Concrete is already a porous material. This means that water could find its way through your concrete by itself. But, if you have cracks or cove joints that aren't sealed properly, water will use those openings to enter your foundation.
Concrete is by design a porous material and water can pass through it by hydrostatic pressure, water vapor gradient or capillary action. Water can also enter at cracks, structural defects or at improperly designed or installed joints.
Water leaks caused by plumbing problems or inadequate drainage after a significant rainfall can result in water seeping through the slab foundation and soaking the carpet padding or wetting baseboards. If you notice damp spots in your carpet or baseboards, you may suspect a slab leak.
Tracer gas can be particularly useful when trying to find a water leak under a concrete floor or slab. The molecular size of the gas is far smaller than the water, the escaping gas will easily permeate through the concrete and emerge at the surface where it can be detected using the 'sniffer' air sampling equipment.
Slab Leak Detection
This can be done with a combination of line tracing equipment, static pressure testing as well as camera pipe inspection. This will make it possible to determine the exact spot of a slab leak. The equipment used for this will provide a very detailed evaluation.
Slab leaks are a common problem, but not one that many homeowners are aware of. Plenty of water lines, pipes, and drains run through the slab, and as your home ages, you could face damage from fractures, cracks, and splits that cause a leak.
Slab leaks can cause heavy damage to your home - not to mention the effect on your health from mold growth. Pipes underneath your home's foundation could have minor leaks that could cause flooding, water damage, and higher water bills. Unfortunately, slab leaks can go unnoticed for quite a while.
When a pipe underneath a home's slab foundation has a leak, most homeowners may not notice they have a problem for a long time. The broken pipe allows water to seep into the ground and the home's foundation. In addition to wasting water, the leak can damage the concrete and erode the soil around it.
Ignoring slab leaks will certainly lead to the collapse of your foundation. Additional expensive repairs might include your flooring, which can become warped from the excess moisture.
The main reason water is seeping through your foundation slab is due to hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is when water builds up outside your foundation walls or underneath your foundation slab. Water weighs around 60 pounds per cubic foot.
One method of fixing a leak under a slab is to run a new water line alongside the existing one to bypass the leaky section. Another method is to insert a new lining into the existing pipe to seal and strengthen the pipe.
The main reason water is coming up through your basement floor is due to something called hydrostatic pressure. This is when water accumulates in the soil outside your basement walls or floors and pushes against them.
In very simple terms, a slab leak is a leak in the copper pipes that run underneath your concrete slab foundation. This leak can be just a few trickles, or it can be a major crack in your piping. This is a leak that you definitely need diagnosed and fixed as soon as possible.
If neglected, slab leaks can cause serious problems, including wall and foundation cracks, high water bills, bad odors, low water pressure, uneven floors, and might even cause your house to shift and sink. To help prevent slab leak damage, it's important to schedule regular plumbing maintenance once a year.
When pipes are run through the walls of your foundation, they are typically sealed up with concrete, hydraulic cement, or caulk.
Concrete should be sealed to protect from mold and mildew.
You'll know you have mold growing on your concrete by the greenish color that appears. When you seal your concrete, you inhibit moisture from penetrating the surface and therefore prevent the development of mold and mildew.
Water is part of every concrete mixture, and even thoroughly dried slabs can absorb and release moisture content with changes in ambient relative humidity (RH). Healthy concrete slabs will still retain water vapor, but unaddressed excess moisture content leads to a host of concrete slab moisture problems.
Slab Seepage
If this is your issue, applying a waterproof coating to your garage floor will solve the problem right away by sealing up those pores, preventing water from coming out of the surface of your concrete slab. As a bonus, you'll also create a surface that's easier to clean.
A highly porous material, cement tends to absorb water from precipitation and even ambient humidity. And just as the shape of a sponge changes depending on water saturation, so too does that of cement, according to recent work conducted at MIT.
3.5 to 4.5 % Moisture Content.