# Foundation coating in a flood prone area



## Mfdchief (Sep 18, 2016)

Hi, I am new to the forum and need some advice.  We have a cabin along the Mississippi River on an elevated concrete foundation. Think of it as an above ground basement. The area floods occasionally and I have garage doors on each end and I let the water flow through it as needed. It is a poured foundation that I previously furred out and applied 4x8 sheets of fibered cement siding and then painted. It lasted about 5 years and started cracking so I removed it.

Is there a product or process that can be applied to the concrete, to look like stucco or similar that can be painted.  I am aware of concrete stains but I would like to cover the form joints with something thicker but not fall off if it gets wet for a week or longer. It needs to be paintable to cover water lines that remain after flooding.

Thanks for any advice.

Mark


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## nealtw (Sep 18, 2016)

Mfdchief said:


> Hi, I am new to the forum and need some advice.  We have a cabin along the Mississippi River on an elevated concrete foundation. Think of it as an above ground basement. The area floods occasionally and I have garage doors on each end and I let the water flow through it as needed. It is a poured foundation that I previously furred out and applied 4x8 sheets of fibered cement siding and then painted. It lasted about 5 years and started cracking so I removed it.
> 
> Is there a product or process that can be applied to the concrete, to look like stucco or similar that can be painted.  I am aware of concrete stains but I would like to cover the form joints with something thicker but not fall off if it gets wet for a week or longer. It needs to be paintable to cover water lines that remain after flooding.
> 
> ...


Welcome to the site, what do others in the area do?


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## Mfdchief (Sep 18, 2016)

nealtw said:


> Welcome to the site, what do others in the area do?



There are only 2 of us with concrete foundations and my neighbors uses stain but the form joints stick out like a sore thumb.  Thanks for the reply..

Mark


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## nealtw (Sep 19, 2016)

You might skim coat it.
https://www.quikrete.com/pdfs/projects/restoringconcreteandmasonrywalls.pdf
But I would contact them and see if they think it will do the job.


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## nealtw (Sep 19, 2016)

I have been reading about painting a concrete pool, they sat you can smooth the surface with hydraulic cement and then paint it.
http://www.poolcenter.com/paintedPools


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## bud16415 (Sep 19, 2016)

We have been thru this question and similar questions a few times before here. We used to have a frequent poster stadry that gave a lot of advice on products such as this but the problem always was the stuff you wanted to buy was never available to home owners except one. 

Here is a thread where I weeded thru it all and found links to products. 

http://www.houserepairtalk.com/showthread.php?t=18141&highlight=cement+all

The one product that seemed to be best matched and something a homeowner could buy and use was this. 
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rapid-Se...7;jsessionid=E83943C609037F1CE96F00B33061713A

Watch the two videos the second one says one of its usages is skim coating. 

I would buy a small bag and try it on a section out of sight after pressure washing and see what you think.


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## Mfdchief (Sep 19, 2016)

Thanks for the replys, I am going to talk to a stone mason to get his take on the Quickcrete products.

Mark


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## nealtw (Sep 19, 2016)

Mfdchief said:


> Thanks for the replys, I am going to talk to a stone mason to get his take on the Quickcrete products.
> 
> Mark



What was the problem with the concrete board it should have stood up to flooding?


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## joecaption (Sep 19, 2016)

Concrete board should not be installed within a minimum of 2" of grade.
It's not sealed on the back side and would soak up standing water like a sponge and delaminate.
Got a picture so we can see what your seeing?
What I've done when we raised a home 4' to get it above the 100 year flood plain is used Pressure treated 2 X 4 strapping and vinyl sided right over the block and tied it into the house siding that was already there.
Now the house does not look like it was even lifted.
The siding can be pressure washed to get rid of the scum line.


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## Snoonyb (Sep 19, 2016)

The key is to coat the surface with a product that is water resistant, and there are several processes and products.

You could "dry-sack" using red label cement.

Cementatious deck surfacing products are mixed using vinyl add-mix, instead of water.

Modified thinset is water resistant.


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## Sparky617 (Sep 19, 2016)

Couldn't you use something like DryLoc or Thoro-Seal to coat the concrete and color it?  It would brush on instead of being troweled on like stucco.


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## beachguy005 (Sep 19, 2016)

Given that it's subject to submersion I would just use a mix used for plastering swimming pools. You can put it on thick enough to cover the joints and probably even color it.
Here's an article on it and it has a pool plaster recipe which is pretty basic.

http://www.truetex.com/pool.htm


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## Mfdchief (Sep 19, 2016)

Thanks for the link beachguy. I was wondering if something like that could be done.


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