Good evening party people.
I’m replacing vinyl floor in a crappy extension. It was due to be installed tomorrow. Tonight I lifted the existing vinyl floor and found lots of mould in one corner, black and reddish. It doesn’t feel wet or damp. A cheap moisture meter suggests ‘borderline’ wet in this area, 2% reading rather than the 1 or less elsewhere on this floor but I’m not sure if these results or useful.
I don’t think there has been a leak from above as id have noticed. The mould stops at the adhesive line around the edge which leads me to believe that the wet is from below. It would not surprise me if there is no damp proof under the concrete slab, or if it has failed.
I’d like to not lay new floor on top of this until it has been treated or in some way dealt with. It hasn’t caused me issues, no smell as it was encapsulated.
I don’t have a lot of scope to increase the height of the floor as it is already quite high so I don’t really want to apply another layer of screed but if I really had to I could do in a pinch.
My first thought is to find some sort of damp proof paint that will fully dry and allow the vinyl to be laid on top of it. In fact the people fitting the floor have suggested a liquid DPM called ‘suppress it’ which appears to be primarily designed for speeding up installation of new floors after construction. I’ve seen a couple of similar things in Toolstation.
my other thought was to get a plastic membrane, the type you’d lay under a concrete slab, and glue that across the whole thing. I guess that would result in mould at a different layer and pose its own problems.
Does anyone have any suggestions before I get the sledgehammer out? I’m not aiming for perfection or even a ‘long term’ fix, as long as it reduces reoccurrence or lengthens the time frame.. that would be good.
Thanks
I’m replacing vinyl floor in a crappy extension. It was due to be installed tomorrow. Tonight I lifted the existing vinyl floor and found lots of mould in one corner, black and reddish. It doesn’t feel wet or damp. A cheap moisture meter suggests ‘borderline’ wet in this area, 2% reading rather than the 1 or less elsewhere on this floor but I’m not sure if these results or useful.
I don’t think there has been a leak from above as id have noticed. The mould stops at the adhesive line around the edge which leads me to believe that the wet is from below. It would not surprise me if there is no damp proof under the concrete slab, or if it has failed.
I’d like to not lay new floor on top of this until it has been treated or in some way dealt with. It hasn’t caused me issues, no smell as it was encapsulated.
I don’t have a lot of scope to increase the height of the floor as it is already quite high so I don’t really want to apply another layer of screed but if I really had to I could do in a pinch.
My first thought is to find some sort of damp proof paint that will fully dry and allow the vinyl to be laid on top of it. In fact the people fitting the floor have suggested a liquid DPM called ‘suppress it’ which appears to be primarily designed for speeding up installation of new floors after construction. I’ve seen a couple of similar things in Toolstation.
my other thought was to get a plastic membrane, the type you’d lay under a concrete slab, and glue that across the whole thing. I guess that would result in mould at a different layer and pose its own problems.
Does anyone have any suggestions before I get the sledgehammer out? I’m not aiming for perfection or even a ‘long term’ fix, as long as it reduces reoccurrence or lengthens the time frame.. that would be good.
Thanks
