concrete cellar floor

[Steve]

the cellar where i work is used for storage, and is frequently used. The floor is damp old concrete (very damp, you can feel the moisture) and the concrete has many craters in it (one of them is 3 inches deep, 6-8 inches across). The building is early 1900's, which would explain lack of DPM, and I dont think the cellar was originally supposed to be useable space, though the building is on a hill, so it has always had a door to the outside. We use the door for deliveries, and it is very annoying when the wheel of a roll cage goes down one of the holes, as it is very difficult to rescue a fully loaded cage from this situation, esp. when the headroom is only 6 foot, with lintels at 5'6" (i'm 5'11", i walk around the cellar bent over, its less painfull!).

What is the best way to patch up these potholes? They go down to what looks like fine soil/sand. Is it just a case of PVAing what's already there and using self levelling mixture of some form? The floor has been patched before, but the holes keep opening up again

 

[Pensdown]

Crafty,

We get a catalogue sent to us, (not sure why) form a company called WATCO. They have a floor solution for everything. They do a product called Watco Condrex, maybe worth a try. Or Watco flowpatch, for damp floors

www.watco.co.uk

 

[JohnD]

Would it be worth th effort of breaking up the old concrete, digging out and relaying new with a dpc? You could probably excavate enough to give you reasonable headroom, too.