Starting building your own garage or buying a ready-made one, many people think about its additional protection from high humidity. How to waterproof a garage floor before screeding? About the features of processing the walls and roof of the building, as well as the choice of materials, information is presented in the article.
Waterproofing nuances
Protection from moisture is necessary first of all so that the car that is there is not subject to corrosion. When building a garage without a viewing hole or basement, the waterproofing layer should be located at a height of about 25 cm above the ground. This is necessary in order to prevent moisture from entering the room.
In the event that the construction of the garage is carried out independently, it is important to pre-prepare the ground. To do this, it is compacted and covered with a layer of sand. It is necessary to lay a layer of waterproofing membrane on it. The next layer of moisture protection is laid immediately before the concrete floor screed.
Varieties of materials
There isseveral types of waterproofing that are widely used today:
Roll materials. They are either floating or adhesive-backed. The first include roofing material from TechnoNIKOL and other manufacturers
For independent use, adhesive-based materials are considered the most convenient, as they are convenient to lay. To increase their service life, as well as insulating characteristics, it is recommended to glue the seams between the strips of material.
- Paint waterproofing. This is the name of the mastics, the application of which is carried out by staining. They can be polyurethane, bituminous, rubber or polymer-cement. The coating has the form of a thin film, which is laid on the entire area of the floor or walls. The liquid texture allows you to treat even the most hard-to-reach places, and the use of a primer increases adhesion.
- Penetrating waterproofing. There are several varieties of it - concreting, polymer cement, cement inorganic. These types of waterproofing are available in the form of a powder for self-dilution, liquid or paste. Its principle of action is to penetrate into the concrete, due to which the interaction of lime and chemicals occurs.
- Backfill insulation. It is ideal for a garage, the floor of which will be subject to strong mechanical stress. Materials such as sand, betonite or ash are often used. They fall asleep in a pre-constructed formwork. It is the most durablehowever, its self-assembly is difficult, as it requires certain skills.
Often garage waterproofing materials are selected based on personal preferences, complexity of work and cost.
Surface preparation
Experienced professionals recommend thorough surface preparation before laying waterproofing. This is necessary to ensure good adhesion of materials to each other. The preparatory stage consists of the following steps:
- Cleaning the room from pieces of furniture.
- Alignment of walls and floor.
- Applying a coat of primer to the surface to be waterproofed.
- All visible seams and cracks must be repaired.
In places of large cracks or chips, it is recommended to use a reinforcing mesh.
In addition, it is important to prepare all the materials that may be needed to waterproof the garage. Depending on the choice of material, these can be various rollers, brushes, a construction knife, a gas burner, a building level.
Applying paint waterproofing
To isolate the garage floor from high humidity, paint waterproofing is most often chosen. This is due to the simplicity of its application and the lack of specific skills. After the floor is thoroughly swept from debris, you must perform the following actions:
- It is recommended to apply 2-3 coats of primer and wait until they are completely absorbed into the concrete.
- Next, you need to dilute the mastic tothe desired consistency according to the instructions.
- Apply material with a roller, replacing it with a corner brush.
Apply the garage waterproofing material with an overlap. In this case, the walls must be processed to a height of about 2 cm. After finishing the work, it is important to wait for complete drying, which will occur after 2-3 days.
Causes of dampness
Own garage in the process of construction is often supplemented with a basement for storing various household items and conservation. Since it is below ground level, it is much more prone to dampness than the garage itself. Excessive moisture can appear for a number of the following reasons:
- Waterproofing is missing or improperly installed.
- No sealing between bricks or cinder block.
- The occurrence of cracks and voids.
In all these cases, the basement needs repair and thorough waterproofing.
Basement waterproofing
Adhesive-based roll materials are often used to keep basements dry. They are also popular for garage walls. To perform waterproofing of a viewing hole or basement, you need to follow this algorithm:
- Apply 2 coats of primer to the entire surface of the walls and wait until completely absorbed.
- Stick the rolls from top to bottom. The optimal width of the material is considered to be 150-200 cm. At the same time, it is important to overlap by about 10 cm.
When the groundwater is deep, the basement of the garage is waterproofed with a material that has a thickness of about 2 mm. In the vicinity of water, the recommended thickness of rolled insulation is 4-8 mm. Waterproofing a garage basement with adhesive rolls is quite simple. This type of work is within the power of even beginners in this business. This also applies to inspection pits.
Roof waterproofing
Many garages have a concrete roof. Any materials other than bulk materials can be used as a hydrobarrier, however, roofing material from TechnoNIKOL or other manufacturers is most in demand. The algorithm for laying the insulating layer is as follows:
- Concrete roofing should be covered with 2-3 coats of primer or 1 coat of bituminous mastic.
- The coating must be completely absorbed into the surface and dry.
- After using a gas burner, you need to heat the surface of the material until the indicators that are on one side of the roofing material completely disappear. This is indicated on the packaging of the material.
- In this case, it is important not to overheat the roofing material, otherwise its waterproofing properties will noticeably deteriorate.
- While warming up, the roll should be gradually rolled out at the installation site.
- Strips overlap by 10 cm.
When laying roofing felt, it is recommended to pay special attention to the protrusions on the roof, ventilation and heating pipes. All joints of the hydrobarrier for the roof must be smeared with bituminous mastic or waterproofing tape.
Some garages can be crafted from metal. Such buildings, in addition to roofing material, can be covered with a layer of mastic on a bitumen-polymer basis. The coating should be applied to the cleaned roof surface during the warm season in several layers. To create additional strength, it is recommended to use reinforced fabric as a lining. Drying of one layer is about 2 days, after which the roof is ready for applying the next one.
Wall waterproofing
Hydrobarrier is recommended for all building elements. Waterproofing garage walls is often done by plastering, as it is the fastest and most convenient. The composition of such a material may include polymers, liquid glass and other additives that act as a water-repellent barrier. The garage is waterproofed according to the following scheme:
- It is necessary to apply 2-3 coats of primer. Give each of them about 2 days to dry completely, only after that apply the next one.
- Using an ordinary spatula for plaster, it is necessary to evenly distribute the composition on the walls. At the joints, it is recommended to use a fine reinforcing mesh.
- After the material has completely dried, it is recommended to apply another layer.
Experienced builders say that in this way it will be possible to create not only a good hydro-barrier, but also to level the walls. For this, it is recommended to use the building level.
Foundation waterproofing
At the stageconstruction, you can take care of waterproofing the garage from groundwater if they lie close enough to the ground surface. To do this, it is necessary to place a hydraulic barrier on the foundation of the building. This is done in the following way:
- You should completely wait for the concrete from which the foundation was built to dry.
- After that, you need to remove the wooden formwork and coat the foundation with two layers of bituminous mastic. The first coat should dry well for two days before applying the second.
- For waterproofing, roofing material is most often used. It must be overlapped by 10 cm.
- To fix the roofing material, it is important to melt the bitumen, which is part of it, using a gas burner.
More expensive, but durable way of waterproofing is liquid rubber coating. It is made with a sprayer and requires some skill to make the layer as uniform as possible.
Also, this method requires additional use of reinforcing fabric or fine mesh.
When buying a ready-made garage and the impossibility of waterproofing the foundation, sufficient attention should be paid to the hydro-barrier for the floor.
Conclusion
High-quality and durable water-repellent coating is the key to dryness inside the garage. This means that the car inside will not be subject to corrosion from high humidity, which is inevitable in the absence of a waterproofing layer.
