This post is part of the Alchemy-Spetec Contractor Lens series, featuring views, news & case studies written by our customers. This article, written by Lewis Evans of Stable Soils, 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!

In Orlando FL there was a new commercial development that included a pharmacy to be constructed. Prior to the commencement of construction, a geophysical survey was undertaken to determine if site conditions were suitable for building. The survey included soil borings and DCP (dynamic cone penetrometer) readings to determine soil compaction.

The results of the survey indicated a layer of Florida muck between 10’ and 5’ below grade: this is very typical in Florida. The engineers recommended excavation down to 10’ to remove the muck from the entire building pad area as well as the entire parking lot area. After the de-mucking process, fill was to be brought in and compacted prior to pouring the building pad and preparing the parking lot for asphalt paving.

When the site work contractor informed the general contractor that the site was prepared, the GC called in the engineer to do some testing and sign off on the site work. Testing revealed that in a majority of the parking lot area, only the upper area of the soil had been excavated and replaced but the muck still was in place between 5' and 10’ deep. Some corners had been cut and the project came to a halt.

At this point, the curbs were in, the crush and run had been put down, and all utilities were already in the ground including water, gas, sewer, electrical, and fiber optic. The engineer presented them with two options:

1. Remove all the utilities, dig up the entire parking area site, and do it as they had recommended in the beginning.
2. Use 2-component polyurethane injection in a grid pattern and at different depths, to densify the soils and muck.

To remove everything and start over was going to take in excess of 2 months to complete. Facing liquidated damages from the property owners for the delays, this was going to be extremely expensive and would most likely end up in litigation. The soil stabilization with the polyurethane foam was selected as the method for the following reasons:

1. Installation in less than one week
2. No excavation required
3. Clean installation and environmentally safe product
4. Proven system used by departments of transportation - DOT
5. Factory trained, engineer approved contractor

Powerful Polymers

The polyurethane material used in this project was Alchemy-Spetec's AP Lift 475. Alchemy-Spetec rigid polyurethane foams start out at 7000 PSF bearing capacity. This rating is based on the unconfined strength of the foam. In the soil or beneath concrete the polymer will increase in strength up to 15X. For comparison, the compaction requirements for pouring slabs or building roads are about 2000 to 2500 PSF. 

Painless Procedures

AP Lift 475 was installed in a grid pattern and at different depths. The polyurethane expanded as it was installed (up to 24X by volume), and solidified the muck and unstable soil. The parking area soils were densified to the requirements of the engineer.

Rapid Results

The job was completed in just 5 days. No curbs, road base, or utilities had to be removed or relocated saving enormous amounts of additional cost and delays.

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This article is an excerpt from Episode 14 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring veteran coatings expert Murray Heywood. (If you'd rather view or listen, an audio/visual version of this excerpt is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Charlie Lerman: From your point of view when it comes to grouting, what are some of the common mistakes or problems you see that people just deal with repeatedly?

Murray Heywood: Well, when it comes to my world, the coatings world, one of our biggest challenges is water, keeping it where you want it or not letting it get in where you don't want it. That water molecule creates a lot of damage. Concrete, which is predominantly the work that we do in the infrastructure world, 85% of water and wastewater structures are concrete. And concrete has very poor elongation properties, it doesn't stretch very well but it does move a lot because of settlement and this and that, and inflection when you're loading tanks, unloading, so you get cracks. If we don't address the water coming in or whatnot, it creates even bigger issues. So grout plays a huge role in doing that. And I think one of the challenges that I see is people don't understand that you just can't fill it with some cement because if it cracks again it's going to leak again. You just can't fill it with an epoxy injection because that's rigid. So just the misconception of how to deal with it is prevalent and it's something that we try to explain a lot. Mistakes are made where they'll, well, "We're just going to put hydraulic cement in and fix it that way." Or, "We're going to do this or the coating should handle it and we shouldn't have to do this extra work". So I just see the mistakes in the materials they select to do the repairs and not understanding necessarily that it has to be treated or you're just spending thousands and thousands of dollars to rehab this and you're going to skip that part. That's going to wreak havoc on your system. Those are the common mistakes. It's a lack of understanding really when you get to the bottom of it, of how it all works together.

Charlie: Yeah. And neither of us are engineers who have gone and got those types of degrees, so we're not always the smartest person in the room.

Murray: I may not be the smartest person in this room right here.

Charlie: I’ll give you that one. I'll take that. Thank you. But really what you find is, that it's not that this industry is rocket science or hard to figure out. It's that it's non-intuitive and most of the time, people just overlook it, they don't even understand. Again, it's not a fear thing of, "oh, you're just never going to figure this out and be able to launch a rocket to Mars". It comes down to people just making common mistakes with it. Like you mentioned with the epoxy, there's no elongation or very little elongation for concrete at all and you'll have people, they waterproof epoxies all the time and then they get a mirror crack right by it and they're like, "Whoa, didn't we just fix this last year?" And you're like, there it is.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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Save Time, Hassle, and Money!

Spray foam insulation guns are made for the process of spraying foam at constant pressures. Slab lifting requires a gun that is designed to deal with changing pressures and backpressure without backing up or crossing over.

• Get the new MixMaster Pro Version 7.0 for $2,450 (that's a savings of $355).
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MixMaster Pro 7.0 Features

• New CNC machined handle.
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MixMaster Pro 7.0 Benefits

• End-of-day cleaning time cut in half.
• The handle is built to last through the toughest of jobs.
• The nipples can be removed easily.
• Less threaded connections = fewer leak possibilities.

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Leveraging technology is essential for contractors to stay competitive and grow in the modern era. As the Inside Sales Manager for Alchemy-Spetec, I have the daunting task of maintaining our ever-increasing lead, customer, and project database. There is no room for hesitation in today’s competitive landscape, and we need easily accessible, precise information at a moment’s notice. Organizing your day-to-day tasks with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can give you a powerful, painless, and rapid advantage over the competition.

Centralize Data & Information

We all at some point have likely had to contend with endless emails, spreadsheets, and documents siloing or isolating important data and information about our leads and customers. With a CRM, you can integrate your data into one single source of information. You can use it to manage customer data and leads as they enter your pipeline through various channels and integrate them into a linear sales process.

Increase Productivity & Results

Enable your entire sales and marketing team to get more done. Leads can be tracked through a linear sales process with access to information displaying critical data points for whatever the user needs. Having a centralized database reduces your paperwork and helps you limit the headache of digging through old emails. With a clear view of your leads and customers to access at any time, you will be able to focus on execution instead of endless email chains and spreadsheets.

Clear Reporting and Greater Visibility

With CRM dashboards and reporting features, your team and management will be able to make key decisions to improve and scale the business. You'll be able to quickly identify inefficiencies and take swift action to address them. Real-time reporting allows you to quickly assess what is going on and how the health of the business is looking without having to rely on exporting and aggregating data on a spreadsheet over and over. I can’t stress enough the importance of being able to quickly and efficiently generate sales forecasts and analyze the profitability of your various service offerings.

Contact Us for CRM Tips and Guidance

Please contact me (David Park - Inside Sales Manager) at dpark@alchemy-spetec.com if you have any questions or need technical guidance on choosing or using a CRM.

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Episode 14 of The Injection Connection features Charlie "The Grout Geek" Lerman interviewing veteran coatings expert (and punk rock drummer) Murray Heywood. Don't miss this info-packed and entertaining discussion!

The Injection Connection features in-depth discussions with thought leaders and professionals in the infrastructure repair industry and is produced by Alchemy-Spetec, the premier manufacturer of Leak Seal and Geotech polyurethane concrete repair products.

Watch this episode in its entirety below, or check it out on TheInjectionConnection.com and the following platforms:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• SoundCloud
• Google Podcasts
• YouTube

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If you run a contracting business, you're probably handling hundreds of tasks on a daily basis with a limited and overworked team. Not only is it overwhelming, but key action items like lead follow-up or estimate requests fall through the cracks leading to more time wasted backtracking them later. Luckily, automation software like Zapier can execute many of your repetitive tasks and enable your business to become more efficient and organized. This advantage is crucial in order for your team to do what matters most and scale your business to the next level.

At Alchemy-Spetec, we leverage automation tools in every possible scenario to support our team to be more effective and efficient. We are excited to share some of the core features we have implemented that can be used to help your business grow as well. As always, we pride ourselves on supporting our customers so please feel free to contact me (David Park - Inside Sales Manager) at dpark@alchemy-spetec.com if you have any questions or need technical guidance on growing your business through automation.

Three Simple Ways Automation Can Scale Your Business

Your most valuable resource is not your product or your customer list, but the team of people who make your company a success. Your team’s most valuable resource is their time and attention, and tedious repetitive tasks have a habit of showing up in everyone’s daily routine. The software and digital tools we use to run our businesses come with data and information overload. We noticed at Alchemy-Spetec that simply aligning and keeping data updated between platforms was requiring a great deal of manual effort. Thanks to automation tools like Zapier, we have been able to implement three simple automation strategies.

1. Automate Data Entry

At Alchemy-Spetec, much of our data and information is stuck in a variety of fractured applications and online tools. We've used Zapier to link these applications and transfer data back and forth when a new lead or email arrives. If you find yourself manually entering lead or customer information over and over, it might be worth looking into an integration and automation tool. 

2. Automate Communication Internally

There are many different ways team members communicate, but it’s likely that email is still the most common means of communication in most organizations. If your email platform is Google-based, Zapier integration offers a variety of ways to utilize automation and tags to organize the clutter of your inbox. By implementing Google’s filtering system and Zapier automation, our team has been able to create multiple automation workflows that will perform repetitive tasks such as forwarding emails to another team member over and over. (If your email platform is not Google-based, Zapier may still offer automation options. Contact me for assistance if needed.) If you find yourself too busy organizing and forwarding internal communications, it might be worth looking into integration and automation tools like Zapier to do the work for you. 

3. Automate Communication Externally

Thanks to automation tools like Zapier, we have been able to configure many outward-facing emails to automatically send when a specific event occurs (such as a new lead being added to our database). Automation tools like Zapier enable us to automatically respond with customized response times and messages on a case-by-case basis. If you find yourself manually answering and replying to every lead, it might be worth looking into automation tools like Zapier to do the work for you.

Contact me (David Park - Inside Sales Manager) at dpark@alchemy-spetec.com if you think you have some tasks that can be automated. I'd be happy to assist you!

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Sewers can be aggressive to downright hostile environments for concrete. Composite and fiberglass manholes are becoming more popular due to their superior resistance to sewer gases. While chemically resistant, composite manholes still have penetrations and joints. And any structure with penetrations and joints is still susceptible to infiltration.

The good news is that your everyday go-to grouts for concrete manhole water mitigation work just as well on composite or fiberglass manholes. Spetec PUR Highfoamer is a single component hydrophobic semi-rigid grout that is ideal for curtain grouting behind and around leaking penetrations and joints. When it comes to crack injection for penetrations and or joints, Spetec PUR GT380 and Spetec PUR F400 have the flexibility and chemical resistance you will need for the tough sewer environment.

Industries and technologies change over time and Alchemy-Spetec offers a full line of grouts that can provide for your long-term waterproofing needs - whether for composite, fiberglass, concrete or brick manholes and lift stations. 

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When parts of a concrete surface sink due to erosion and poor compaction, the resulting trip hazard can be dangerous. If left unrepaired, liability and safety issues linger. Although concrete is tough and durable, unstable soil can cause it to crack and sink. Fortunately, a reliable solution for lifting concrete has been developed and proven over the past few decades. High-strength expansive polyurethane foam is injected underneath the slab to bring it back to level. This method has been used in a wide variety of commercial and residential applications with long-lasting results.

Despite consistently reliable results, some myths about polyurethane slab lifting have cropped up over the years.

Myth #1: Polyurethane Foam is a Temporary Fix

People who assume that polyurethane slab lifting is a temporary fix typically have a general lack of knowledge, understanding, and experience with the process. Common misperceptions supporting this myth include:

• The incorrect assumption that foam will be susceptible to moisture and degrade under the concrete.
• The incorrect assumption that the process typically leaves large voids underneath the slab, leading to resettlement.

Water does not cause lifting foams to degrade underneath the slab. In addition, a factory-trained contractor will not leave gaps underneath the slab that would lead to resettlement.

Myth #2: Polyurethane Foam Cannot Support Heavy Loads

Another common misconception is that polyurethane foam is weak and does not have the load-bearing capacity to support slabs with heavy traffic or large structures.

Common misperceptions supporting this myth include:

• The incorrect assumption that lifting foam is the same stuff used by the insulation guys.
• The incorrect assumption that because it expands easily, it must collapse easily.
• The incorrect assumption that the expansion rate is uncontrollable and leads to unpredictable results.

All lifting and stabilization polyurethane foams formulated and manufactured by Alchemy-Spetec are designed specifically for Geotechnical applications. Once cured, Alchemy-Spetec lifting foams are incredibly strong and durable. Easy expansion does not equal easy collapse. Factory-trained contractors can control the final lift level of a slab to within 1/8th of an inch.

Myth #3: Polyurethane Foam is too Expensive

When faced with the dilemma of a sunken slab, you have three options aside from polyurethane slab lifting:

1. Doing Nothing: If you do nothing, the problem will grow. The longer you wait, the more expensive the repair.
2. Replacing the Slab: This process will take several days, is often messy, and is typically more expensive than lifting with polyurethane.
3. Lifting with Cement Grout: This procedure (known as “mudjacking”) requires heavy equipment, large drill holes, and the use of weighty cement grout which often sinks over time. When the cement grout sinks over time, you have to get it lifted again. Eventually, even this process becomes more expensive.

Want more information about polyurethane slab lifting?

Many spray foam insulation installers are interested in adding slab lifting capability to their rig setup. If you're a spray foam installer considering slab lifting, we have all the info you need right here. With just four additional pieces of equipment and one set of material, you can add slab lifting to your service offerings. Let’s take a look at exactly what additional equipment and material are required to get started...

Slab Lifting Equipment

MixMaster Pro Slab Lifting Gun
The MixMaster Pro is a two-component resin injection gun manufactured specifically for lifting concrete slabs, designed to handle back-pressure. 

Titan Impact 440 (Modified) Pump with Flush Hose
The Titan Impact 440 (Modified) pump is used for flushing the MixMaster Pro gun in between foam injections. (It's also used for pumping one-component material in soil stabilization and seawall repair applications.)

3/8” MixMaster Ports
These heavy-duty ports create an airtight seal for injecting foam into drill holes. 

Dial Indicator Crane
This precision tool is used to measure the lift of the slab within 1/10” of an inch.

Polyurethane Slab Lifting Material

AP Lift 430, AP Lift 440, or AP Lift 475 (100 Gallon Unit)
Sunken concrete slabs can be lifted back into place with these two-component polymer foams designed to work in wet or dry conditions. The expansion force of these concrete leveling foams coupled with the pressure of a specialized pump generate enough controlled force to lift virtually any structure back into position with 1/8” precision.

AP Flush 125 (5 Gallon Unit)
Water-based gun flush specifically used for flushing out the MixMaster Pro impingement gun. Also used to protect concrete from resin stains.

AS Pump Flush (5 Gallon Unit)
High-performance pump flush that is friendly to the environment and does an excellent job flushing out injection pumps.

Want to talk to a spray foam to slab lift conversion expert?

Alchemy-Spetec customers Matt Chittick and Travis Germick of Lift It Rite LLC were recently featured in a Spray Foam Magazine article. SprayFoam Magazine is an industry-leading publication in the spray foam insulation sector. Because so many spray foam insulation professionals are adding slab lifting to their service offerings, the magazine is now covering this technology as well. The article featuring Lift It Rite is a profile of a sidewalk lifting job that was done in order to save an old tree in Winder, Georgia. The roots were disrupting the pavement. Here's an excerpt from the article...

Cities often hire a third party to take care of sidewalks, potholes, and wastewater management issues and it was this third party who contacted Travis Germick and Matt Chittick. They are the owners of Lift it Right LLC, and they were asked if they could help save Winder’s sidewalks.

Germick and Chittick went to Winder to review the situation and noted that several of the sidewalks around the town were obviously sunken. One of them was next to a very old tree and the roots were impacting the sidewalk. This had happened to another tree in the area, and the town took out the concrete and cut some of the roots of the tree. Once a tree’s roots are cut the tree will eventually die so they cut down the entire tree. After the tree was cut down, the residents of the town clubbed together and had a memorial for the tree. After that unhappiness, cutting down more trees in the future was not an option. There had to be another solution to save the additional old tree. Read more at SprayFoam.com!

Want more info on slab lifting with polyurethane?