Bare Lab!

[MJLorton]

Hello Everyone....

It's been a manic couple of weeks with trying to prepare enough videos for the time I'm "off", entertain my parents....and then "fix" the basement...and get the lab up and running again.

I'll have a video showing most of the process but I'll give a quick run down of what's happened...

I moved my benches and the plastic tile flooring and boards to discover...as had been expected...moist and moldy carpets! So last week I ripped out the carpeting so I could get a good idea of what was going on...

The basement slab which was under the benches was damp...and the rest of it was dry....so if I had easy access to that part of the lab my drying exercise would have saved the carpet....but at the end of the day I needed to see what was going on underneath.

As I suspected there was a nice set of cracks where the raised water level was able to seep through the floor slab during the bad weather.

I did a fair amount of research into various paints and concrete sealers. I wanted to move away from carpet and Sean made a great suggestion for a floor paint that I would have used....however....

I soon realised acoustics (echo!!!!) was going to be a problem...  I realised I was going to need some form of carpet again so I looked into rolls of marine carpeting which has a rubber backing and can be used outside. The problem was it was thin and would need be secured (glued..). I wanted the option to pull it out easily if I had water on the floor again. I also considered garage floor mat and tiles but ruled them out.

I then came across a company that sells mismatched commercial carpet tiles for $1 per square foot. The tiles are 2'x2' with a thick rubber backing and fairly heavy. I won't need to secure them by all accounts so they can easily be removed  if needed.

I'll chip out the cracks and fill them with hydraulic cement. I'm going to be treating the floor with a sealer (acid etch first).

That's the rough plan...subject to change

Some pics attached....off to show my folks some of the sites....

Cheers,
Martin.

[SeanB]

Cracks you will have to cut down at least 30mm with an angle grinder ( a big one, and preferably try to get one with a dust vacuum attachment so you will not be putting dust all over the house) to clean concrete, then do not use a cement, but go and buy a polyurethane joint compound ( Sikaflex Pro 2 HP is available worldwide and is the right stuff, go to usa.sika.com) and fill the clean slots with it. That way the movement of the slab will not just crack it again ( the cracks you have are from heaving of the slab due to pressure under it and from stress shrinkage during curing) and you will not get water ingress from that section again. You probably will want to get some floor sealer from them as well, and coat the whole floor with it as well, so you do not get water in again.

Sikaflex is used here to join the concrete road segments together, it is stronger than the concrete, and will tear the edge of the concrete off before it lets go. Caution is it is an isocyanate cure, so have very good ventilation ( we do not want you to be overcome) to change the air in the room at regular rate, and remember that when uncured it can be removed with thinners, but when cured you need to grind it off physically. Gloves ( nitrile skin tight ones) and clothes you do not like are recommended for application, and if you are doing a lot an air powered caulking gun makes it easier. Home Depot sells those last items, and you probably can either borrow or rent an air compressor for a day or two.

[Paul Collins M0BSW]

Cricky  Sean you know your stuff, that was a lesson, I got some cracks in the garage floor, which I'll have a go at now.

[MJLorton]

I added "subject to change"...'cos I knew Sean would bend me in the right direction!

Ok, I have the gloves, Silka and an air powered caulking gun on the way.

Sean...when you said cut down 30mm....just the width of the blade...or a wider slot...?

[SeanB]

RTFM, you want about 5-10mm so use a masonry cutting disk, and do a initial thin cut then a deeper one down to the 30mm mark. Does not have to be exact, just make it about 2 times deeper than the thwidth, and preferably deep enough to add the foam spacer underneath. Not needed in bulk concrete really, just go down and fill it with the stuff. I helped do a koi pond with this to hold the fittings into the cored holes in the concrete walls, and while there were leaks aplenty not one in the sika held joints. One was fixed the messy way, dug down, wrapped it with a temporary bandage and filled the entire hole surrounding the elbow in question with sista foam. One whole can into the hole and it stopped the leak immediately.  Then filled in the hole. It was a case of fix with leak or pump out 120kl of water and find a place for the koi as temporary storage, and they were too many for a porta pool to hold easily, plus they tended to jump out.

[TechJunkie]

I think Sean is a BOT! He knows too much to be human! 

[Paul Collins M0BSW]

I think Sean is a BOT! He knows too much to be human! 

You mean like a South African Robo Cop type

[SeanB]

You get to know a little bit about many things as you get older, especially here where you have to make do with limited resources in many cases.

[Paul Collins M0BSW]

I've never understood where the word Lab has crept in, to me a LAB "Laboratory"  is where scientist's do experiments that have never been done before, and where New cures are found, not Electronics, I call mine a workshop, even where all my Radio amateur equipment is used I don't call it a shack, it's part of my workshop, where things are designed, built , tinkered with, repairs  are carried out on radio's & Tv's, where I talk to Radio Amateurs world wide,You can call yours what ever you like, but for me personally LAB is not the right word to use, unless it to try an impress people  and wife "Oh darling I'm just going down to the Lab , I need to change the batteries in my multimeter ".

[TechJunkie]

I've never understood where the word Lab has crept in, to me a LAB "Laboratory"  is where scientist's do experiments that have never been done before, and where New cures are found, not Electronics, I call mine a workshop, even where all my Radio amateur equipment is used I don't call it a shack, it's part of my workshop, where things are designed, built , tinkered with, repairs  are carried out on radio's & Tv's, where I talk to Radio Amateurs world wide,You can call yours what ever you like, but for me personally LAB is not the right word to use, unless it to try an impress people  and wife "Oh darling I'm just going down to the Lab , I need to change the batteries in my multimeter ".

It is actually a valid term for any technical, scientific or engineering space. Here is the Wiki on it:

A laboratory (/ləˈbɒrətəri/ or /ˈlębərətri/; informally, lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed.

Hope this helps!

[Paul Collins M0BSW]

I've never understood where the word Lab has crept in, to me a LAB "Laboratory"  is where scientist's do experiments that have never been done before, and where New cures are found, not Electronics, I call mine a workshop, even where all my Radio amateur equipment is used I don't call it a shack, it's part of my workshop, where things are designed, built , tinkered with, repairs  are carried out on radio's & Tv's, where I talk to Radio Amateurs world wide,You can call yours what ever you like, but for me personally LAB is not the right word to use, unless it to try an impress people  and wife "Oh darling I'm just going down to the Lab , I need to change the batteries in my multimeter ".

well you could have knocked me over with that one Eric , it's funny how we perceive terms, I would have never thought that would apply to electronics, I see broken TV come in  I fix it  money in the bank "Workshop", when I design something in here it's still a "workshop", well Eric I learned something today, now I'll get back to this troublesome invertor board, break over.

It is actually a valid term for any technical, scientific or engineering space. Here is the Wiki on it:

A laboratory (/ləˈbɒrətəri/ or /ˈlębərətri/; informally, lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed.

Hope this helps!