Greetings all,
I have my observatory on a very flat concrete pad in the AZ desert & when we get rains in Monsoon season quite a bit of water seeps in under the bottom of the panels. I first tried a polyurethane caulk around the outer perimeter that didn't seem to do much good. I also tried that Phil Swift FlexSeal paste - I glommed that on pretty good over the polyurethane & smoothed it out to be flush with the outer rounded lip & angled slightly out as it gets to the concrete surface, but I'm still getting leakage. Does anybody have a successful solution?
Thanks,
stevieray
I first tried Big Stretch calcking which lasted a year. My dome is mounted on four thick plastic hot tub pads. Much cheaper than concrete. I used white Flex seal paste and put a one inch strip along the floor and wall inside and completely covered the hold down brackets. Then outside filled the rounded bottom full and used a putty knife to flatten it smooth. Make sure you completely cover around the post areas. It worked great and looks great too. 3 tubs and a caulking gun for under the door. Took a half day and was about 120$ all togeather including duct tape.
I did apply sealer to the inside floor before I painted it, but never thought of sealing the concrete outside - I will have to try that the next time I'm out there (NexDome is at our vacation rental ranch in AZ but we still live in MD for now - working on getting out there permanently now that I have retired!) I should probably loosen up the L-brackets on the inside posts & try to get under the wall panels as well - might shoot some polyurethane under there from the inside while I have them loose, too. We rent the observatory to our stargazing & astrophotographer guests who care to use it & the water intrusion is really the only complaint I have had from any of them in the 5 years it has been up.
I live in New Mexico with similar monsoons. I installed my NexDome a year ago and have experienced the same problems. I think the suggestion to seal the concrete might be a good one. I've tried everything everything else. Sealing the concrete might actually work. Let us all know if you try it! Also the door is a possible issue but you may not see the leakage there. I added an irrigation tube inside the seal as suggested by someone else on this sight and that worked pretty well. Sorry I don't remember the link. Still, I describe the NexDome as "water discouraging", neither "water proof" nor "water resistant" due to the seepage at the base.
Just a comment about your concrete pad. Be sure to seal the concrete . This will prevent moisture accumulation .