Crack Injection
Have you noticed cracks in your foundation basement? Cracks in concrete are quite common, many would say normal. Cracks in foundations are common near windows or other foundation openings such as doors and crawl spaces access holes. Foundation cracks can show up in other places as well, sometimes these are an indication of foundation movement. It is important to have foundation cracks professionally sealed and injected to prevent intrusion of insects, dirt and water.
What is Crack Injection?
Crack injection is the process of applying an epoxy paste to seal the crack and attach injection ports from inside of the home’s foundation wall. Once the epoxy paste has set, a hydrophilic polyurethane gel foam or low viscosity epoxy resin is injected through the ports. The injection material starts from the bottom, pushes all the way through the crack and presses against the soil on the outside of the wall to work itself all the way up the crack. This process ensures that the crack is sealed all the way through to ensure long term reliability and performance.
Crack Repair and Bowing Wall Repair
Have you seen horizontal cracks in your basement foundation wall? This is often a sign of a bowing wall or foundation failure. The typical fix for a bowing wall will be the application of carbon fiber as long as the wall deflection is not greater than 2”. If wall deflection is greater than 2” please see our page on Tie Backs and plate anchors. Many times, these products are used together.
What is Carbon Fiber Crack Repair?
- Carbon Fiber is a strong, light weight material that is not susceptible to corrosion like other repair material such as steel. Carbon fiber cloth is in fact ten times stronger than steel. When properly installed, the carbon fiber can be painted over, framed over for long term reliability and performance.
- To properly install carbon fiber, the concrete wall must be prepared by grinding the application area down to expose fresh aggregate. Typical spacing ranges from three to five feet. Spacing will depend on engineer recommendations and calculations. Once the wall is prepared, an epoxy resin is applied to the wall and is saturated into the carbon fiber cloth. The carbon fiber cloth is then applied to the wall with maximum wall contact and allowed to dry. All foundation cracks are then injected and the repair process is complete.