The parking garage we built in 2019 just got a full inspection and the concrete is a different color now

We used a standard 4000 psi mix with local aggregate for a big garage project, and the exposed walls looked fine at handover. Five years later, the entire east-facing side has a noticeable white, chalky film while the other sides look normal. Is this just normal efflorescence from weather, or did we have a real mix design problem back then?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex_taylor101mo ago

Ugh, classic efflorescence. That white stuff is just salts leaching out from moisture moving through the concrete. The east side gets all the morning sun and weather, so it makes sense it showed up there first.

gibson.robert1mo ago

Efflorescence sounds way smarter than "concrete dandruff", @alex_taylor10. My patio's got a bad case of it too.

the_john1mo ago

Haha yeah my concrete's got worse dandruff than my scalp after winter.