Alchatek Blog

We're happy to announce that Alchemy Polymers has been profiled in a feature article on SprayFoamInsider.com. This is a good match, since we get a lot of interest from spray foam professionals looking to expand their skill set into slab lifting and other forms of concrete repair. After doing a fair amount of background research, Editor Jay Davidson has written an overview of our company's mission and the solutions we offer for critical concrete infrastructure issues.

The article opens as follows...

Alchemy Polymers, LLC is comprised of combat veterans when it comes to battling the elements and saving valuable infrastructures with their polyurethane resins. Contractors can even “sign up” for “boot camp” training to learn the valuable secrets of polyurethane applications from those who have literally been in the trenches. Their winning polymer injection solutions have a highly successful track record for repairing and restoring sea walls, retaining walls, tunnels, bridges, dams, concrete slabs, highways, pipelines, railways, sink holes, homes, buildings, subways and other below ground structures.

You can read more in Jay Davidson's piece Alchemy Polymers, LLC is Winning the Battle to Restore Infrastructures.  Needless to say, we're happy to see Alchemy Polymers featured on SprayFoamInsider.com.

Want additional in-depth info on Alchemy Polymers products and procedures?

In this post, I'd like to highlight a couple of our earlier articles on seawall repair.

I wrote the first one as an introduction to the causes of seawall erosion, the outward signs that erosion is taking place and the product we recommend for repair.  Read it for background on why damage occurs and how to spot it. 

Stephen Barton wrote the next one on the polyurethane seawall repair process. Read it for a good step by step overview.

Stop Erosion Through Your Seawall with Polyurethane

When it comes to seawalls, there is a lot more to learn than meets the eye. A seawall is like a living, breathing thing: especially in the way that they are designed to function. But like all living breathing things, they have a finite lifespan. For many of them, it's a mere 20 – 30 years. Depending on where you live, replacing a seawall can cost anywhere from $150 to $500 per foot. That's enough for some homeowners to choose to move instead of rebuilding their seawalls. Today however, signs of seawall distress can be solved before they get too bad through the application of polyurethane grouts to seal leaks, fill voids, and stabilize the surrounding soils.

Although seawalls are found around lakes and rivers, it is around the ocean that they are put to the most difficult test. Salt corrosion, tidal action, currents, boat wakes, storm surges and sometimes hurricanes all deliver a constant beating on the seawall. But many of the forces are also coming from the landward side of the wall. Every time it rains or the irrigation system runs, and every time the tide goes out; all of the groundwater above the waterline has to vent or equalize. Tremendous pressures can build up if that water is trapped and cannot make its way into the sea or the storm water system.

Read more in the post Stop Erosion Through Your Seawall with Polyurethane.

Leaking Seawalls: Soil Loss Prevention and Remediation

As tidal flows rise and fall, water pushes its way in through cracks, joints, and defects in seawalls. The water pushes in on incoming tides and flows out on outgoing tides. As the water flows out, it carries sand and soil with it which causes undermining of the structure, voids to form, and deteriorates the structural integrity of the seawall. This cycle is exacerbated during periods of heavy rain which continue the outflow of soil.

Read more in the post Leaking Seawalls: Soil Loss Prevention and Remediation.

Want more in-depth info on polyurethane seawall repair?

On March 23rd 2016, Alchemy Polymers Technical Consultant Andy Powell was interviewed on the Business Radio X podcast.  Andy is an expert on all of the products and their infinite applications, with many years of infrastructure repair work and on-site consulting under his belt. 

In this excerpt, he sums up the Alchemy Polymers committment to quality...

Ultimately, the customer is the property owner, somebody who’s got a problem. Even though we’re selling to contractors, we kind of all have to be on the same page, and so we’re ultimately dealing with the property owner, and sometimes they don’t understand what they can’t see, and we’re oftentimes fixing things that you can’t see like, “What’s going on underneath my slab? I can’t believe that you’re telling me there’s a hole big enough to park a VW down under my slab and it’s going to cost this much.”

There’s got to be an element of trust. You’ve got to be able to prove what’s going on...you’ve got to be able to let them know that if they’re not going to treat this now, it’s not going to get better. The contractors that we work with, we train, and that’s the only way that we can really stand behind it because we can provide a product warranty, but if it’s not installed correctly, then it can come back and reflect on us. So we kind of all have to be on the same page, and it’s good for the industry as a whole, too, because if somebody’s polyurethane fails, it reflects on everybody.

Over the course of this 15 minute interview, Andy discusses the history of the business, the state of the industry, and the various types of infrastructure problems that can be solved with polyurethane resin. Take a moment and give it a listen. If you have any questions, give us a call afterwards at 404-618-0438. Want to hear more from Andy? Click here for a complete listing of all the Alchemy Polymers blog posts written by Andy Powell.

Want more info on polyurethane infrastructure repair?