Most projects come down to three questions: is the concrete going under flooring or staying exposed, is it already poured or still in the truck, and what is it made of — poured concrete, block, or gypsum? The selector below matches the common situations to the Bone Dry product built for them. Every Bone Dry sealer is a permanent penetrating treatment: it soaks into the pores, reacts with the concrete, and leaves nothing on the surface to peel, wear off, or recoat. If your situation is not listed, send us the square footage, the substrate, and what goes on top and we will spec it.
Which Bone Dry product is right for my concrete?
Product selector: match your situation
| Your situation | Concrete condition | Use | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under flooring — stop moisture vapor | |||
| Existing slab going under flooring — home, garage, most projects | Poured concrete, new or existing | Bone Dry Original | Permanent penetrating vapor barrier; about 1,100 sq ft per 5-gallon pail; the concrete looks unchanged |
| Basement that smells musty, or a hygiene-critical floor (hospital, restaurant, food plant) | Poured concrete, new or existing | Bone Dry Plus | The same permanent seal as Original with antimicrobial protection built into the pores |
| Large commercial slab under flooring — new pour or existing, warranty required | Slab on grade, below grade, or slab on deck | Bone Dry Pro Sealer (Bone Dry Pro System) | Sprayed as soon as the slab can be walked on; functions as the curing compound; 25-year warranty against moisture-related and bonding failures |
| New pour where you can coordinate with the batch plant | Concrete not yet placed | Bone Dry Pro Admix | Waterproofing through every cubic inch of the pour; no spray crew and no onsite moisture testing; lifetime flooring and roofing replacement warranty (onsite rep required for pours over 20 yards) |
| Walls and porous substrates | |||
| Block basement wall that weeps after rain; shotcrete or gunite | CMU block, shotcrete, gunite, or extremely porous concrete | Bone Dry Block Wall (Primer, then Original or Plus) | Block does not carry enough alkali for a sealer to react with — the Primer supplies it, then the sealer forms a permanent barrier inside the block |
| Prep first, then seal | |||
| Hard-troweled, burnished, or polished slab | Surface sealed shut | Etch-A-Crete, then your sealer | Opens the pores so a penetrating sealer can get in — a garden sprayer, a broom, and a mop instead of acid or grinding |
| Oil- or grease-stained slab before sealing or coating | Any concrete | Bone Dry Concrete Degreaser, then your sealer | Low-VOC concentrate that lifts grease, oil, tar, and rubber marks so the sealer can penetrate |
| Exposed concrete — no flooring on top | |||
| Residential driveway, patio, or sidewalk | Exposed exterior concrete | Bone Dry Driveway Sealer | VOC-free penetrating seal against water and deicing salt; dries clear; no film and no recoat cycle. Not for asphalt |
| Parking lot or structure, plaza, sidewalks, curbs — commercial exterior flatwork | Exposed structural concrete, new or existing | Bone Dry Structural Sealer | One application cures and seals new flatwork and keeps water and salt out of existing concrete — breaks the freeze-thaw cycle |
| Warehouse or distribution floor that dusts under forklift traffic | Exposed interior concrete, new or existing | Li 200 Logistics | Lithium and nano-silica densifier; about 300–400 sq ft per gallon; spray, leave, dries clear; traffic back in 2–3 hours |
| Finished, chemical-resistant wearing surface — food-grade, light to moderate traffic | Bare concrete or a slab already sealed with Bone Dry | Bone Dry EM Coating | Two-component, epoxy-modified clear semi-gloss coating with antimicrobial protection; bonds to existing Bone Dry sealers |
| Substrates that are not plain concrete | |||
| Gypsum underlayment (Gyp-Crete over plywood) before flooring | Gypsum — not concrete | Bone Dry Pro Gyp-Cap | Single-component membrane-forming coating built for gypsum; handles up to 100% relative humidity; foot traffic in about 60 minutes |
| Old slab with black mastic or cutback adhesive that has been chemically abated | Aged concrete with adhesive residue | Bone Dry Pro Encapsulator | One ready-to-use coat mitigates moisture and locks in mastic migration |
| Protecting the steel inside the concrete | |||
| Existing parking garage, bridge, balcony, or pier exposed to deicing salt or salt air | Standing reinforced structure | Bone Dry Corrosion Stop | Surface-applied migrating corrosion inhibitor; 2–3 coats at 100 sq ft per gallon travel through the concrete to the rebar |
| New reinforced concrete anywhere steel meets salt | Concrete not yet placed | Bone Dry Corrosion Inhibitor | Chloride-free amine-based admixture; 28 fl oz per cubic yard; no change to the mix; ASTM C1582 compliant |
Coverage figures are typical and depend on the porosity of the slab. For sizing an order, send us the square footage.
When Bone Dry is not the answer — or not yet
Knowing what a product will not do is half of choosing correctly.
- Asphalt (blacktop) driveways. Bone Dry sealers are for concrete; they break down asphalt’s petroleum base. There is no Bone Dry product for asphalt.
- Gypsum underlayment. Never apply a penetrating concrete sealer to gypsum. Run concrete areas with Bone Dry Pro and gypsum areas with Pro Gyp-Cap.
- Painted block walls. The Block Wall Primer cannot penetrate latex, acrylic, or polyvinyl paint — strip the paint first.
- Brick, masonry, wood, and metal. Bone Dry Primer is formulated solely for cement-based building materials.
- Burnished or hard-troweled slabs, unprepared. A penetrating sealer cannot treat what it cannot enter. Etch-A-Crete first.
- Painted or coated slabs. On remodels, prior coatings need mechanical profiling or a cementitious skim coat before sealing.
- Standing water coming through cracks or joints. A penetrating sealer closes the pores against moisture vapor. A running leak needs the crack, joint, or drainage problem corrected first.
Not sure whether you have a moisture problem?
Tape a 2×2-foot square of plastic sheeting to a dry patch of concrete and leave it for 48 hours. Beads of moisture underneath mean vapor is rising through the slab — a faulty or missing vapor barrier — and sealing is the fix. Bone dry under the plastic means the moisture is coming from the room’s humidity, and ventilation is the fix. Two days, zero cost, and you know which problem you have.
Two ways to seal a new pour
There are two routes to a dry new slab. Bone Dry Pro is sprayed on the fresh slab as soon as it can be walked on — it functions as the curing compound and permanently mitigates moisture in one pass, with no batch-plant coordination and a 25-year warranty. Bone Dry Pro Admix goes into the load at the batch plant or in the truck at 8–10 fl oz per 100 lbs of cement, so the concrete arrives already waterproofed through every cubic inch, with no change to slump, flow, set, or cure and a lifetime flooring and roofing replacement warranty. Existing slabs take Original or Plus. For the step-by-step on a basement or below-grade floor, see Sealing a Below-Grade Concrete Slab.
Bone Dry Original for most slabs — a permanent penetrating vapor barrier applied with a garden sprayer, covering about 1,100 sq ft per 5-gallon pail. Choose Bone Dry Plus wherever mold, mildew, or musty odors are a concern, such as a damp basement; it is the same seal with antimicrobial protection built into the formula. Large commercial pours that need cure and seal in one step with a warranty program use Bone Dry Pro.
Only on CMU block, shotcrete, gunite, or extremely porous concrete. Those materials do not carry enough alkali for a Bone Dry sealer to react with, so the Bone Dry Block Wall system supplies it: two coats of Primer at 80–150 sq ft per gallon, then Original or Plus applied while the primer is still damp. Standard poured concrete slabs and walls take Original, Plus, or Pro directly with no primer.
Both produce a permanently sealed slab. Bone Dry Pro is sprayed on the fresh slab at placement, functions as the curing compound, and carries a 25-year warranty — no batch-plant coordination required. Pro Admix is dosed into the concrete at the batch plant or in the truck, so every cubic inch of the pour is waterproofed with no site labor or onsite moisture testing, backed by a lifetime flooring and roofing replacement warranty with an onsite representative for pours over 20 yards.
Bone Dry Driveway Sealer is made for exposed residential concrete: a VOC-free penetrating sealer and densifier that keeps water and deicing salt out, dries clear, and never peels or needs a recoat cycle. Commercial parking lots, parking structures, plazas, and other exposed flatwork use Bone Dry Structural Sealer, which cures and seals new flatwork in a single application. Neither product is for asphalt.
The Bone Dry sealers are not coatings. Original, Plus, Pro, Driveway, Structural, and Li 200 Logistics penetrate the concrete, react within the pores, and leave the surface looking unchanged, so there is no film to peel or wear through. Three products in the line are coatings by design: EM Coating, a chemical-resistant epoxy-modified wearing surface; Pro Gyp-Cap, a membrane-forming coating for gypsum underlayment; and Pro Encapsulator, for slabs with chemically abated black mastic.
Tape a 2×2-foot square of plastic sheeting to a dry patch of the slab and leave it for 48 hours. Beads of moisture underneath mean vapor is rising through the concrete and the slab needs sealing. A dry patch under the plastic means the moisture is coming from room humidity, and ventilation is the fix.
