The Geotechnical Applications for Polyurethane presentation explains and demonstrates how concrete leveling and soil stabilization resins can be used to stabilize soil and repair structures. The presentation covers the following topics:

• Single Component Polyurethane Grout Applications
• Two-Component Polyurethane Grout Applications
• Acrylic Grout Applications

This one-hour CE/PDH accredited presentation is ideal for engineers who are interested in learning about next-generation geotech repair methods for pavement lifting and stabilization, excavation support, erosion control, infrastructure infiltration control, etc.

Click here and submit your info for a follow-up call on scheduling an accredited presentation.

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Alchemy-Spetec grout labs are a great way to learn about industry-leading polyurethane leak seal products and applications. These are usually half-day events featuring...

Classroom Polyurethane Leak Seal Training

• Safety Considerations for Polyurethane Leak Seal Work
• Crack Injection Products and Application Procedures
• Curtain Grouting Products and Application Procedures

Live Polyurethane Leak Seal Demos

• Concrete Crack Injection
• Curtain Grouting
• Pump Startup and Maintenance

Contact your local distributor of polyurethane leak seal products and ask them to schedule an Alchemy-Spetec grout lab at their location. To find a distributor stocking Alchemy-Spetec products near you, click your state on this interactive map. 

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One of the many joys of my job is going to all corners of North America and participating in unique projects. While I am a seasoned traveler, cement is not. Cement grout often requires heavy equipment. Shipping cement grout and related equipment can be expensive. While often not a concern for most projects, it is a driving factor for remote locations.

I have been involved with numerous projects in which cement grout would be an acceptable repair and more cost-effective than chemical grout - until the project location gets factored in. Dams are found in many remote locations. The very remote ones are often built using a temporary road that can handle heavy construction traffic. Fast forward some years and these roads no longer can support cement trucks or other heavy vehicles.

Chemical grouting equipment can easily be loaded into a pickup truck or even on the back of an ATV. While the material cost of polyurethane chemical grout is more than cementitious grout, getting polyurethane materials and equipment to a remote site can be a lot less expensive.

Lightweight polyurethane is much easier to mobilize with a small to non-existent footprint. This means it is less disruptive to sensitive sites. (Seawalls are a good example where chemical grouting can be done without tearing up the home owner’s yard with heavy cementitious grouting equipment.)

There are many factors to consider for every grouting job. It helps to have the Grout Geek and Alchemy-Spetec in your corner to help design the right plan for your project.

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Loose, unstable slabs with voids underneath are often referred to as "rocking" slabs due to their movement when forklifts cross over them. Rocking slabs are a common problem in many warehouses. Left un-repaired, they can cause damage to equipment and injury to workers. Eventually, rocking slabs will require replacement if they are not repaired properly.

Rocking Slabs Can Cause:

• Slab Deterioration Over Time
• Floor Destabilization
• Damage to Material Handling Equipment & Loads
• Trip Hazards & Litigation Risk

How to Repair Rocking Slabs:

1. Inject high-strength, high-density polyurethane foam underneath the slab for lasting support.
2. The polyurethane expands to fill any voids underneath and cures to support 14,000 lbs/square foot.
3. Easily clear excess foam from the surface of the slab.
4. Repaired slabs are traffic ready in just 15 minutes!

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Alchemy-Spetec products are proudly made in the U.S.A.  Manufacturing at the Tucker, GA, and Reno, NV facilities (rather than outsourcing abroad) provides three distinct advantages to you and to the country we all call home: consistent quality, reliable supply, and more American jobs.

Consistent Quality

With our industry experts overseeing the production process, products are manufactured to the exact same specs with the exact same equipment every time. Outsourcing to a rotating line-up of the lowest overseas bidders would force us to sacrifice these advantages.

Reliable Supply

Being in complete control of the facilities in which our products are made ensures a reliable supply of products (within the boundaries of raw material availability of course). Outsourcing would leave us (and you) at the mercy of overseas facilities conditions, which we have no control over. 

More American Jobs

One of Alchemy-Spetec's core company values is an appreciation for, and a desire to benefit, the United States of America. If manufacturing superior products in a controlled, reliable manner also happens to create more jobs for American citizens - all the better! That is what we call a win-win situation!

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Alchemy-Spetec offers unparalleled field support through our nationwide team of Regional Managers and Technical Service Directors. No matter what part of the industry you are in, we know you could very well be busy and understaffed with unprecedented crew member turnover. There’s never been a time where experience in the field has been more needed. Spreading your leadership staff all over the field is expensive and draining. And you never quite know what you’ll get with unproven local talent. Alchemy-Spetec's top-shelf support squad will help your crews get the job done safely and properly.

With more than 100 years of combined technical experience, our team understands the trust and reputation you must maintain with your clients and design teams. Whether we’re facilitating on-site training, setting up a new trailer rig, troubleshooting complex issues, providing break-fix support, or playing any other mission-critical role, we are here to ensure your project is a success. Best of all, when you work with Alchemy-Spetec, you get Alchemy-Spetec. We do not outsource work to independent agents; our experts perform or personally supervise everything.

Meet Your Technical Services Team

Our focus on support is evident by employing the industry’s most experienced and qualified experts to be part of our Technical Services department. All Alchemy-Spetec customers nationwide have direct access to each team member. We are proud to introduce them below:

Charlie "The Grout Geek" Lerman
Director of Technical Services – Leak Seal Division
Charlie Lerman has been providing technical support and training for polyurethane grouts for over fifteen years and has been involved with the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) for a decade. He is also a veteran of the United States Navy’s submarine and recruiting services. Charlie is known in the industry by his nickname “The Grout Geek.”

Andy Powell
Division Manager - Geotech
Andy Powell’s vast experience encompasses product application, equipment selection, job estimating, field service, project consulting, and customer training for the entire Geotech line. Before joining Alchemy-Spetec, Andy served as a Sales Manager and Field Technician for HP Industries, a supplier/contractor for the concrete pipe and precast manufacturing industry.

Colt Hullander
Director of Technical Services – Geotech Division
Colt Hullander has spent a decade on the contractor side of the industry as a project manager and installer. Colt brings many years of invaluable field experience with expertise in a wide range of equipment, products, and techniques. His field experience and technical acumen offers geotech customers an industry-leading support and consulting resource.

Jacob Bryant
Geotech Services Technician
Jacob has worked in various forms of construction for the last 8
years. He spent several years working as a technician applying
chemical grouts, servicing and maintaining equipment, training
new hires, and managing rigs/warehouse stock. He has worked across the United States with a wide variety of polymers and soil types.

Ken Braunlich
National Program Manager - Seawall Repair Network
Over the years Ken has personally evaluated and prepared repair
plans for well over 1,000 seawalls and waterfront protection barriers
in South Florida. His experience includes seawall evaluation, repair/
preservation methodology, project cost analysis, and field service for
training on the Seawall Repair Network product lines.

Meet Our Regional Managers

Alchemy-Spetec’s team of Regional Managers is strategically spread out across the country. Rarely sitting in their offices, these hands-on experts are always on the road or in the field supporting our customers. We are proud to introduce them below:

Erik Prinzing
Midwest Regional Manager
Erik Prinzing is a driven professional with over 20 years of experience in the construction sector. Over the years Erik has become well-rounded in construction practices, with experiences ranging from working in the field as a contractor to assisting customers as a regional manager in the water, vapor, and air barrier industry.

Joel Bryant
Western Regional Manager
With over 10 years of experience, Joel has a broad understanding of general practices in the construction and services industries. He has spent recent years focused on ground improvement by the use of chemical grouting with structural polymers and possesses both technical and marketing expertise.

Patrick Zito
Northeast Regional Manager
Patrick began his career in 1990 as an equipment operator and mason with a municipality. He then started up his own asphalt/concrete repair company, which he operated for 10 years. Since 2005 or so, he has worked in heavy equipment sales, the steel industry, asphalt products, and more.

Steve Taylor
Southeast Regional Manager
Steve Taylor’s professional on-site experience includes slab lifting, soil stabilization, void filling, crack injection, curtain grouting, and seawall repair. Before joining Alchemy-Spetec, Steve was General Manager at the geotech contracting firm Ground Consolidation Services. At GCS he supervised crew members and managed customer relations for all of metro Atlanta. He has worked in the construction industry for many years.

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Polyurethane chemical grout injection can be a bit of a Pandora’s box at times. So, what can be done to help combat some of these uncertainties? Well, how about the easiest and most cost-effective solution first. Oakum! Not only is it amazing what you can accomplish with it, but it is vital to have on every job. YES, I SAID EVERY JOB.

There are only two things that have to happen for successful water mitigation. One, get the grout to the right location. Two, keep it there long enough to react. With tight cracks, it can be difficult to get the grout to travel in the crack, but once you get it there it is good to go. With wide cracks or high flow leaks, getting to the right place is easy, but keeping it there long enough to set up can be challenging.

You can use oakum to control grout and keep it where you want it in the crack or joint. Remember we are doing the injection work to stop the flow of water, so let’s make the least amount of holes possible in the concrete. But what does that have to do with oakum? Cracks are irregular, and often have sections that are wider in some sections. When this wider area is at the surface it can allow an easy escape path for a grout under pressure. That means you are wasting grout and not getting it where it needs to be, deep in the crack. Sure, if you have raw resin coming out of the crack you can just wait for it to cure. Once cured you cannot reinject that packer, so it is best to surface seal that crack and stop or slow down the loss of grout. This allows you to continue effective pumping into the crack or joint.

If the crack or joint is wide, grout impregnated oakum can be packed in place. While messy, this is the equivalent of finger painting with chemical grouts and is an easy process.

If you're thinking "I have rags, I don’t need oakum", think again. Oakum is stronger, can be pulled apart into just a few fibers if needed, and can be stuffed into very tiny defects where rags cannot fit.

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On March 29th - 31st, Contractors from around the world traveled to Alchemy-Spetec HQ in Tucker, GA for a thorough education in Slab Lifting, Soil Stabilization, the Deep Lift® process, equipment, and applications. They received hands-on training from a technical staff with decades of on-the-job experience.

This three-day geotech bootcamp featured presentations and demos on the following subjects:

• Geotech Product Line Overview
• Geotech Applications & Case Studies
• PolyBadger® Demo & Training
• Estimating & Quoting Jobs
• PMC Pump Demo & Training
• Leak Seal Issues on Geotech Jobs
• Ground Penetrating Radar Demo & Training
• Slab Lift Rig Demo & Training
• Competing Geotech Techniques
• PolyShark® / Soil Stabilization Demo & Training (On-Site)
• Deep Lift® Demo & Training (On-Site)

All of us here at Alchemy-Spetec would like to thank everyone who participated! and extend an invitation to those who missed this event to sign up below for notifications on future training programs.

This post is part of the Alchemy-Spetec Contractor Lens series, featuring views, news & case studies written by our customers. This article, written by Brian Dalinghaus of Dalinghaus Construction, provides an overview of polyurethane concrete repair material. 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!

Perhaps a foundation repair contractor has suggested polyurethane foam for deep injection, void fill, or slab lifting/leveling, but you’re not so sure about pumping “plastic” into the earth or underneath your home. You’re probably wondering: is polyurethane environmentally friendly? Is it effective?

If you’re concerned about the use of polyurethane for foundation repair and soil densification or just want to know more general information about PU, this article is for you.

Dalinghaus Construction Inc. has been in the foundation repair game since 2015. We have over 100 years of combined foundation repair experience and have serviced thousands of foundations in Southern California and Arizona via polyurethane-related repairs. We know everything there is to know about polyurethane and we’re here to share.

In this article, you will learn the definition of polyurethane, its history, many general uses, and how polyurethane foam is utilized in foundation repair.

What is Polyurethane?

Before you pump gallons of polyurethane foam underneath your home or into the soil around your property, you probably want to know what exactly it is.

Polyurethane Definition

Polyurethane is a synthetic resin compound comprised of carbamate/urethane groups linked to polymer units, often abbreviated as PU or PUR. In other words, polyurethane is a combination of chemicals/compounds that react to create a plastic-like substance. As a solid, polyurethane has an open-cellular structure – which is a foam.

Polyurethane foam, utilized for many purposes including insulation, sound-proofing, and foundation repair, is created by the chemical reaction of Diisocyanates and polyols (both of which are derived from organic crude oil). Because polyurethane is comprised of organic material, it is environmentally friendly and does not contribute to an increased eco-footprint.

According to the Polyurethane definition, it is not a plastic. Technically, the elongated flexible polymer molecules that make up thermoset polyurethanes categorize this material as an elastomer (a natural or synthetic polymer having elastic properties, e.g., rubber).

Polyurethane foam is a safe, eco-friendly option to densify weak, non-load-bearing soil, void fill beneath your foundation following a lift/stabilization and relevel slabs.

History of Polyurethane

Polyurethane was invented in 1937 by the renowned German Professor Dr. Otto Bayer. Dr. Otto Bayer was an industrial chemist and worked for IG Farben – spearheading the research team that discovered polyaddition (the key to synthesis for polyurethanes by combining polyol and polyisocyanate).

Polyurethane first enjoyed widespread use in World War II as a rubber substitute. Polyurethane was utilized as airplane finishes, various coatings, and to create flame-retardant clothing. By the 1950s, Polyurethane was utilized for many different applications: couch cushion foam, rigid foams, elastomers, and adhesives.

Today, polyurethane is utilized for a wide variety of applications: mattresses, shoe soles, car seats, insulation, and even pacemakers. Polyurethane is a “behind the scenes” product, often hidden behind a layer of fabric, plastic, or other encasing material.

Due to its prevalence, in everything from car seats to pacemakers, it’s truly difficult to grasp the full scope and impact of polyurethane in everyday life – however, its importance in the foundation repair game is easy to explain.

Polyurethane and Foundation Repair

The foundation repair industry uses polyurethane foam primarily for soil densification, void fill, and lifting/leveling slabs back into place. Polyurethane foam is an injectable polyol and isocyanate resin sealant, insulation, grout which expands upon application providing void fill, structural support, and re-leveling properties.

The polyurethane foam is installed via an application gun: the polyols (a type of alcohol, containing multiple hydroxyl groups) and diisocyanate/polymeric isocyanate are pumped separately, but simultaneously. The chemicals combine and react after exiting the application gun.

The foam then expands, filling the void, densifying the soil, or lifting the slab back into place. In short, polyurethane has incredible expansive properties, allowing it to fill voids evenly and with ease – providing strength and support to the affected structure.

Here at Dalinghaus Construction Inc., we use Alchemy-Spetec's AP Lift 430 (which has been certified by Truesdail Labs to NSF/ANSI 61-5 – meaning it’s approved for contact with drinking water).

AP Lift 430 is:

• Waterproof (Hydrophobic)
• Noninvasive (Install Process is More Efficient and Replacing Concrete)
• Nonpolluting (NSF Approved for Contact with Potable Water)

In addition, AP Lift 430 weighs approximately 3 pounds per cubic foot and reaches 90% compression strength in only 15 minutes. And, finally, polyurethane can hold 7,200 pounds per square foot. In short, polyurethane is a fantastic solution for foundation repair and hillside stabilization needs.

Polyurethane Foam is Safe, Effective, and Environmentally Friendly

In this article, you learned the definition of polyurethane, how it was invited by Dr. Otto Bayer, the wide spectrum of uses, and how polyurethane foam is utilized in foundation repair and construction. You also learned that polyurethane is a safe and effective product. Dalinghaus Construction has helped hundreds of homeowners and offers an array of services, including carbon fiber crack repair, steel pier underpinning, and more. 

Click here if you live in Southern California or Arizona and would like to book a free foundation inspection.

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Do not get caught off guard. It’s crucial to determine if the project you are bidding requires products that meet NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 standards for contact with drinking water. But what exactly are NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 standards? Our goal here is to provide a concise and comprehensive overview of why NSF approval is important for polyurethane concrete repair chemical grouts.

Alchemy-Spetec is already known for providing the most powerful polymers and painless procedures contractors need to achieve the rapid results their projects demand. During a recent project, Charlie Lerman (Director of Technical Services - Leak Seal Division) received a call from a large tunnel contractor asking us if Alchemy-Spetec had NSF-approved products. NSF approval was non-negotiable as this particular tunnel was responsible for bringing all of the drinking water from upstate New York into New York City. Charlie set up a meeting with the contractor and the Department of Environmental Protection to go over our products and propose a grout plan. The DEP went with our line of NSF-approved products, which are still used today in potable water applications for this tunnel and many more nearby.

What is the NSF (National Sanitation Foundation)?

The National Sanitation Foundation develops public health standards and certification programs that help protect the world’s food, water, consumer products, and environment. Their organization ensures that adequate testing is conducted for all products that will be used in or around drinking water from source to tap.

An NSF compliance brief reads: “NSF, an independent, private, not-for-profit, third-party certification organization founded in 1944, has developed numerous health-based certification programs and consensus standards including those that relate to drinking water…The purpose of its certification program is to promote public health and enrich the quality of life. Through its Council of Public Health and Health Advisory Board, which includes EPA health professionals, it obtains guidance in developing and maintaining programs and standards. NSF also partners with code councils to ensure ongoing compliance.”

Each product must undergo rigorous testing to receive NSF approval. The manufacturer's plant and quality assurance practices must pass a thorough inspection. Voluntarily undergoing such a rigorous certification process is invaluable to all parties involved.

The SDWA (Safe Water Drinking Act)

The Safe Water Drinking Act (SDWA) gives the EPA latitude to impose criminal and civil penalties on industries that are not in compliance. In 2014 enforcement efforts policing clean water netted $163 million in penalties and fines, 155 combined years of incarceration for sentenced defendants, and $16 million in court-ordered project clean-ups.

Because so many of those defined contaminants are pertinent to even the most basic construction projects – turbidity from soil runoff, leaching from PVC pipes, potentially harmful and corrosive chemicals, and more – understanding and adhering to the law is particularly important for industry stakeholders. Contractors and engineers must be able to confidently choose vendors whose products and services won’t become the source or cause of drinking water contamination either in the short or long term. Having products that may come into contact with drinking water certified to NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 (approved for contact with drinking water), ensures compliance with the SDWA.

Alchemy-Spetec NSF Approved Products and Solutions

Alchemy-Spetec products offer the most reliable and cost-effective results for contractors. Our NSF-certified materials are evaluated and lab-tested, and production facilities such as our own are inspected and annually audited for re-testing to maintain certification. 

The following Alchemy-Spetec products have received the official NSF seal of approval for contact with drinking water:

• AP Lift 430
• AP Lift 475
• AP Soil 600
• AP Fill 700
• AP Fill 720
• Spetec PUR F400
• Spetec PUR GT500
• Spetec PUR HighFoamer
• Spetec PUR H100
• Spetec PUR H200
• Spetec AG200

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