Alchatek Blog

This article is an excerpt from Episode 12 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring Outside Sales Representative at All-Tex Supply, Inc. Josh Van Hook. Josh has over 18 years of experience as a distributor in Austin, TX and one of his passions has been chemical grouts. (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 common mistakes you see the contractors make with chemical grouting?

Josh Van Hook: A lot of times they just don't know, and they're afraid to ask the questions, or they think they know. Because everybody can read a piece of paper on the website and figure out, okay, this is what I need to use, this is how you do it, this is the right product. And then, without thinking about it, they'll just go out and start doing it - whereas they should have probably gotten the rep involved, a specialist, to come out there. Every job's a little bit different and that's probably the major problem that I see out there.

Charlie: Yeah, and that ties back into the fact that the product has to be available. So, you guys stock the product, which is wonderful. But it doesn't matter if you're loyal to a certain brand of chemical grout, if you need it that day, if it's not there, then that doesn't help you. But then, the second part is, like you said, getting that tech help and having somebody. Because it's not rocket science, I mean, we're not geniuses here but we have experience and this isn't intuitive. So, we can help people get through that and understand.

Josh: Yeah, because most people nowadays, especially on my side of things, there are not a whole lot of people who know the chemical grout world and the people that do are starting to become fewer and fewer. So, from the supplier standpoint, having somebody who knows enough to get somebody started or get them headed in the right direction, that's a big plus.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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A Polyurethane Grout Manufacturer That Cares About Your Contracting Business

As stated in our recent blog post, A Competitive Edge for Contractors...

At Alchemy-Spetec, the success of your business is our top priority. You gain a significant competitive edge over your competition with access to the widest selection of premium materials and equipment, plus rock-solid reliable technical and marketing support. Our entire company culture is built around ensuring your success in this industry.

Marketing Support for Polyurethane Repair Contractors

In this post, we'll take a look at an example of Alchemy-Spetec marketing support for a dedicated customer.  Prairie Poly Solutions offers slab lifting, void filling, and crack sealing services to the Alberta and Saskatchewan areas in midwestern Canada.  When looking for a fully stocked professional rig, they came to Alchemy-Spetec. According to owner Gary Papp, "We were looking for a full-service material provider.  An organization that not only offered the highest quality polyurethane concrete repair products but top-of-the-line equipment and tech support. We found that in Alchemy-Spetec, and then we were pleasantly surprised to discover their substantial marketing support as well."

When Gary requested assistance with the vehicle wrap design for the rig he purchased from us, we were more than happy to help. Gary worked closely with the Alchemy-Spetec marketing department to communicate what he was looking for in a design. Multiple drafts were created and gradually refined until Prairie Poly Solutions had the exact look they needed. A local vehicle wrap specialist in Canada used the files to create and apply the actual wrap to the rig.  Here are a few more photos...

• Addition of contractor logo and contact to pre-made brochure PDF files. (And a referral to an online printing service for easy ordering of print versions.)
• Addition of contractor logo and contact info to existing videos and animations.
• General advice on internet advertising, blogging for leads, web design, keywords, etc. (And referrals to expert providers.)

Want to learn more about marketing your contracting business?

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article was published under the title Develop Your Competitive Edge. 

In today's fast-paced infrastructure repair market, you need every advantage you can get. At Alchemy-Spetec, the success of your business is our top priority. You gain a significant competitive edge over your competition with access to the widest selection of premium materials and equipment, plus rock-solid reliable technical and marketing support. Our entire company culture is built around ensuring your success in this industry.

Polyurethane – Quality and Selection

Alchemy-Spetec offers one of the most technologically advanced grout product lines currently on the market, We offer a wide variety of leak seal materials, including injection resins for sealing water leaks in cracks, curtain grouting foams for sealing challenging/gushing leaks, acrylic injection resins that penetrate thin cracks and saturate soil, epoxy resins for structural repair and preventative waterstop products. We also offer a wide variety of geotech materials, including slab lifting foams, deep-soil lifting foams, soil stabilization foams,. The superior quality of these materials guarantees fewer callbacks from your customers. Many of these products are also certified for contact with potable water, making them safer for the environment.

Equipment and Accessories Selection

We’re a one-stop-shop for all things polyurethane concrete repair, with one of the most versatile equipment and accessory product lines in the industry. Once you’ve picked out the product that best fits your needs, we can provide it all: pumps, hoses, packers/ports, and specialty accessories.

Tech Support – Experience and Dedication

Do you need technical support? You’re in luck—we’re home to the industry’s premier technical support squad. Averaging decades of experience, we also pride ourselves on being incredibly responsive. For example, our team was once called on to assist with a large metro project in the Western United States. The customer informed us at 4 pm on Monday evening that assistance was needed at 9 am the very next day! Our Technical Services Director, Vice President, and Western Regional Sales Manager traveled to the site Monday evening to help diagnose the location of the leaks and develop an action plan. Our Technical Services Manager remained on site for two more days to ensure that the project was successful. Depending on the size and scope of the project, response time and participating team members may vary, but this story serves to illustrate the lengths we will go to assist customers.

Training and Education

We offer the industry's most thorough training and education for both leak seal and geotech polyurethane infrastructure repair. This includes job site training/consulting, online educational content, and training workshops at distributor locations - not to mention one of the most educational blogs in the industry.

Marketing Support

Our marketing department provides qualified customers with product application illustrations and photos for use on websites, customized brochure PDFs for printing, and truck signage graphics. We also offer the use of our educational videos and animations. Lastly, we’re available for guidance on everything from online lead capture strategies to internet advertising, and more.

We’re Committed to Your Success

The overriding theme here is our commitment to your success. Obviously, this is not totally altruistic in nature.  The more successful you are, the more materials and equipment you buy.  But it is 100% genuine.  Our entire team understands the relationship between YOUR success and OUR success.  This point of view is thoroughly ingrained in our company culture.

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The Cost of Wastewater Treatment

According to an article published by Water Technology Magazine (WaterTechOnline.com), the average cost to treat 1000 gallons of wastewater is $2.06. Let’s take a look at how that $2.06 adds up over time. A 10 gallon per minute leak in a manhole for example equals 5,256,000 gallons of water leaked per year. That adds up to a $10,827.36 per year ($902.28 per month) wastewater treatment cost resulting from that leak alone.

Repair Infrastructure Infiltration & Save Money

Let’s compare that to the average one-time cost to stop all the leaks in a 4-foot diameter x 8-foot tall manhole: $3000 or so depending on local labor rates. This relatively low repair cost is recouped in less than 4 months, considering the monthly wastewater treatment cost of $902.28. This equals $7,000 - $8,000 cost avoidance in the first year alone. In subsequent years, you’re saving the full $10,827.36.

Now multiply those number by all the manholes in your district with large leaks. The numbers are truly staggering.

More Info on Infrastructure Infiltration Repair

For more information on infrastructure infiltration repair, see our blog post Mitigating I & I – An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure. If you’d like to discuss I & I issues with our experienced tech support team, call 404-618-0438.

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How to Sell Using Explainer Animations

At Alchemy Spetec, we’re successfully using animated videos to market our products and services. We can also create custom animated explainer videos specifically for YOU, our customer.

With an animated explainer video, you can:

• Help prospects quickly understand how you will solve their problems.
• Position your company as professional experts they can depend on.
• Attract more requests for estimates and close more jobs.

For an example of how these explainer videos work, click on one of ours below:

• Seawall Repair
• Leak Seal
• Soil Stabilization
• Deep Lift

Now imagine having an animated explainer video like that to explain exactly what your business does.

How to Get Started

Let's talk about how we can help. We'll explain the animation process and what it costs.

If you already have an account with Alchemy-Spetec, the next step is to call us at 404-618-0438 or click the button below to schedule phone consultation.

Want to schedule a brief phone consultation?

Want more information on marketing your contracting business?

This article is an excerpt from Episode 11 of The Injection Connection, featuring a highlight from the landmark conversation between retired industry legend Captain Grout (aka Paul Layman) and his number one protégé and unofficial successor, The Grout Geek (podcast host Charlie Lerman). If you'd rather view or listen, an audio/visual version of this excerpt is posted at the bottom of the article.

Charlie Lerman: Do you have a personal favorite grout? Not necessarily by name, but a type of grout - hydrophilic, flexible or just anything that you like?

Paul Layman: Well, yes, the old hydrophobics. They're probably the best because you can change them around depending on the temperatures and things of that nature. You can even mix the hydrophobics and hydrophilics. We've done that in the field by mistake and, boy, they were the cat’s meow at that time, the real tickets. So, just the old standard grouts work well. And again, it goes back to the manufacturer - if you're using a small manufacturer, those are just quality products and you could do a lot to change them in the field. You feel very comfortable. So, if you got in a situation where you needed a little faster reaction, you could do it. I've been out of the business now for three or four years but again, the old grouts had a lot of flexibility and you could actually mix and match different products in ways that weren't "in the books" and you could do some pretty neat stuff with them and stop some pretty good holes. In some situations, if you're down below in a dam, it's not a bad thing that if you can't get it, walk away for a day or two and think about it, don't just sit there and waste gallon after gallon after gallon. If it's not working. There are other ways to do it.

Charlie: Right. One of the issues I've seen and I actually struggle with some is using chemical grouts in dry conditions. So, say you're down in Arizona or Southern California and they know they have a leak but it only leaks once or twice a year. Or it only leaks during a rain storm and they're typically grouting when it's dry. Do you have any suggestions on how to overcome those kind of hurdles?

Paul: Yeah, a lot of times we try to push it to the rainy season but if you can't then just you use copious amounts of water to get that structure saturated. You want that structure, the surrounding concrete, and the surface saturated really wet in there. If you're doing an irrigation, again, get that surface wet even if you have to puddle it for a while. Get that structure really wet because then the grout really adheres and chases the cracks to its maximum extent. It can really lock itself in. Because if you don't do it right, it's just going to shrink away or it's not going to bond well and then when it's really needed, it may just blow itself out or leak around and finally break down and not work. Lots of water is your friend.

Charlie: Yes, indeed. I like to give the analogy to people that, if I hired you to come into my house and paint a room - and when you showed up to paint it, I turned all the lights off and closed the doors, it was pitch black in there, you could still paint the walls but it probably is not going to look good when you turn the lights back on. And I look at it the same way with waterproofing. If the water's not there, you don't know where you're going to move that leak to or whatnot. So, adding copious amounts of water is very important.

Paul: That's very important because you may stop it here but then when the water comes up, it's going to find a hole somewhere else that you didn't grout because it wasn't wet. Yeah, absolutely.

View the video version of this excerpt...

Want some information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

This article is an excerpt from Episode 11 of The Injection Connection, featuring a highlight from the landmark conversation between retired industry legend Captain Grout (aka Paul Layman) and his number one protégé and unofficial successor, The Grout Geek (podcast host Charlie Lerman).  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's the biggest failure or problem you've had on a job?

Paul Layman: I don't know. We did that big building in San Francisco where the building is actually leaning now. And that was unique because the biggest problem there occurred when some guys were drilling in and they hit a cable. Luckily they didn't blow that cable - it was a 10,000 watt box or wattage thing and fortunately they weren't standing on the pump when they hit the cable. Those are things you've got to be careful with. And safety is incredible down there because you could be out in a mine a mile back or down a shaft and if something goes wrong, you can't get out quick and you're in the mud and muck up to your knees. On one job we were down a mile in a tunnel and one of the gates broke. It was in a dam and the water went from our boots up to our knees. Again, so, those are things you really have to be cognizant of and keep all your ducks in a row to be ready for any emergency that could come up.

Charlie: Right. Especially in confined spaces. Like you said, they offer unique challenges on top of what you normally run into anyway.

Paul: Exactly.

Charlie: What have been some of the challenges on dams and large projects like that, specifically in regard to the Corp of Engineers or the Bureau of Rec? What kind of challenges have you had personally in dealing with them?

Paul: The biggest problem I ran into with both of those organizations, was that their people sometimes overthought the project. You'd spend six to eight months getting the project ready and designing it, then all of a sudden, they say, “Oh, we can't do it this year.” Just like that big job up there in California, I can't think of the name, where the dam blew out.

Charlie: I remember what you’re talking about, but I can’t think of the name either.

Paul: It was just up there by Chico, California. We had shown them how to fix that problem a couple years before and gave them some really good ideas, but they said they couldn't afford it. And then when the whole structure blew out, the spillways blew out, they had to spend billions of dollars. If only they hadn't been so cheap in the first place and changed their mind in the last second. It's kind of frustrating because you've done all this due diligence, you lay out your scheme, then all of a sudden in the last minute they say, “Oh, no, we're not going to do it.” 

Charlie: Yes, thank you very much.

View the video version of this excerpt...

Want some information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

This article is an excerpt from Episode 11 of The Injection Connection, featuring a highlight from the landmark conversation between retired industry legend Captain Grout (aka Paul Layman) and his number one protégé and unofficial successor, The Grout Geek (podcast host Charlie Lerman). 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 unique and interesting jobs that you've been on?

Paul Layman: Well, we did the Hoover Dam and we did the Seattle tunnels. But on the job I did up in Canada on the water system for the city of Vancouver, we were in shafts that went down 1800 feet, 600 meters. When you get down there, it's pretty dark and cold and when the pumps go off or the electric goes off, it gets pretty dark. Those are some of the neat projects. Then of course, the projects we did up in Alaska, above the Arctic Circle. We did a huge tank up there for CH2M Hill. The tank was over a million gallons and we had to stabilize the whole bottom underneath it, over permafrost! We had to fly everything up in an airplane of course and then unload it. And the mechanics up there, the kids at work, they were just as smart as could be. They knew how that structure was going to work. And so, from Arizona, the Salt River Project down along the Colorado all the way to the Arctic Circle -  and then being in gold mines...every structure was different and neat. It was a challenge. It was fun because you met a lot of neat people and a lot of characters too. Everybody had their little niche and it was just a neat job. It really was. It wasn't work, it was every day you got a new adventure.

Charlie: A lot of times when you talk to people in the grouting industry, and maybe I'm biased because that's where I've been for the last 15 to 16 years, but they're passionate about it. They find it interesting. It's not just the standard, "I'm just going to apply a coat of this and we move on to the next tank" or something. It's always unique. You brought up some remote sites there and I found it interesting in my career where I've had engineers talk to me about a project and I'm like, “Well, that sounds like you should do cementitious grouting.” And it turns out not to be cementitious grouting just because of the remoteness. They can't get concrete out to a site or something like that. I've seen urethane jobs where just because of mobilization they had to use the chemical grout. So, it's not always the most cost effective when you compare materials but, when you need mobilization then the chemical grout comes in.

Paul: One time we had to go out to the Aleutians. And we put I think about 15, 20 pails of grout in the airplane and then we put in another 15 pails of fuel. We had to put the fuel in the airplane too because we got out on the islands and they had to get themselves back. So, we had the grout and the fuel, and the plane had to carry all of it out there.

Charlie: That is so cool.

Paul: When we got out there, the guys pull out the 15 pails of fuel and start fueling the airplane up so they can get back. They leave us with our grout there on the Aleutians. It was just neat stuff like that, along with the people you meet out there.

Charlie: Right, very much so. That's awesome.

Paul: And all the equipment we put in big trunks. What we didn't take with us we weren't going to find at the local hardware store because there were none for a thousand miles.

Charlie: That is real important and specifically there. But it's similar even when you're just a couple miles in a tunnel and just the 20 minutes to get back out to get that screwdriver your team forgot. So, it's important to make those lists and know what you need to have.

Paul: Yeah. We were doing a mine up in Alaska and the grout started getting away from us. We were down two miles in the mine but luckily, we had enough catalyst and cleaning agent that we could save the grout and the pump, because otherwise we would never have time to take it up to the entrance and fix it. We would have lost a pump and we're 100 miles, 200 miles from the closest civilization. So, we would have been toasted up there. Again, those are things you just learn after the years of doing this stuff.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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This article is an excerpt from Episode 11 of The Injection Connection, featuring a highlight from the landmark conversation between retired industry legend Captain Grout (aka Paul Layman) and his number one protégé and unofficial successor, The Grout Geek (podcast host Charlie Lerman). 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 your top, maybe one, two or three common mistakes you see when people get into grouting?

Paul Layman: I think they get overambitious and say, “We can fix this and we can fix that,” or they don't have quite the right knowledge or they don't recommend the right product. Like one of the projects we were on, they were going to recommend an acrylate. And really it wouldn't have worked well for an acrylate because the way it was designed, it was about 50% water. That's probably the thing, they overthink the job too much. It's a fairly simple process but you don't want to overthink it. Just be straightforward and just take your normal steps and work from there because the products really work well and depending where you're at you can massage these products and change them in the field if you have to, but the simpler the process, the easier it is.

Charlie: Right and that's real important. Jim (Alchemy-Spetec VP Jim Spiegel) likes to use a term, he calls it fail forward. And I like that. Fail is not necessarily maybe the right exact term for grouting but there's a lot of theory crafting where people say, “Oh, well, we know in a lab the grout does this, this and this.” And then they assume that they have lab conditions out there in the field. And you don't. You have field conditions; you don't know what's out there. So, all the theory crafting you do, until you get out and actually pump some grout and see what you've got going on, it's all guesswork at that point. I think that kind of ties into what you're saying there.

Paul: Absolutely. And then you've got the mechanics in the field and you've got some smart guys in the field and when you come up on a project, they may already have figured it out. And so, listen to the people in the field because that's where I've learned a lot of my techniques. These guys in the field are smart people, they're intelligent people and they can give you some really good guidance and little tricks. Then you can pass those on. Don't be afraid to listen to them.

View the video version of this excerpt...

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Episode 11 of The Injection Connection features a landmark conversation between retired industry legend Captain Grout (aka Paul Layman) and his number one protégé and unofficial successor, The Grout Geek (podcast host Charlie Lerman). Don't miss this info-packed discussion between these two chemical grouting heavyweights!

Listen to the 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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