Often basements develop damps and to prevent this you have to look for ways to fight against persistent moisture problems. Due to accumulated moisture the basement generates a bad smell and the air around becomes heavy and smelly. The floor of the basement develops moisture as the water underneath the surface gets evaporated by means of the concrete causing immense pollution and dampness. However, to put an end to this you can seal the concrete of the basement thereby disallowing the water to seep.

The sealer you are using should be a densifier such as sodium silicate. This is definitely going to work better than an ordinary surface sealer. Sodium silicate is always better than a surface sealer as the latter provides protection for a very short span of time. A surface sealer can be used only to bond a surface for it can never penetrate deep within the plane. Moreover, there are some surface sealers which cannot be painted. Thus, in this case sodium silicate would always be the better choice.