Alchatek Blog

This post is part of the Alchemy-Spetec Contractor Lens series, featuring views, news & case studies written by our customers.  This article, written by Robin Smith of Dalinghaus Construction, reviews common causes of trip hazards and the repair solution of polyurethane concrete leveling.  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 today!

Raise your hand if you have ever tripped walking down the sidewalk!

Well you are trippin’ for 1 of 2 reasons:

1. You are uncoordinated, and can’t be trusted to walk and chew gum at the same time (that would be me).
   OR
2. Uneven concrete slabs created a trip hazard that you have just fallen victim to!

What causes concrete to shift, become uneven, and cause these trip hazards?

• Expansive clay soil: Expansive clay soil is prone to swelling and shrinking. Changes such as temperature, drought, and moisture causes it to expand and contract...causing the concrete to move.
• Soil compaction: When preparing to build a home, the soil must be moved around, or graded, to create a level base to build upon. If the soils aren’t properly compacted before the concrete is poured, over time, it eventually compresses and can settle. This settlement can cause the concrete to shift.
• Leaking water: If a plumbing or irrigation line springs a leak, it can erode the soil around the concrete, causing it to be unstable.
• Poor drainage: Similar to a leak, improper drainage can also cause erosion.

Concrete removal and replacement can be costly. There is a cost effective solution that can even out those dangerous trip hazards in just 1 day!

Polyurethane concrete leveling to the rescue! Polyurethane concrete leveling, also known as “polyjacking”, is a process in which the contractor drills small holes through the affected sunken slabs. A port is then placed in the hole, the polyurethane is injected as a liquid, then quickly expands to lift the slab back into place.

If you are a visual person like me, check out this video on the Dalinghaus Consruction YouTube channel...

Whether it is a sidewalk, porch, patio, or a VERY busy Orange County Transportation Authority bus stop (insert one more rad video)...

...polyurethane concrete leveling is often an excellent solution, without breaking the bank!

Click here for more information on Dalinghaus Construction.

Want more info on polyurethane concrete leveling?

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 why polyurethane slab lifting requires less downtime than alternative repair solutions (and why that's an advantage for property owners & managers).  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 today!

When deciding on a repair plan for a commercial facility, no matter the type of repair, one very important factor to consider is downtime. That old expression “time is money” is not a joke, especially when we are talking about downtime for a business.

A large portion of repairs in the commercial market, whether it be concrete lifting, soil stabilization, or void fill, are in areas with high traffic. This traffic usually consists of forklifts, heavy equipment, and semi-truck and trailers, all of which have a dollar amount tied to their load or run time. Every minute they are aren’t running is a minute they 1) are not making money or 2) are losing money on a late delivery or late project completion.

How is Polyurethane Foam Beneficial to Downtime?

Small Footprint:

Polyurethane repairs generally require only one truck or trailer or even smaller equipment. Crews can work around high traffic areas and times to ensure that daily workflow is minimally impacted.

No Excavation:

Repairs are completed using polyurethane resins injected through a 3/8” – 5/8” hole. These injections are completed from the equipment mentioned above, requiring no heavy equipment. No heavy equipment means that employees will not have to alter their site flow to navigate around a large excavator or concrete truck.

Fast Cure Time:

When it comes to concrete lifting, polyurethane resins begin to set up within 15 seconds after injection and are 90% cured within 30 minutes. This means that by the time the crew leaves the site, the treated areas are ready for “business as usual” and can allow normal traffic. Compare this to demolition and concrete pouring (days of labor and curing), and you see a huge savings on downtime.

If time truly equals money, and we all know it does, the above three reasons show how a polyurethane repair can keep downtime to a minimum and maintain an efficient workflow, thus keeping the bottom line in order. When comparing estimates of various repair methods, don’t get stuck on the dollar figure, always compare the total repair plan and what it could cost on the back end.

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec products?

Alchemy-Spetec is pleased welcome Colt Hullander! Colt will join us as the new Director of Technical Services – Geotech Division, supporting Alchemy-Spetec customers on a wide variety of polyurethane jobs, from slab lifting to soil stabilization and seawall repair. He brings a decade of geotech experience to the team.

Colt put in many years as a project manager for Stable Soils of Florida where he oversaw polyurethane rig assembly and chemical grout installation projects. After that he briefly worked for Alchemy-Spetec as a Tech Services Rep for about a year. Colt then amicably moved on to Ramjack South Florida to become a Project Manager for their Seawall Division. We are happy to welcome him back in this new role.

Alchemy-Spetec VP of Sales & Business Development Jim Spiegel is excited about the ways in which this hire will benefit the market: “Colt brings many years of invaluable field experience with expertise in a wide range of equipment, products, and techniques. His field experience coupled with his technical acumen for equipment improvements will undoubtedly offer our Geotech customers another industry-leading resource. As most grouting contractors agree, there is no substitute for field experience, and Colt has no shortage of it.”

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec products?

On Episode 8 of The Injection Connection, Jim sits down with Matt Chittick and Travis Germick, co-owners of Lift It Rite, LLC, a residential slab-lifting business servicing the Greater Atlanta and surrounding markets. Matt and Travis offer valuable insights on how to start a lifting business, production considerations, and the under-appreciated value of showing up with a smile - and perhaps a hamburglar costume!  (Jim Spiegel is Vice President of Alchemy-Spetec and a Board Member at the International Concrete Repair Institute.)

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

• Spotify
• iTunes/Apple Podcasts
• SoundCloud
• TuneIn
• Google Podcasts
• YouTube

Want info on Alchemy-Spetec slab lifting products & applications?

This article is an excerpt from Episode 7 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring concrete lifting marketing expert Ann Thaxton of ConcreteTitans.com. The Injection Connection is hosted by Jim Spiegel: Vice President of Alchemy-Spetec and Board Member at the International Concrete Repair Institute. (If you'd rather listen, an audio version of this exchange is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Jim Spiegel: As you know in the industry it's very expensive to get into this, just on the equipment side of things. You're looking at 50, 60, 70, even more - $100,000 perhaps depending on your rig setup.  So, one of the questions we get all the time is – “Okay, I'm going to invest in this equipment. What are you going to do for me and how do I get leads?” That's probably the number one question. For the customers that buy the equipment, their biggest problem we see as far as their success is their lack of marketing or advertising strategy. Say I'm Joe the builder and I want to get into this, and my first question is, “How do I start? Where do I even start with marketing, advertising and lead capture?”  Could you talk us through what solutions you may offer on that and any information on monthly budgets?

Ann Thaxton: We've found throughout the industry that for cost per lead, your cheapest cost per lead is digital advertising. Your most expensive cost per lead is TV. And everything else falls in between. Your average cost per lead with digital advertising runs between $40 and $50 per lead. TV runs around $200 to $250 per lead. Direct Mail runs about $150 per lead. Ideally, if you were a more mature company, you would do all of those because studies show that it takes anywhere between 12 and 18 touch points for somebody to convert to become a customer. If you're just starting out in the business, your cheapest cost per lead is digital advertising. But I wouldn't just stop there. If you have time on your hands and if you are able to, then print up some door hangers and hang them up around neighborhoods where you know they have some problems with their concrete. If you level concrete in one neighborhood, you hang door hangers on both sides of that house and across the street for sure. And you ask your customer if they would please refer people to you because referrals are really the gold standard here. Referrals are “free” cost per lead. So, once you get really mature as a company, you get so many referrals that it just becomes gravy on top. But to start out, I would think that you would do a lot of that pounding the pavement type of work to get your name out and then do some lead advertising. And I have different levels of service. From the start, from the starting service up to 4+ rig companies. And for a budget to start out, you can spend less than a thousand a month.

Visit ConcreteTitans.com for more info on Ann Thaxton's marketing services.

Want some marketing tips from Alchemy-Spetec?

This article is an excerpt from Episode 7 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring concrete lifting marketing expert Ann Thaxton of ConcreteTitans.com. The Injection Connection is hosted by Jim Spiegel: Vice President of Alchemy-Spetec and Board Member at the International Concrete Repair Institute. (If you'd rather listen, an audio version of this exchange is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Jim Spiegel: A lot of your expertise is in social media and SEO. Do you offer support in that entire realm of marketing?

Ann Thaxton: I do. I pretty much am a mixed bag, but for home repair industries really the most effective channel of marketing is lead advertising. I'm a big proponent of lead advertising because you get a concrete return on your investment. You get a potential client’s name, phone number, email address and why they're contacting you - maybe their pool deck needs to be raised or they have a parking lot that needs to be leveled. That's what I really push the most with this industry is lead advertising. Not only that but I also really promote the lead nurturing process. So once you get your lead from lead advertising, you start a series of automated emails that go to those people maybe two to three weeks and it educates them on the industry. One of the big things, one of the big challenges of residential concrete lifting is a lot of people don't know that it's a thing. They don't realize that you can repair your concrete rather than replacing it at a fraction of the cost. I think that is a big part of why you need that sort of lead nurturing so people can start getting their brain around – okay, well, how does this work? How do you raise this concrete? And how long does it take? That sort of thing. So yes, I do search engine optimization, SEO, I do websites, I do email nurturing campaigns for leads, lead advertising, some sales training. I look at it as if you take a business that has maybe two rigs and they have two crew that are going out, you start them with the basic lead advertising email nurturing and hopefully you can get somebody on staff that is a customer service person that does nothing but call these leads the second they come in and it helps you build the business from there. A lot of the nurturing I do for the leads is not just emails, it’s occasional texts. It's consistent phone calling until we know if these people are going to convert or if they're not interested. That's what you’re trying to find out from these leads. So lead advertising all the way.

Jim: And are you heavily involved with the social media side of things?

Ann: I believe that you should post on your social media business pages. People do you go there occasionally but the algorithm with that is not what it used to be five years ago even because Facebook is now a public company. They want to make money. So they are not going to show your posts to the people that like your Facebook page unless you put some money behind it really. I do lead advertising on Facebook which is a great platform for educating people on concrete lifting in that it's a real home repair service. I believe in posting maybe a couple times a week but then I also really believe in lead advertising on social media. And then LinkedIn if you want to build your commercial business.

Jim: You're saying lead advertising and excuse my ignorance but essentially you’re talking about the lead capture side of it?

Ann: Yes. So, usually you need to offer something, like maybe a $50 off coupon, $100 off coupon. And they click through, in order to get that coupon, they have to give you their name and information.  Then you send the coupon pretty much immediately and call shortly after that. So that's how that works.

Visit ConcreteTitans.com for more info on Ann Thaxton's marketing services.

Want some marketing tips from Alchemy-Spetec?

The AP Jack Attack System provides leverage for positioning small to medium slabs into place while lifting or stabilizing with polyurethane. Easy for one person to operate. Triangular steel frame.

Even with the largest polyurethane rigs on the market, manipulating small slabs can be very tedious. It would be nice if all slabs settled evenly but that is rarely the case. Often slabs settle unevenly, making it nearly impossible to lift and rotate back into place with foam alone. It will lift for sure but it won’t rotate back into place.

For these small to medium slabs we recommend the Jack Attack System. This super-easy leverage system can be attached to a slab with concrete screw-in anchors. Then the integrated 8000 lb (3628.74 kg) jack can apply the leverage necessary to make the slab rotate back into place while the lifting process takes place. It is good practice to leave the slab 1/8”-1/4” (3-6mm) under-level to allow the foam to create optimal strength as it performs the final lift to level. It makes even the most troublesome sidewalk slab a piece of cake and you will use less foam as well.

This photo is from a job in which the front porch settled away from the home causing columns to separate from the roof line. On one end the slab had actually cracked in two and was settled away from the home as well as parallel to the home. You can see the triangle-shaped Jack Attack System holding the slab in place as foam is injected underneath.

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec Geotech products?

The new, updated Alchemy-Spetec poly estimating app makes it easy to estimate material amounts for slab lifting, void filling, floor repair, and now leak seal® crack injection jobs.

This app is a simple, fast, and reliable way to take the guesswork out of estimating Alchemy-Spetec materials while prepping for a job.

Download the App & Create an Account

Follow these steps to download and operate this app:

Estimate Material

1. Tap the three lines in the top left corner to display the application options.

3. Choose between the Imperial or Metric measuring systems.

4. Input the requested info (in this case: crack width, concrete thickness, crack length), and press Enter.

5. View the results.

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

This post is part of the Alchemy-Spetec Contractor Lens series, featuring views, news & case studies written by our customers.  This article, written by Robin Smith of Dalinghaus Construction, contrasts the methods of polyurethane slab lifting vs mudjacking.  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 today!

Have a sinking slab you need to lift? Here at Dalinghaus we offer Polyurethane Slab Leveling, but we often get calls from customers asking for something called “Mudjacking”. If you follow us online, you have gotten an opportunity to learn a lot about Poly, but might not know anything about mudjacking. We are going to break down some of the basic differences between them! You do have options! So let’s take a look at Poly VS Mudjacking, and see what looks better to you.

What is Mudjacking???

Mudjacking is the process of lifting a building, driveway, or any slab of concrete by pumping a mixture of concrete and water (known as mud to people who work with it) underneath a sunken slab raise it back to a level or a predetermined lift. The process of mudjacking settled concrete has been around for over 60 years, and as such, the issues with the process have been well documented. Some of those issues include:

• Weight Of Material: The weight of the “mud” material can be as much as 100lbs per cubic foot! (Compare that to Polyurethane that comes in at about 2-4lbs per cubic foot!) Typically a slab starts sinking in the first place because the soil around it has been compromised. The added weight of the concrete can cause further settlement. Why fix a problem with something that potentially adds to the problem?
• Big Holes In Your Concrete: Mudjacking requires drilling a 2-3” hole through your slab to pump the thick material through. The number of holes needed is dependant upon the condition of the concrete. (Compare that to Poly that only requires a ⅝” hole to inject material!) These holes then need to be patched, and they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. 
• Curing Time: The concrete that is pumped under the slab isn’t exposed to the sun, it takes longer to cure. It can take days to a week to dry! (Our Polyurethane sets up in just seconds! Check out this project that we completed at the Orange County Transit Authority. Our technology was able to keep the bus schedule on track without missing a beat!)

When it comes to Poly VS Mudjacking, Poly makes WAY more sense to us! If you want to learn more about how we can help you, give us a call!

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec slab lifting products used by Daulinghaus Construction and others?

One of our geotech customers in Australia, Meric Selvi at Alchemy Inject, was recently interviewed about his concrete repair business.

Alchemy Inject's parent company Antidote Remedial is a remedial building company which was established in 2007. Over the last decade the business has grown to become a team of licensed skilled trades including builders, tilers, painters, plumbers and concreters with a diverse background and a common passion for delivering the best results for their clients.

Antidote/Alchemy Inject is dedicated to providing exceptional levels of service to their clients. Their team is made up of skilled licensed tradespeople, plus admin staff and certified project managers to make sure the projects are completed on time, on budget and to a high quality.

Based in Manly, Australia, they operate throughout the Sydney metro area. They recently posted a great 10 minute video interview with Alchemy Inject owner Meric Selvi.  Enjoy this profile of their slab lifting business, Alchemy Inject.

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec products?