Alchatek Blog

This article is an excerpt from Episode 10 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring Alchemy-Spetec independent rep John Ziebell. Formerly the Vice President of Operations for Deneef Construction Chemicals, Inc., John has 36 years of experience in the chemical grout industry and is currently a member of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI). (If you'd rather view or listen, an audio/visual version of this excerpt is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Charlie Lerman: What do you feel about this trend where we're seeing these large, major corporations coming in and buying up companies like De Neef and Prime Resins? How do you think that's going to affect the industry?

John Ziebell: I think it's a two-edged sword. The problem, when it was just the small people, when I first started - you had De Neef, you had Avanti, 3M was still in the business. We really didn't see a lot of other grouts. Occasionally, we'd see something coming from Germany, a couple of other guys that I can't think of right now. But nobody really had any good technical data or technical support. What I mean is if you looked at a data sheet, if you put a De Neef data sheet and Avanti data sheet and a 3M data sheet side by side on comparable material, they all had different test methods. Some of them used rubber industry, ASTM rubber, test methods. Some used ASTM plastic industry test methods, etc. So, it was really hard for a customer, for an engineer or somebody to compare apples and oranges to see exactly what he was getting.

The technical support was pretty weak and sparse in those days, but you did get more personal attention as a contractor. I think with the advent of the big companies, hopefully, they will spend the time and the money to develop better technical information, better tools, better case histories, things like that to offer to the industry. But I see guys out there now who are giving technical support and sales support in the field, who really don't know anything about chemical grouts. They have a degree. They're nice looking young people. They have a - well, they don't have a catalog in their hand anymore - they have an iPhone or some kind of cell phone. But they themselves when you talk to them at society meetings and stuff, they don't really know anything about chemical grout.

Charlie: I've seen that with some of the larger companies where, I mean, they're known for great customer service. But they cover such vast lines that they don't have that intrinsic knowledge of grouting that you need on that level. So, I agree with you on that.

John: And one thing that they could never do, they could never do something you do and something that I used to do before I got old - they could never get down in a hole, get down in a manhole or go underground in their coveralls and actually show a contractor how to inject. They don't even try; they don't even want to.

Charlie: Right. I had a proud moment, and I am known for wearing like severely grouted clothes and stuff like that, kind of people even make fun of it. But I showed up at a job site in the Portland, Oregon area and it was for a manhole; and as I'm walking up, there's the two classic guys you're going to picture for going down in a manhole. They're standing there and one is handing a dollar to the other one. And I said, “What's going on here? Just handing out money?” And he goes, “No, I bet him that you're going to show up wearing a suit.” So, they thought as a manufacturer rep, I was going to come out there in a suit and try to tell them how to grout. But I was wearing my waders and everything, ready to get down in there. So, that is, I think, an important thing in the chemical grout industry - having that kind of support.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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Spetec PUR F400 is a solvent and phthalate-free, water-reactive, hydrophobic, closed-cell, low viscosity, shrink-free, flexible, one-component polyurethane injection resin. It's ideal for sealing:

• Concrete crack leaks
• Pipe penetration leaks
• Hairline cold joint leaks

Spetec PUR F400 is now available in convenient INJECTR Series cartridges, featuring the following benefits:

• Grout and accelerator in one cartridge, compatible with a standard caulk gun
• Same top-line product in a smaller package for smaller jobs
• Quicker in and out - less labor
• Faster set up
• You don’t have to bring in a full crew and a pump
• Use with standard caulk gun (no special guns needed)

Watch this video for a complete demo...

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It has become an Alchemy-Spetec annual tradition to re-post this classic holiday season safety blog I wrote a few years ago.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This time of year, most people will spend a little extra time with their loved ones.  It is also a time to reflect on the loved ones we miss that are no longer with us.  Like most of us, I know people who have either been lost or have suffered through a loss.  In those cases there was nothing that could have been done to stop it.  However, there are things that we can do to guard against job related safety hazards.

I've been fortunate enough to spend time in an OSHA safety training class.  It was required in order to be present supervising a project at a chemical facility.  Signing in at 6 AM, I’ll admit I was not looking forward to spending all day there.  By the end of the day I was glad that I went.

In an intro video, the narrator said that every morning when you kiss your loved one goodbye before you go to work, keep in mind that someone, somewhere will not come home from work that day.  Workplace accidents are almost entirely preventable.  Investigations typically find the cause quite easily. 

The class I attended contained a dozen or so modules, each one with a video case study followed by the teaching.  Every case study module covered a different accident where people didn’t come home from work that day.  All of them could have been prevented.  I learned about fire, electrical and chemical safety; as well as confined space, ladders, scaffolds, and working in trenches.  I have worked in the construction industry since my teenage years, so it was sobering to look back and think about some of the close calls I had.

If you're a contractor or industry related business owner looking for a good investment, send your employees to one of these classes.  It’s an excellent opportunity for them to learn safety principles that can protect you, your other employees, and your business from being lost.  It’s a gift that will keep on giving.  You don’t need Christmas as a reason to do this, but in the spirit of the season, you may want to make it the reason.  

Click here to find an OSHA safety class near you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

This article is an excerpt from Episode 10 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring Alchemy-Spetec independent rep John Ziebell. Formerly the Vice President of Operations for Deneef Construction Chemicals, Inc., John has 36 years of experience in the chemical grout industry and is currently a member of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI). (If you'd rather view or listen, an audio/visual version of this excerpt is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Charlie Lerman: What are some of the most common mistakes you see over and over again?

John Ziebell: The two biggest by far are my pet peeves and they're my number one problems for all 36 years. Number one, the contractor does not know or does not determine the thickness of the structure that he's trying to drill into to seal leaks. He puts his injection holes too close to the crack or joint and he drills at such a shallow angle that - let's just say it's a 12 inch thick wall and he's actually intersecting the crack two or three inches in.

This leads into problem two - he starts pumping the grout and as soon as he sees the milky white liquid at the surface, he stops pumping and goes to the next injection hole, the next injection packer. So, he may have filled four or five inches at best of that 12 inches. All the rest of that crack is wide open, the water is still on the reinforcing steel, corroding it. It's finding hairline cracks, it's wicking off into other areas. So, those are number one and number two above everything.

Number three, and this is mainly contractors who make this mistake. A lot of old-time contractors simply do not want to use any type of grout that requires an accelerator because they think it's like an epoxy and once they mix it up, they've only got a short period of time before it's going to gel their pump. And I have talked until I'm blue in the face about this, but they still use hydrophilics on everything. Now, if you're down in a sewer, I know you've got a lot of experience in sewers and manholes and stuff, you're okay because it's wet all the time. But boy, you get up in the kind of thing that I've done mostly through the years here in Texas where you got wet-dry cycling, and you put the hydrophilic in there? It's almost assuredly going to weep at some point in the future. So, those are really the three biggest problems. The first two are the biggest by far.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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This post is part of the Alchemy-Spetec Contractor Lens series, featuring views, news & case studies written by our customers.  This article, written by J.R. Crowell of Helms Polyfoam, explains the difference between two popular types of seawall repair materials.  If you're an Alchemy-Spetec customer and you'd like to discuss writing content for our blog, please send an email to marketing@alchemy-spetec.com today!.

Seawalls play an important role in shoreline protection and adjacent structure stability.  Over time however, hydrostatic pressure, storm surges, and simple aging will create the need for routine maintenance to be performed on the walls themselves as well as on the soil behind the walls.  When repairs are needed, it's important to use the most effective material available. 

Let's take a look at a recent job in which two different materials were used.  We were brought in on a project where a metal coastal seawall was damaged by heavy erosion and washouts.  This particular repair was part of a larger scale revitalization to a public access area, so safety and aesthetics were very important.  Prior to our involvement, the repair plan to fill the voids called for flowable fill, a cementitious mixture, to be pumped into all known voids.  That process was completed on a Friday, and when the site was evaluated the following Monday, over half of the voids were back.  Why did this happen?  Here are a few reasons:

• Flowable fill is a cementitious mixture with fluid properties.  Cement has a long cure time and it is heavy.  So, pumping this into a void caused by water infiltrating an already weak seawall means two things:

  • Water is present, so an even longer than normal cure time is expected. Longer cure time means more time for water to undermine the seawall.

  • Flowable fill relies on volume to fill voids.  More volume means more weight.  More weight on a weak/failing wall could make matters worse.

• Part of sediment loss from behind the wall was due to larger, rusted holes. Based on the factors stated above, flowable fill will have a hard time setting up with water actively coming through the wall, which means you never get a complete seal on the holes.

• Flowable fill doesn’t combine with soil, but rather fills up only large voids.  It is a thick material which means any small water paths will be hard, if not impossible, to reach.

The Solution:

We used a permeating, hydrophobic, polyurethane resin to seal off the problem areas.  This material is a bit of a hybrid chemical, meaning it has both permeating and expansive qualities.  (It should be noted that the expansive qualities are not synonymous with the qualities of the rigid, two part expanding foams used to lift and stabilize structures.)

Two days after the repair was completed, this area was hit with a tropical storm dumping 8” of rain in a matter of days and sending a powerful surge that caused waves to crash over the seawall. A thorough site evaluation the next week revealed that the polyurethane resin repair held.  So, why was this repair successful?

• For starters, with active leaks and holes in a seawall, you want to stop the water inflow as fast as possible so that the material behind the wall can be strengthened.  Material used here has an expansion rate of 50x its liquid state and is moisture activated.  This combined with hydrophobic properties means that as soon as the resin touched moisture, it began to seek and force out all water in the area.  This is saying a lot when you take into account the material was also holding off pressure from coastal tides.

• This resin has a very low viscosity (approximately 100cps) and is injected under pressure.  So anywhere water is going, it can go.  This is important because we are not just sealing the small holes, we are finding the small paths that flowable fill simply cannot get to.  There were instances where we had material reaction 10-15 ft from our injection point, meaning it found water traveling that far to cause problems.  Flowable fill can’t find that.

• Remember we said this is a hybrid material and the permeation qualities are probably the most important part of this repair. Once the active leaks were sealed, the resin then permeated through the soil seeking out all large and hairline water paths.  As interaction with soil and moisture occurred, soil particles were combined and bound together to create a solid, water impermeable mass everywhere water once traveled.  Extra care was also taken to make sure the surrounding areas were treated to mitigate future erosion.  This was important because we were stabilizing the natural water paths, where water has been and will be trying to go, we weren’t just putting up a “dam”.  This method stops the water intrusion at its source and then strengthens the area.

Seawall failures are common and can be expensive and unsafe if done incorrectly.  We want to make sure you have access to all the information necessary to make an informed decision.  The initially failed repair was not at all due to negligence, but simply a lack of information.  The property owners weren’t aware of a better method.  Therein lies our mission, to solve problems permanently and educate while doing so.

Click here for more information on Helms Polyfoam.

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This article is an excerpt from Episode 10 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring Alchemy-Spetec independent rep John Ziebell. Formerly the Vice President of Operations for Deneef Construction Chemicals, Inc., John has 36 years of experience in the chemical grout industry and is currently a member of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI). (If you'd rather view or listen, an audio/visual version of this excerpt is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Charlie Lerman: What are then some of the most interesting or unique type of applications have you’ve seen for chemical grouting?

John Ziebell: All of them in their own way are unique. I think some of the big semiconductor jobs in Austin that we did with injection tubes were really pretty interesting because they were challenging due to the enormity of the project and the size of some of the walls and everything. I think some of the jobs that I've worked on down in the water table in general were probably the most interesting because when you're working in the water table, it's pretty unforgiving. You either do it right or you do it wrong. And when water is squirting up six, eight feet high all around you, that kind of gets your attention. I had a job in California back in my De Neef days, in Redwood City. In California, land is so valuable that even for shopping centers they build massive parking garages underground and we had a waterproof membrane failure in one of those garages. When we drilled our injection holes, the water squirted out eight to twelve feet. So now, you’ve got a problem of: how do you even get your grout to go in? So, we had to do things that you normally don't do, like set up relief valves and actually put faucets on them to control the rate of flow so we could get water into the rest of the holes. Things like that, I remember vividly.

I remember on a job right next to that one, where a contractor was actually putting a curtain under the bottom slab in a six-story parking garage. Believe it or not he actually heaved a five-foot thick slab in the bottom of a parking garage with an expansive chemical grout. That was kind of interesting because it was so improbable that he would be able to do it. I realize chemical grout, highly expansive grout, exerts 300, 400 PSI. I understand that but still, when you think five foot of reinforced concrete? But he did it.

What else was interesting? I mean, they've all been interesting, I kind of fell in love with chemical grout that first year I was in the business. And I'm just as excited today about working on a small job as I am working on a big one.

Charlie: I share that excitement, and one of the biggest compliments I get when I talk to people is when they say that they see that I'm passionate for it. It's because I find grouting very mentally stimulating. It's a game where you get to go out there, and you know your pieces and you know how your grout works - but you can't see into that wall. So, it's figuring out what's going on in there and sometimes it's not very intuitive, but it's exciting.

John: Actually, after all these years right now, I'm working on probably the most interesting or at least the most challenging job that I've ever had. It's on a dam, a huge dam built in the 30s in central Texas on one of the Highland Lakes. And we have leaks through the joints that approach five, six hundred gallons an hour. And these joints are 30 feet in the air on an arched dam. There all kinds of problems with access, working conditions, etc. So, even after all these years, this one really has my attention.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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With the Covid-19 situation intensifying again as the weather gets colder, you may want to consider stocking up on Alchemy-Spetec Surface Cleaner - an essential supply for any workspace or household.

75% Isopropyl Alcohol Surface Cleaner

In addition to our hand sanitizer, Alchemy-Spetec is pleased to offer a surface cleaner to help reduce bacteria & viruses that potentially cause disease. It is an isopropyl-based formula that can be used to clean many types of surfaces. The cleaner can be applied directly to the surface or applied via a spray bottle (not included).

Applications for Surface Cleaner

• Door handles.
• Counter tops.
• Grocery carts.
• Bathrooms.

Advantages of Surface Cleaner

• 75% isopropyl alcohol by volume, plus hydrogen peroxide.
• Leaves no film or residue.
• Dries quickly.
• Sprayable for cleaning surfaces.

We are currently offering one standard packaging option:
A Case of Four 1-Gallon Jugs
(For bulk orders - please call 404-618-0438.)

Want to purchase Alchemy-Spetec Surface Cleaner online?

This article is an excerpt from Episode 10 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring Alchemy-Spetec independent rep John Ziebell. Formerly the Vice President of Operations for Deneef Construction Chemicals, Inc., John has 36 years of experience in the chemical grout industry and is currently a member of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI). (If you'd rather view or listen, an audio/visual version of this excerpt is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Charlie Lerman: What are some of the pitfalls that you see for young engineers when they specify chemical grouting?

John Ziebel: That's an interesting subject because I've talked to a number of senior engineers about it and I'll use one as an example, the gentleman that's the senior structural engineer for this region for CDM Smith in Dallas. He and I were bemoaning the fact that the younger engineers, especially the millennial generation, want to conduct all of their business via the internet, email and the social media platforms. They don't want to meet anyone in person. They seem terrified if you ask them if you can stop - this is pre-pandemic - if you ask if you can stop by their office for a few minutes. It seems to just scare the hell out of them. And he told me that in tutoring the young engineers, he tells them, “If you have a job that goes south on the Friday after Thanksgiving and you need somebody out there at the job site from the manufacturer that day. If you have never met the guy, he has no idea who you are, and you call him up and say, ‘Could you come out here?’ He's going to tell you, ‘No, I'm with my family for Thanksgiving. I can come Monday.’ But if he's somebody you know and you've been down in the hole with and maybe had had lunch with or drank a beer with after work, he's very likely going to say, ‘Give me a couple hours and I'll be there.’”

So, I think the biggest pitfall is that they have no personal relationship with the technical representatives for the various products. The second pitfall is that when I have asked them if I can come see them about a job, they have often said, “Well, we'll get your information off your website.” And in my case, Alchemy-Spetec has an excellent website, very informative. But I tell them, “Well, that's true and it tells you all about the products but it doesn't tell you which product is the best for your situation.” And then they usually say, “We'll send you some pictures and you can email us your recommendation.” So, I think that the lack of personal contact and the lack of actual experience at the site with the products is probably the biggest shortfall of the young engineers today.

Charlie: I agree with you and I think they are not necessarily going at it the wrong way, it's just that they are inundated with so much information at their fingertips digitally that they assume they’ve got it all. But just because I read a book or watch a video on how to hit a home run, that doesn't mean I can go out there and hit a home run. It takes the field experience and spending some time out there and doing those things. Excellent, thank you.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic is intensifying again. Please consider protecting yourself on the job and in your daily life with a steady supply of hand sanitizer. Alchemy-Spetec Hand Sanitizer is manufactured in accordance with an isopropyl-based WHO-formula. It's Made in the USA, here at our Tucker, GA headquarters. We are fully registered with the FDA as a manufacturer with a National Drug Code (NDC) of 74826-812. It is also important to note that this formula does not include gel thickening agents. It can be used with a small amount applied to the palm, or as a spray or wipe. 

Advantages

This article, written by guest blogger Mic Ewart (Geotech Go-To and Victorian State Manager of Bayset Specialist Trade Suppliers) profiles a car park slab lifting job completed under a tight deadline. If you're an Alchemy-Spetec customer or distributor, and you'd like to discuss writing content for our blog, please send an email to marketing@alchemy-spetec today!

A car park slab in Sunbury, Victoria (Australia) had settled about 40 mm (1.57 in). This dangerous drop created both trip hazards and litigation risks. Because this property was normally in use five days a week, the client needed very quick turnaround. A tight deadline like this automatically rules out the options of replacing the slab and lifting with cement grout (a.k.a. “mudjacking).

The most efficient repair method for sunken slabs is lifting with polyurethane. The RevivaLift team from RevivaCrete specializes in this method of leveling concrete. In this case, they used the Alchemy-Spetec PolyBadger lifting unit to get the job done. The PolyBadger is a tough, compact pump on wheels that fits easily in the back of a pickup truck if needed. It’s ideal for small to medium projects that need to be completed quickly. RevivaCrete gets their slab lifting supplies & support from Bayset, Australia’s premier specialist trade supplier.

The RevivaLift crew pumped Alchemy-Spetec’s AP Lift 430 high-strength polyurethane foam underneath the slab. With precision technique, they gradually brought it back into place until it was completely level. AP Lift 430 sets up very quickly, reaching 90% full strength in 15 minutes and full cure into a solid mass in less than a day. Once cured, these foams offer thousands of pounds per square foot of support. As soon as the crew is done packing up their equipment, the slab is usually ready for traffic. Needless to say, the property owner was very happy with this fast, efficient, and durable repair.

Want more information on lifting slabs with polyurethane?

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