water damaged vinyl flooring problems are more common over concrete than with vinyl floors installed over wood substrates. A vapour barrier under the floor anytime you install over concrete is required. Water is necessary to complete the chemical process.

Preparing a concrete subfloor for vinyl newly poured concrete off gases water vapor and typically needs from 120 to 150 days to dry out before it s ready to accept flooring according to milliken company. Your builder just voided your flooring warranty. This is true whether it s a new or existing structure on or below grade. A concrete floor seems like the perfect base for a vinyl floor installation.

However allowing excess moisture to leave the slab after it s poured is crucial to a successful flooring installation. What s more installing them is something you can easily do on your own. Moisture is to concrete as. Water damage problems may not be as common with sheet vinyl flooring as some other flooring products but they do happen.

However when lv is installed over concrete there is a possibility that moisture under the floor whether it seeps down from above or is emitted from the slab can react with chemicals in the concrete to create high levels of alkali which can degrade the vinyl. A concrete floor may need a moisture barrier before vinyl flooring can be installed. Vinyl flooring can either be glued to the subfloor or it can float on top of it and either way moisture underneath it causes problems. Vinyl plank flooring is water resistant and if it has a wpc core it s waterproof so it won t be damaged by the off gassing.