Attaching wooden panel to sectional garage wall

[whenisayjump]

Hello,

I have a concrete sectional garage which came with a house I recently bought. It's generally watertight, but water does seem to seep in where the walls meet the concrete floor and I'm sure other places too. It could just be condensation but from reading around the internet this seems to be an issue with garages of this type especially older ones like mine.

We're hoping to have some electrics put in there for a fridge etc, but attaching stuff to the walls is an issue because it seems to blow the concrete from what I can tell of the previous owner's handiwork. Our electrician suggested using something like 'sticks like ****' to attach a wooden panel to the wall on which we can attach the various electrical gubbins (like the CU) we need.

My concern is if the garage is a bit weepy and condensation-y how well will the wood fare? Or could I just use marine ply - is that water-resistant around for a damp garage?

 

[JohnD]

Please show some photos of the junction of the walls with the floor and ground, inside and out, and of the gutters, downpipes and drains that dispose of rainwater.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

They can terrible for leaking water wherever there is a joint. I've lived in 2 places where we had one - the first I tried mastic on the (inside of the) joints with limited success, the second got a CT-1 type sealant which worked a lot better, presumably because it is more flexible.

A CU needs to be properly fuxed to the wall which a bonding agent might not achieve, so it may be better to screw and plug a couple of treated softwood battens (2 x 2 slate lath) to the wall (vertically) and fix a 12mm cement fibre board over the top to carry tour CU. This has In a very damp environment even WBP plywood will go black and mouldy and delaminate over time, and true marine ply is extremely expensive (so doesn't get used in construction), so cement fibre board makes an affordable alternative which will take screws quite well.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The wet concrete floor, is usually due to rain water landing on edges of the slab, sticking out beyond the panels, or localised flooding due to ground levels. A triangle web of cement, well stuck to the concrete, along the inside, all the way round will fix that - but do not allow it to stick to the actual panels. Use a narrow strip of plastic along the panels, to prevent that.

The concrete panels are quite thin and have steel reinforcing around the thicker parts of the panels, too thin for screws and plugs to work. The only way to fix to them, is to drill all the way through, then use a suitably long roofing bolt - head outside, nut on the inside, a second nut to clamp what you want to fix, maybe with addition of a spacer. Better to drill from outside in, rather than inside to out when it can blast a large surface out.

Wood will be fine, so long as it doesn't get constantly wet from roof leaks. My garage panels are tongue and groove along the edges, I have no such leaks through the joints.

 

[foxhole]

Fixed all my shelving with screws and plugs when we had one.No problems , as long as the timber doesn’t sit on the floor and you have good ventilation will last years.