Iridescent Particles in Ardex's 8+9 Waterproofing - A closer look

[johnfrwhipple]

Morning men.

I'm looking for some help into a strange slick forming on my Ardex 8+9 flood tests. I first noticed the shinny iridescent particles in the Ardex 8+9 powder and email my rep at Ardex asking what they where. I was told he did not know and that they are in all the Ardex products. Not much help there but who cares right? Wrong.

I tested a little cone of Ardex 8+9 made from nothing but Ardex 8+9 and cardboard. It held great and no leaks. I left the test for multiple days to see if the product would hold out until the water evaporated. At about day five I took these pictures.





You can see the shiny patches floating on the water. It is a skim layer and quite shinny. If you touch the water with your finger they break apart.

I send out an email asking why this happens after it happen again on this shower flood test.





I heard back from my rep that he had never heard of this happening before. The slick does not show up until after 36 plus hours so it may be that no one has ever flood tested the product this long before.

Those of you that know me well know that I'm an information hound. I want to understand why this is happening and if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The flood testing has been perfect. Zero loss of water in all four showers that I flood test this month with the Ardex 8+9. My gut feeling is that the Ardex 8+9 has a slight solvent based content to it and this is the result of off gassing. Or that there is a second reaction that happens when the Ardex 8+9 meets water. Kind of the way cement repair mortar can grow crystals to plug holes in concrete.

I will need to test the product more and more controlled.

I can say it's not the water because I drank it in all three job sites.

It was not the temperature because we had heat on all three jobs.

It was not the cure time because I allowed each coat to dry at least 12 hours.

Any ideas men?

JW