Installing high pressure injection ports is pretty straight forward, so I won’t spend too much time on this topic. Just a few quick tips.
1. Hammer In Ports. Place the port in a clean 3/8” diameter hole and hammer it in. The high quality materials our ports are made of will take a pounding. But you don’t have to hammer them in too hard. With a little practice you will begin to notice the sound changes slightly when the port is seated. Use an electric screwdriver or drill with a 5/16” socket to seat the zerk fitting into the port. Also, make sure you have a “T” handle socket for use in areas where water is pouring down on your head (so you don’t short out your electric screwdriver or drill).
You may notice that the bag of ports is wet on the inside when you get them. The water helps the ports stay resistant to cracking.
The downside to Hammer In Ports is that they only contact the concrete in a very small area and make a seal (due to the tapered nature of the port). In good quality concrete this seal will hold back several thousand p.s.i. However, if the concrete is weak or the drilled hole is out of round, you can have a problem. In which case you want to use a Mechanical Port.
2. Mechanical Ports have dropped in price dramatically over the years due to inexpensive labor and cheaper materials from overseas. There is now little price difference between the Hammer In Ports and the Mechanical Ports compared to what there used to be. I have a personal affinity for Mechanical Ports because I used to make them in my father’s shop back in the early 1980s. They have a much larger surface area to create a seal and will hold more pressure than the concrete can take.
Make sure you seat the rubber all the way inside the hole. If it is partially outside of the hole, it can cause the surface of the hole to spall, chip, and crack. Setting it in at least ¼” past the surface of the hole will give you a great seal and reduce the chance of cracking the concrete unnecessarily.
Snug the ports down, but don’t over tighten. It is easier than you think to crack the concrete by over tightening (especially if you have drilled close to the crack or at a very steep angle).
Now that you have the ports installed, you are ready to clean out the crack by flushing water through the ports. I’ll discuss that in the next section.
Click below to read the previous articles in this series if you missed them:
5 Steps of Concrete Crack Injection - Overview
5 Steps of Concrete Crack Injection - 1. Drilling Holes
5 Steps of Concrete Crack Injection – 1. Drilling Holes (Continued)
5 Steps of Concrete Crack Injection – 2. Flushing the Holes
Click below to read next articles in this series:
5 Steps of Concrete Crack Injection – 4. Flushing the Cracks
5 Steps of Concrete Crack Injection – 5. Injecting the Resin
Want in-depth info on crack injection procedures and products?
Here it is. My favorite topic. Why? Because I have seen and heard some really stupid things concerning this. It is my pet peeve. It separates the technicians who care from those who are only going through the motions. And quite frankly, it can be the difference between a successful outcome and dismal failure - or at the very least an expensive call back.
Let’s face it, most of the structures you drill through will be full of rebar. Rebar is the steel reinforcement that gives the structure its strength. Concrete protects the rebar by shielding it from moisture, and the high pH of concrete keeps the rebar from rusting. However, once a crack forms it allows more water and environmental gasses to reach the area surrounding the rebar. Carbonation of the concrete can now occur which causes the pH to drop and the corrosion process to begin. The rust expands and takes up 15 times the volume of the un-corroded steel which causes tensile forces to work against the concrete eventually resulting in additional cracking and spalling. Hopefully, you will be called in to fix the leaks before much of this damage occurs.
I remember my first day on the job back in June of 1985. We were working nights in the MARTA subway tunnels in Atlanta, sealing leaks in the ceiling. They handed me a 30 pound hammer drill and told me to drill holes in the ceiling at a 45 degree angle. Sure, what the heck is a 45 degree angle? I put on a lot of muscle that summer drilling overhead and hauling 50 pound pails of resin all over the Southeastern U.S.
There are five basic steps to be done when injecting a crack in concrete that is leaking water. This is crack injection 101. Learn these steps and you will be well on your way to understanding what it takes to seal a water leak in concrete with products such as 
When it comes to leaking cracks, 
Hydroactive chemical grouts, by definition, require hydrogen molecules from water to initiate the polymerization reaction. Typically, an ISO component is catalyzed by an amine, but this solution will remain unreacted until it comes in contact with hydrogen. All of the contractors out there familiar with chemical grouts are familiar with the ‘skin’ on the top of a catalyzed batch. This is simply the top layer of the catalyzed batch showing signs of initiation just through contact with moisture in the air. For injection into active leaks, these products are a slam dunk. But what happens when you get to the job, and there is no leak where there was one just a few days ago? 
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