# Sealing basement floor/wall gap



## jomama45 (Nov 13, 2008)

Stay away from the hydraulic cement, or any other substance that isn't flexible, for the exact reason you mentioned.

I'd recommend installing a "backer rod" into any cracks over 1/8" and use a self leveling concrete sealant to close the gap with some flexibility. Sika makes such a product that should be available at a local big box store.

I would warn though, don't put a lot of faith in anything to guarantee that joint from leaking in the future. Proper monitoring & maintanence of the draintile, sump pump system is far more important in keeping a dry basement than that joint is.


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## countryboy43 (Jun 4, 2010)

*Backer rod for seal*

The backer rod sounds like a good idea. I hadn't thought of that. Not familiar with the Sika product you mentioned but will check it out.


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## stadry (Jun 20, 2009)

orange apron stores carry it but uncertain about blue, red, green, or yellow,,, orange also has sika polyurethane sealants.


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## jomama45 (Nov 13, 2008)

http://www.sikaconstruction.com/ht-cpd-SikaflexSelfLevelingSealant-us.pdf


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## countryboy43 (Jun 4, 2010)

*Sealing basement floor/wall crack*

Thanks for the link to the Sikaflex data sheet. Thats sounds exactly like what I'm looking for to seal the joint around my basement floor/wall perimiter. Only problem is, none of the home improvement stores in my area show they carry ththe Sikaflex product and I've never had much sucess in getting items such as this from a distributor for DYI jobs. Some guys are selling this on ebay but there is no rhyme or reason to their pricing which ranges anywhere from $7 to $100+ per tube. Think this may be salvage material too.

However, I did find a similar self-leveling polyurethane concrete sealing product manufactured by Quikrete that is sold locally at the retail level for about $6-$7 per tube. Is this equivalent to the Sikaflex product and will it work just as good? 
http://www.quikrete.com/PDFs/SPEC_DATA-PolyurethaneSealants.pdf


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## bob22 (May 28, 2008)

Just remember, the self-leveling will not go vertical to fill a gap; it does what it says: self-levels, so it will go horizontally but not vertically. I used this in a joint between two concrete pads and it has performed excellently.


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## countryboy43 (Jun 4, 2010)

Self leveling sealant should work just fine since the gap around the basement perimeter is all horizontal. 

There are several cracks on the vertical concrete block walls but they've never been a problem and I don't plan to do anything about them. Besides, there's no gap to fill on the vertical surface, just cracks in the blocks due to settling.


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