Concrete floors are a prevalent flooring found in homes and businesses worldwide. They can be made from various materials but are typically made from cement and aggregate together with either Portland cement or lime-based mortar. These aggregates may vary depending on the local hydrology where concrete is used for construction.
Because concrete floors are porous, they require masonry insulation below them to minimize heat loss through the bottom layer of walls during cold weather months, which adds to the cost of constructing a building. Generally, when considering costs and energy consumption, many builders have opted to use more expensive materials like wood instead.
Concrete floors are blamed for numerous problems with residential buildings throughout the United States, including the weakening of foundation walls, wood floor rot, and termite infestation. In addition, concrete floors are said to have a limited life span of 50-75 years. These issues have made homeowners wary of building with these materials, so much so that they simply try to avoid them altogether.
Going against this trend, the construction industry has come up with some innovative and cost-effective methods of testing concrete floors for moisture levels. This is especially important as moisture in the structural concrete can either be absorbed into the structure or create rot at the base of walls in a wall cavity which can lead to damage and possible collapse.
The standard method of testing concrete floors is to place a moisture probe directly into the floor. This method relies on previous knowledge of the moisture level in the ambient air in the room, which often needs to be revised.
Another problem with this method is that it requires only one moisture probe, which means that only one sample will allow an accurate reading. One reason for this is that mold or other organisms can get trapped inside these probes, which can affect their readings. The second problem with this method is that keeping a constant temperature throughout an entire building during testing and then measuring a change can be problematic as the air gets cooled or heated during the day and changes.
One way to circumvent the problems associated with moisture monitoring is by using a moisture sensor that tracks the floor’s temperature and measures the temperature change at a point in the room. This allows for more precise and faster measurements because there is less chance of disturbance during testing.
The concrete floor moisture test chamber has three settings that allow for precise measurement of relative humidity, ambient temperature, and relative airflow, allowing for accurate testing of concrete floors to determine their moisture content level over time. The chamber also tracks humidity and temperature individually and can be programmed to measure automatically or manually.
In conclusion, by using a moisture sensor, it is possible to accurately measure the level of moisture within a structure in a way that does not consider the moisture vapor component of the air. This allows for more accurate readings as well as faster and easier testing.