New house concreet dust?

i just had a house built the basement has this fine dust on the floor i tried to vacuum,sweep,mop it up and cant seem to get rid of it any suggestions? the floor is concreetNew house concreet dust?
I'm thinking the mason or his finishers used an accelerator to speed up the drying of this concrete; or they thinned the slump with too much water. If he used too much of either this will happen and continue. Too much accelerant and the top layer of Portland which creates the smooth surface is now compromised. This effervescence will continue to the point where the slab will show upper stage cracking and will start peeling and popping up. Too much water and the whole slabs strength is compromised.





What to do? Right now, if the above is the case, and the basement is empty, you need to get down there with a garden hose and soak this slab down with water to hopefully break down this chemical. Once the floor is puddled use a good wet vac and extract the water so you can get some of this out and off the floor. This may or may not provide you with remedy as it鈥檒l depend on how much drying accelerant was spread if that in fact turns out to be the case. If they applied too much water there鈥檚 no immediate remedy and you鈥檒l eventually get deep cracks.





This is what I suggest that you do:


1. Call the concrete company that provided the mix and ask for a copy of the drivers delivery receipt. This will have the slump/mix %26amp; psi ordered; and it will reference if the mason crew instructed the driver to add additional water, and how many gallons.


2. Have two core samples taken from this slab and sent out for analysis. This will show the actual strength of the concrete and what if anything added is adversely effecting this floor and/or creating this problem.


3. Once you have done the above, if you so decide, here鈥檚 how you can possibly stop the chalking fairly inexpensively. Go to your local Lowe鈥檚 or Home Depot and get Seal-Krete Concrete Floor Sealer and apply it after you have rinsed the floor down as described above and it has dried. The following is a internet link to the product I鈥檓 describing http://www.seal-krete.com/forfloors.htm . **Painting this with any floor paint at this time would be a big mistake**








If I can be more help to you on this don鈥檛 hesitate to get back to me. If the above proves correct you need to contact legal counsel and pursue remedy through the builder/contractors insurance carrier.





Mike Lonergan


TradesProfessional, Inc.


http://tradesprofessional.comNew house concreet dust?
Try a Oil Base Floor Sweeping Compound, you can find it at any home depot or home hardware store, you just spread a thin layer all over the area you're trying to clean, and sweep it up.





Used to work as a commercial tile layer, used this all the time to clean floors.
as mike c 's answer but you may want to seal the floor a cheap floor paint can be found at screwfix stores nationwide if the floor is not sealed you will always get dust forming I would suggest not using an oil based cleaner prior to painting just water and detergent then letting dry prior to painting should be sufficient
if you are getting dust , then your finishers didnt hard trowel it enough to seal it...a concrete floor should shine when they are done...have it sealed...you could also have it ground and then sealed...