On Friday, April 26, 2013 5:44:54 PM UTC-4, Todd wrote:
On 04/26/2013 06:25 AM, TimR wrote:

On Thursday, April 25, 2013 1:49:05 PM UTC-4, Todd wrote:

It is in the soil and the contractor used a cheap grade of cement



and added water and calcium



Then it is NOT in the soil.



It is in your cement (concrete? mortar?) and it comes out as moisture flows through.



Both. The cheap grade of cement used in the foundation makes it

more porous and exacerbates the problem

Okay. There probably is salt in your soil. But that has nothing to do with salt appearing on the surface of the foundation. That salt comes 100% from within the foundation. It is normally caused by the sand inside the concrete or mortar.

Your foundation is not !NOT! built with cement. Cement is one component of concrete, if you happen to have a poured concrete foundation. It is also one component of mortar, if your foundation is block or CMU. In either case, it is a mix of cement, sand, and gravel if concrete, or cement sand and lime if mortar.

As far as I know there is no such thing as cheap cement. There is only weak concrete caused by not using enough in the mix.

The salt that effloresces comes from the sand. If the sand is not clean enough (and here in Virginia it is VERY hard to get sand clean enough) then the salt in the sand bleeds out over time and stains the masonry.

The salt in the soil stays there. The foundation doesn't care.