Homesteading Forum banner

Bonding plastic ground covering to cinder block. Ideas?

792 views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  67drake 
#1 ·
I put 6mil plastic down in my crawl space as a moisture barrier beneath my project house. Before I started laying my subfloor I figured I’d glue the plastic around the perimeter of the crawl space to the cinder block foundation to help further seal out moisture.
I bought some water based indoor/outdoor construction adhesive that the label says bonds just about anything to anything. I put a bead down yesterday on a section as a trial run. I went back today and a can easily pull the plastic off of the adhesive. Adhesive sticks to the cinder block just fine.
I went back to the hardware store to find an alternative. All the non water based ones say specifically NOT to use on plastic. So I need ideas on what to use
I was thinking maybe a silicone type as that seems to stick to anything, but don’t know how durable it would be in an unheated crawl space. Or if it sticks to cinder block?
Also,the crawl space area will be unused for storage, so the plastic won’t really get disturbed or pulled on, so it doesn’t really have to be a STRONG bond, just durable.
Thanks for any ideas.
 
#3 ·
Cinder blocks? That's not easy to get adhesive to stick to. Maybe try Gorilla glue? Otherwise look into maybe melting the plastic to the cinderblocks somehow (I am thinking by a chemical reaction more so than heating). With that said, perhaps one of those products you looked at that is not for use with plastic would do just that.
You could always get some of that concrete sealer paint, paint it on and then try your adhesive.

One other idea is that spray on foam insulation, the stuff that seals gaps and cracks, it sticks to EVERYTHING including concrete.... that would probably do it.
 
#4 ·
The problem is getting the plastic to stick.

Silicon won't work. I tried glueing some greenhouse plastic to a metal frame some years back. The plastic came off just fine, the silicon is still stuck to the metal frame.

There is a concrete bonding glue that is used to stick retaining blocks together. But I don't know if it will stick to plastic.

Spray foam might work. That stuff does stick to everything!
 
#5 ·
The problem is getting the plastic to stick.

Silicon won't work. I tried glueing some greenhouse plastic to a metal frame some years back. The plastic came off just fine, the silicon is still stuck to the metal frame.

There is a concrete bonding glue that is used to stick retaining blocks together. But I don't know if it will stick to plastic.

Spray foam might work. That stuff does stick to everything!
I know, the more I think about it the more I think the foam might be the next thing to try. I dropped a glob onto concrete once and I can assure you, I will never get all of it off no matter how hard I try. Ever.
 
#6 ·
Thanks guys.
That’s not a bad idea. I have quite a few cans of insulation foam for my windows at the house already. Funny thing is when I did the demo that’s pretty much what was there originally. They had ground cover down and then had gobs of of foam insulation up against the foundation for insulation purposes. But they might have been trying to hold the plastic down too. It was about 1’ thick against the walls.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top