Can I correct a bad garage floor with paving slabs?

[phil81uk]

The garage floor has three problems. It's not level (about 1/2" height difference from one side to the other), it generates a lot of dust, and it lets damp through. I know that the floor was badly laid (not by me) - but it's done, so just looking for a solution now, hopefully avoiding tearing out the floor.

It's a concrete floor. The dust generates just by walking on it.

Friends are telling me to just paint it, and that will solve the damp and dust problem.

I was considering laying paving slab in there, with a sand/cement dry mix under them to make it level, and a membrane under that to stop the damp. Would this work?

 

[lasors]

The source of any damp needs to be identified before you can remedy it. Where is the damp proof course in relation to the garage floor? If it's not coming in through the walls and is definitely coming up through the floor then ideally you would dig it out and install dpm, insulation and a screeded floor. If it's a very old floor and very dusty all the time it could be falling to bits due to permanent damp.

To avoid taking the floor out, a liquid dpm is an option. However, tanking the floor could force damp up the walls and affect other rooms, assuming it's part of a house!? Walls can be injected to help stop damp rising through the brickwork. It depends how bad it is.

I wouldn't bother with the slab/dpm idea, you'll just saturate the concrete floor underneath and the problem remains.

Paint it with floor paint if you want a quick fix, and see how it works out.