# steel decking under concrete floor rusting



## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

What do you mean by steel drcking, and how did you find out that it was rusting in the first place? Is this garage floor over a crawl space or basement space?

Doubt road salt did it, most likely from moisture in the space below, or from sitting directly on soil, if no crawl or basement under the garage.

Now of course pictures can speak a thousand words and come in handy for situations like this, so the rest of us can see what the heck you are talking about.


----------



## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

BTW, you cannot just replace the steel deking, without tearing up the floor.


----------



## Lbob (Jul 17, 2013)

I did mention that I had a basement under the garage floor. so in the basement I can see the steel decking holding up the concrete of the garage above.

the steel decking is rusted pretty bad so I don't know what to do. you say I can not remove the decking. so do I put rust proofing on what is left and hope the rebar holds the concrete and weight of the car above?


----------



## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

There is no magical miracle out there to fix this.


All you can do is talk to a structural Engineer. Id they fig. the structral integrety is compromized due to the steel deck can no longer hold any weight, they can have the city condemn the structure as unsafe, so be careful.


----------



## concretemasonry (Oct 10, 2006)

If you are in a cold climate, you can expect road drippings, snow melt and possibly get to get into the cracks, so the concrete in the slab is probably "toast".

Dick


----------



## Canarywood1 (May 5, 2012)

Lbob said:


> I have a basement under my garage floor. appears garage concrete was not sealed and road salt got through to rust the steel decking under the concrete.
> 
> the concrete is 8 inches thick. do I have to replace the steel decking?
> 
> I know I now need to seal the garage floor with something. the garage floor concrete is also spalling.


 
Can you post a picture of the decking,most decks are poured with steel pans,but they are usually removed after concrete has cured.


----------



## robertcdf (Nov 12, 2005)

Get an engineer in there, there might be enough rebar and steel beams but no one here can tell you that.


----------



## stadry (Jun 20, 2009)

they're probably stay-in-place forms ( galvanized is the norm ) & they will eventually rust either from moisture below OR thru the conc,,, the good news is they add nothing structurally to the weight carrying ability of the conc,,, the bad news is they look like **** now,,, they are ONLY to allow workers some place to step whilst they tie rebar then they hold the wet conc til its cured,,, the forms are supported by a system of temp columns & spreaders,,, many times they're removed but often not as you've discovered - that's my best guess

asking this question w/o pictures is like asking obama,,,,,, ( nope, no polital stuff ) this is a limited response 'cause no one knows where the heck you live so don't expect too much from us :furious:


----------

