Alchatek Blog

Leak seal product distributor Sunshine Supply, headquartered in California, hosted a well-attended Alchemy-Spetec Grout Lab today for local contractors in the Anaheim area. The curriculum included…

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

Watch this brief clip (from a demo at the grout lab) of a crack cross section showing off-gassing pressures creating full depth repair... 

Want an Alchemy-Spetec leak seal grout lab in your area? Find your local product distributor and ask them to call us!

Don’t want to wait? Travel to the Atlanta area for the next Alchemy-Spetec contractor training on March 14^th and 15^th at our headquarters. Click here for more information on the Atlanta-area training program!

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec leak seal products?

Leak seal product distributor Sunshine Supply, headquartered in San Diego, hosted a well-attended Alchemy-Spetec Grout Lab today for local contractors in the area. The curriculum included…

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

Want an Alchemy-Spetec leak seal grout lab in your area? Find your local product distributor and ask them to call us!

Don’t want to wait? Travel to the Atlanta area for the next Alchemy-Spetec contractor training on March 14^th and 15^th at our headquarters. Click here for more information on the Atlanta-area training program!

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec leak seal products?

Get ready for a thorough education in polyurethane leak seal products and applications on Thursday, March 14th (March 15th is geotech day), 2019 at Alchemy-Spetec HQ in Tucker, GA. You’ll get hands-on training from a technical staff with decades of on-the-job experience. Registration includes both days, but we’ll take a close look at the leak seal curriculum in today’s blog post…

The schedule on Thursday, March 14th includes presentations on the Alchemy-Spetec leak seal product line, crack injection, curtain grouting, permeation grouting, pumps & packers, leak seal accessories and municipal applications. There will also be live injection demos, product mixing demos, and open discussions for sharing job related tips and solutions from the field.

Your instructors have years of experience providing technical support for both contractors and distributors across the country. You can look forward to presentations, demos and/or discussions lead by Stephen C. Barton (President/CEO), Jim Spiegel (VP Sales & Business Development), Andy Powell (Southeastern Regional Manager), Anthony Sandone (Eastern Regional Manager), and Charlie Lerman (Western Regional Manager). 

Participants will receive a Samsung tablet loaded with leak seal training material.

The registration deadline is February 28th.

Sign up while there's still space available...

The dreaded floor/wall leak. Anyone who has seen enough leaks in their time knows that the wall/floor detail can be an injection contractors arch-nemesis. But it doesn't have to be so difficult. Please take a look at the basic detail depicted in the graphic which shows a common mistake as well as a couple of ways to remedy this situation with chemical grouting. Alchemy-Spetec has several products that can be used for this application. For an explanation of when and why you would use Spetec PUR H100, Spetec PUR F400, Spetec AG200, or Spetec PUR GT500, please call us at 404-618-0438, or click the button at the bottom of this article to schedule a consultation with a technical consultant.

See a close up of the graphic and an overview of the drilling methods below:

Bottom Arrow: This is the least commonly used drilling location, but when done correctly it seals the under-slab leak path as well as the wall/footer leak path. It's the least intuitive because it requires specific knowledge of the footer construction. 

Want to schedule an appointment with an Alchemy-Spetec tech consultant to learn more about this process? 

Leak Seal & Geotech Products & Procedures

March 14 & 15, 2019 at Alchemy-Spetec HQ in Tucker, GA

Get ready for a thorough education in Leak Seal, Slab Lifting, Soil Stabilization and the Alchemy-Spetec Deep Lift™ process. You’ll get hands-on training from a technical staff with decades of on-the-job experience.

Thursday - Leak Seal

• Leak Seal Product Line Overview
• Curtain Grouting
• Permeation Grouting
• Leak-Seal Product Mixing
• Pump & Packer Overviews
• Leak-Seal Accessories
• Municipal Applications
• Live Injection Demos
• Open Discussions

Friday - Geotech

• Geotech Product Line Overview
• Soil Stabilization
• Geotech Product Mixing
• Rig & Mobile System Overviews
• Geotechnical Accessories
• Slab Lifting Live Demo
• Deep Lift™ Overview
• Soil Testing with the
• GPR & Penetrometer
• Maintenance Discussions
• Pricing / Estimating / Cost Savings
• Open Discussions

Participants receive a Samsung tablet loaded with training material.

Your Instructors:

Stephen C. Barton (President/CEO), Jim Spiegel (VP Sales & Business Development), Andy Powell (Southeastern Regional Manager), Anthony Sandone (Eastern Regional Manager), and Charlie Lerman (Western Regional Manager). Each instructor is a seasoned professional with at least a decade of experience in the industry.  

As we stated in a previous blog post, Slab Lifting in Cold Weather, there are plenty of jobs that need to be done in the winter. This is just as true for sealing leaks as it is for slab lifting. So let's take a look at those cold weather leak seal markets. We'll also review some special considerations for conditioning leak seal material and equipment. Then we’ll leave you with a few cold temperature leak seal application tips.

Cold Weather Markets

You have a variety of options for seeking jobs that are inside, out of the elements, during the winter months.  Hopefully these ideas will spark more brainstorming on your part. First up we have tunnels, both pedestrian and vehicle. Tunnels often leak, sometimes significantly enough to result in quite a big job. Aquariums are another possibility. As you can imagine, there are infinite potential leak problems in a structure holding that much water. Other possible large jobs could include mines and water treatment plants (which have plenty of interior spaces with potential leak issues). On the smaller side, there are utility vaults, lift stations, manholes and elevator pits.

If you’re still up for working outside during the winter months, you’re in luck because concrete contracts during colder weather. The contraction makes cracks open wider. Wider cracks make leaks more apparent to the property owner and make them easier to repair.

Conditioning Materials and Equipment

One important point to understand is that cold weather requires you to make an extra effort to keep your materials and equipment warm. Cold material reacts slower and gets thicker. Be sure to store your materials and equipment in a heated room the night before the job. When on the jobsite, there are many ways to keep everything warm. Use an enclosed vehicle, like a box truck, enclosed trailer or pickup truck with a camper top or bed cover. Keep as much material and equipment inside the vehicle as possible when working. Use a portable heater to maintain a warm temperature. You can also use electric pail heaters to keep your resin ready for action.

Remember that it won’t do you any good to heat the resin if you’re pumping it through cold equipment. The cold steel inside the pump and the cold hose will literally suck the heat out of the resin before it gets where it needs to be. This will increase the viscosity, making it harder to mix with the water and it will slow down the reaction dramatically. So don’t neglect the equipment side of the equation!

Cold Temperature Application Tips

If you’re using a product with an accelerator, you may need to use a faster accelerator or increase your percentage. Also, bring lots of oakum. You may have to use more if the cold temperature slows down the material or the contracted concrete has made the cracks wider.

If your job requires you to inject into a structure underwater (and the water’s cold), you can use a technique called twin streaming. In this approach, you hook two valves together in parallel fashion – then inject warm water along with the resin to kick start it reacting before hitting the cold water.

Conclusion

I hope this overview has helped spark some ideas on your part for finding leak seal work during the winter months. Just remember to keep your materials and equipment conditioned and you should be fine. Have more questions about polyurethane leak seal in cold weather? Call us at 404-618-0438.

Want more in-depth info on polyurethane leak seal?

On top of a hill northeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee sits a clearwell that belongs to Eastside Utilities. Built in the 1940’s on a former Army post, this clearwell consists of twin 2-million gallon tanks used for treating surface water to turn it into drinking water. The problem was that less than half of the water coming into the clearwells was making it out the other side. Although this water treatment plant has undergone several upgrades in its 70+ year lifespan, the ground beneath it has been subject to settling and consolidation. The tanks had shifted slightly and in doing so, loosened some of the joints and the water stops contained within. Measurements indicated that the clearwells were losing 1,700 gallons per minute through various leaks; well over 2-million gallons per day. A short drive downhill from the property revealed various gullies and small creeks created by water running down the hillside.

Powerful Polymer

An Alchemy-Spetec certified installer was called in to utilize Spetec PUR GT500, an NSF /ANSI 61 approved product for contact with drinking water, to seal the leaks.  This single component polyurethane resin is designed to penetrate and seal off leaks in cracks, joints, and pipe penetrations.  As a hydrophilic polyurethane, it chases down water and gets into the microstructure of the concrete, forming a flexible seal and a tenacious bond with the wet concrete.

Painless Procedure

Due to the amount of water escaping, all of the joints around the perimeter walls were suspect as well as the roof support columns throughout each clearwell that penetrated through the floor.  The contractor drilled holes to intersect the leaking joints around the perimeter of the clearwell and along all interior joints.  Injection ports were installed and Spetec PUR GT500 was pumped into each one to create an injected membrane within the joints and beneath the clearwell.

Rapid Result

After three days of injection the work was done and the site was cleaned up.  Monitoring after the Spetec PUR GT500 was installed indicated that the leak had been reduced from 1,700 gallons per minute to 10 gallons per minute.  The small number of remaining leaks were attributed to the many vintage valves and fittings that are still present at the plant.

Want in-depth info on polyurethane leak seal injection?

See first-hand how chemical grouts react and set up when mixed at our Live Mixing Station at World of Concrete 2019! 

Drop by to see us at Booth # O40551 in the Silver Lots (same location we were in last year). 

There will be a LOT to see and do at our booth this year: 

• See the Polybadger Lifting System in action. 
• Learn about preventative waterstop products. 
• View leak seal and curtain grouting displays. 
• Get in-depth instruction on using and cleaning the MixMaster Pro slab lifting gun. 
• Learn about the Deep Lift process. 
• Tour a fully stocked slab lifting rig.

Want to schedule a one-on-one consultation with a rep at World of Concrete?

Leaking concrete structures can be permanently repaired with concrete crack injection by using a water activated flexible foam. Pressure injection of these liquid polyurethane resins forces the material into leaking cracks, joints, and other defects. After the polyurethane crack injection is complete, the polyurethane resin rapidly reacts with water to form a flexible, watertight seal.

Curtain wall grouting is a leak seal method that is often required when cracks cannot be identified, when walls are made of material that does not respond well to crack injection (such as masonry, stone and CMU), and when previous leak seal methods have failed. Curtain wall grouting is the process of injecting water reactive resin behind the leaking wall in a widespread grid pattern. The water on the other side mixes with the grout and cures to a solid mass covering the surface of the wall on the other side.

See crack injection and curtain wall grouting displays at World of Concrete 2019!  Drop by to see us at Booth # O40551 in the Silver Lots (same location we were in last year). 

There will be a LOT to see and do at our booth this year: 

• See the Polybadger Lifting System in action. 
• Learn about preventative waterstop products. 
• Get in-depth instruction on using and cleaning the MixMaster Pro slab lifting gun. 
• Mix foam samples at our live mixing station. 
• Learn about the Deep Lift process. 
• Tour a fully stocked slab lifting rig.

Want to schedule a one-on-one consultation with a rep at World of Concrete?

Want more information on our Leak Seal products?

This video demonstrates how concrete crack injection works for leak seal problems. Leaking concrete structures can be permanently repaired using a water activated flexible polymer. Pressure injection of these liquid resins forces the material into leaking cracks, joints, and other defects. The resin rapidly reacts with the moisture to form a flexible, watertight seal. From hairline cracks to gushing leaks, virtually any defect can be corrected with our leak seal resins, optimized for stopping water flow.   

In this case the concrete wall in the basement of an apartment complex was leaking water, slowly flooding the area at the base of the structure. Needless to say, these types of situations can eventually present a fairly serious issue for property owners. Fortunately, they can attack the problem head on by hiring a contractor skilled in the application of Spetec PUR GT500 (formerly known as AP Seal 500).

Spetec PUR GT500 is a single component, low viscosity, flexible hydrophilic polyurethane injection resin. This grout is a proven industrial concrete crack sealant. A powerful polyurethane resin that is optimal for sealing hairline cracks, pipe penetrations, joints and larger defects in concrete structures.

Want in-depth info on leak seal procedures and products?