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Our gymnasium was built over 35 yrs ago. They did not put any moisture barrier under the concrete slab floor. Moisture constantly comes through and times with a lot of rain, water even comes from where the walls meet the floor. We run a humidifier to keep the moisture and mold down. We have a very small budget. The building is a pole barn type. The gutters are good. The floor is bare concrete. When it was first built we literally had dirt and mud come in where the wall meets the floor. They put more cement blocks (higher) on the outside of the foundation. This stopped dirt from coming in but not moisture. What can we do on low finances.

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This sounds more like a landscaping issue in that you need to ensure that the ground is properly sloped well away from the foundation on all sides. –  DA01 Jul 12 '13 at 18:17
As DA01 says, the best thing is to redirect the water before it ever gets to be a problem. –  user558 Jul 12 '13 at 18:56
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It sounds like you have two problems.

Water is coming in through the space where the wall meets the floor.

This can be mitigated by making sure the surrounding terrain is sloped away from the walls, ensuring that surface water flows away from the structure. You might also be able to dig out the foundation and seal the soil/structure boundary with a heavy plastic such as Delta Board.

The other problem is likely what's called rising damp. This is water underneath the foundation that wicks up through the concrete. The solution is expensive. You need to excavate the foundation, Install weeping tile which drains to a safe location. This will help keep ground water out from underneath the foundation.

Since you say this is a barn, the foundation may not be that deep, and it's something you could do yourself. Just be sure to fully research (or ask questions here) how to do it.

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As per the above, Water control is easy, you stop it on the outside before it gets to the inner surface. No amount of effort will stop it once it has penetrated the foundation materials. You're often working against water pressure which easily breaches anything you apply to the inside surface. Of course the implementation of that simple idea is the hard, aggravating part. As to Rising Damp, you have to depress the local water table with drainage, and heaven forbid if your building was built over a natural spring, you have to learn how to play god to eliminate that. –  Fiasco Labs Jul 13 '13 at 17:40
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