I live in FL and have a damp area on my slab in my living room in front of my front bay window which does not have a gutter. As a result I have a musty smell in my house. I bought some UGL DRYLOK masonry waterproofer from Home Depot. Will this do the trick?
Water – Damp slab in the living room
concretewaterproofing
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Based on the pics and the amount of movement alone, I'm guessing that the foundation for this slab was not properly prepared. I'd wager that someone simply dug a squareish hole a few inches deep, put in boards for forms and poured the concrete. Looks great for a while, but doesn't do squat to avoid shifting in cold weather when the water freezes.
A proper concrete slab should be resting on footings that go fairly deep into the ground (the further north, the deeper). Have a look at this image to see what I mean:
Note how the slab itself sits on a concrete wall? We can't tell how deep it goes from the photo but it should go at least a foot. This is done around the edges, usually, but alternatively, just like with a paver patio, you could dig out a much larger hole - a foot or more all the way down - and then fill with gravel, covered with cloth covered with sand (compacted at every layer) and the concrete poured on that. The purpose of that type of foundation is to give adequate drainage underneath so that what little water remains beneath in a freeze/thaw/freeze cycle has room to expand around the gravel rather than heaving it out of the way. So in short, there's no easy solution to your problem - and no amount of 'sealing' will fix it - water in the ground will get under that porch slab from all edges and continue to lift and move it as it freezes.
Sorry. :(
A plastic or EDPM rubber sheet will work, if the flooring installers don't puncture it. That pretty well limits your flooring to a floating floor, but that's not a great impediment.
Nothing painted on to the inside of a concrete structure will stay put if water is coming from the outside (more commonly seen as failed attempts at "waterproofing the inside of a basement" but the principle is the same. Painted on products only work from the outside.
On the other hand, if you have actually resolved the sources of moisture, there should not be any more.
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Best Answer
Will the drylok work? Maybe with minimal water. What you need to do though is get gutters on your house or regrade your landscape. Or both. If water is draining under your slab there is nothing you can do to keep it from coming up through the floors.