Alchatek Blog

I have been in a number of elevator pits harboring around two feet of water due to water leaks. These pits are usually at or below the water table, underneath the first floor of buildings with concrete poured around them. Over time the water tables rise and fall due to seasonal changes. This causes the soil to move, creating problems in the structure. These leaks are common in commercial buildings, especially if the elevators are not properly maintained.

There are several reasons why these elevator pits spring leaks and cause problems.

One of the main causes of these leaks is faulty waterproofing that was incorrectly installed during the construction phase. This allows joints that go around the elevator pit to leak due to imperfections or cracks in the base or walls. Another cause is simply time itself. As the elevator pit ages, the waterproofing system in place naturally begins to fail. The outside membranes begin to break down and negatively affect the performance of the waterproofing system.

What Can You Do?

The solution depends on the type of structure. You're usually looking at either poured concrete walls, block walls or brick walls.

Poured Concrete Walls

In the case of concrete walls, water will seep through by way of cracks. You can counteract this problem by crack injecting with Alchemy-Spetec’s Spetec F400 or AP Seal 500. They both work well in wet conditions and are water reactive.

Block and Brick Walls

In the case of both block and brick walls, movement in the soil due to water table changes can move the individual blocks or bricks - causing gaps to occur. These gaps result in issues like leaking floor/wall joints and border joint leakage/decay. You can counteract these problems by injecting grout through the wall into the outside soil (a process called curtain wall grouting) with Alchemy-Spetec’s AP Fill 700 or Spetec H100.

All of these products can also be used as part of preventative measures during the construction phase.

Want more information on sealing leaks with Alchemy-Spetec products?

The past few months have been a little hectic in the upper west side of the country lately. In Seattle, Washington there has been construction taking place in the region’s most congested traffic area. The Northgate Link tunnel is being extended to connect the Northgate, Roosevelt and U District neighborhood transit stations to downtown Seattle and the airport.

One of our contractor customers has been an ongoing asset to this project as they have been patching the tunnel walls while the construction of these links have been in progress. They've also been patching cross hatches (the short passage way between two sections of tunnel). The main product being used for these projects happens to be Alchemy-Spetec's GT350.

Click here to read our previous blog post on GT350.

This particular polyurethane resin is ideal for waterproofing and shutting off water leaks permanently.
Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec leak seal products?

The residential waterproofing market is huge and can be quite the cash cow for contractors who enjoy tending to a constant stream of smaller jobs. Let's review common residential waterproofing issues and the Alchemy-Spetec products you can use to address them.

Leaks - Concrete Walls

This is the most common problem in the residential market, most often found in basements. You can repair leaks in poured concrete and pre-cast walls with Alchemy-Spetec’s F400. This hydrophobic grout will not shrink after application, during spells of dryer weather. In addition, this product has a thin composition and can penetrate fine, hairline cracks. The application process involves injecting the cracks with the resin, which then reacts with the leaking water to form a durable watertight seal. 

Leaks - Non-Concrete Walls

Many basement walls are made of brick, block, stone or rubble. Leaks in these types of walls require a process called curtain wall grouting (a.k.a. “through-wall” grouting). Curtain wall grouting involves drilling holes in a grid pattern and injecting Alchemy-Spetec’s AP 700 through the wall to form a waterproof curtain on the other side.

Leaks - Floor/Wall Intersection

Sometimes builders will neglect to use a leak seal product at this critical joint in the structure where the floor and wall meet. Even if they do seal these joints initially, with a mediocre product there will be failure over time. When faced with these types of issues, you can inject F400 for a lasting, durable repair. This application process is similar to crack injection for leaks in concrete walls as described above.

For more details on these application methods, click here for my blog series on Crack Injection and Curtain Wall Grouting.

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec leak seal products?

What Is GT1100?

GT1100 is a water reactive, hydrophilic, one-component flexible polyurethane injection gel that is designed to cut off water leaks.

What are the applications & advantages?

GT1100 can be used in many applications. It can be used to shut off water leaks in concrete, brickwork, sewers, diaphragm walls, piling sheets, secant piles as well as curtain grouting behind tunnels, concrete, brickwork and sewer walls. This resin can be used to seal water-carrying cracks and joints in tunnel segments by injecting water-cut off membranes and liners. It's also used for curtain grouting and soil stabilization.

Depending on the amount of water you mix it with, this resin can be set to cure to a rubbery foam or a stable gel. Once cured, GT1100 is highly flexible. That's why, as I mentioned earlier, it's suited for structures that have a high degree of settlement and movement.

Packaging

GT1100 is available in 5 gallon pails and 10.5oz. cartridges (12 per case).

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Over the years, I have been asked countless times for the best way to seal pipe penetrations and other irregular annular spaces, including how to seal pipe penetrations effectively. Pipe penetration scenarios often have to do with water supply lines, electrical conduits and gas lines just to name a few. The main concern is creating a durable watertight seal between the outside of the pipe and the structure the pipe is penetrating through.

Use oakum soaked in a resin such as F400, AP Seal 500, F1000, AP Fill 700 or H100. The soaked oakum can then be packed around the annular space, and forced back into the opening of the cracks with a screwdriver or similar tool. Soaking and packing the oakum this way creates a firm gasket that stops any immediate leaks. The next step is to inject one of these resins behind the gasket using an injection needle (contact us for more information on injection needles).

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Alchemy-Spetec products have many uses. Sometimes it's helpful to consider ways in which the products compliment alternate repair applications already being practiced in our industry. Today I'll take a look at how some of our products can assist in the application known as spin casting.

Spin casting is the process of sealing manholes and corrugated pipes that have deteriorated. A spinning machine evenly casts an epoxy coating around the inside surface of the structure. There's one essential pre-requisite, however - that inside surface needs to be dry for the coating to last.

This is where polyurethane leak seal products such as AP Fill 700 and H100 can be very helpful. The resins can be injected from the inside of the structure through drill holes to form a watertight barrier in the soil on the outside. These resins react with moisture to form a watertight seal. 

Our technical staff is very familiar with the process of spin casting. If you're doing this type of work and would like to talk about sealing leaks with resins, give us a call at 404-618-0438.

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Recently in Queens, New York, a property owner came to our customer George Laubshire of LJS Waterproofing with an incredibly dire problem. Previous contractors poured an 8000 square foot, 36 inch deep slab for him. But they skipped a critical step: They did not waterproof the slab. It turns out that there was water running through underneath. Within a few months the concrete began to completely fail.

The property owner tried to use a diesel pump to get the water out. As you can likely guess, this didn't help much (even after 6 months of running the pump 24 hours a day). By this point over 60 psi of water was pouring out of cracks. In some places, water shot out about 6 inches above the concrete floor. Oakum was applied to slow the water down. But the pressure was so high that it essentially blew the oakum back out - even when the contractors were trying to stomp the oakum down into the cracks.

After careful evaluation, we recommended they use AP Fill 700 (paired with the catalyst AP 107). We advised the contractor to drill ports at an even distance from each other, and then slowly inject AP Fill 700. First they curbed the water flow, and then eventually they permanently remedied the problem. The soil under the slab was solidified to the point that the water in the ground had no choice but to flow somewhere else. After months of failed repair attempts by other contractors, the property owner was happy to finally get this problem resolved.

Afterwards our customer George Laubshire said to me, "Anthony, I've been pumping grout for years. And this is the best product that I have ever used. This product will make any contractor into a hero!"

Want more information on concrete leak seal repair products?

In this post I'll provide an overview of the concrete repair equipment that we offer, including slab lifting pumps, crack injection pumps, air compressors and accessories.

Hydraulic Proportioners Customized for Lifting  

PMC plural component proportioners are used to inject AP two-component structural polyurethane foams for slab lifting and soil stabilization.  Rugged and dependable, these pumps utilize relays and circuit breakers instead of circuit boards, vastly increasing reliability and preventing maintenance problems.  Read more...

Airless Sprayers Customized for Crack Injection  

Modified for injecting Alchemy-Spetec leak seal and soil stabilization resins, the world-class Titan pumps we offer are essential tools for sealing both small and gushing leaks as well as filling voids behind and below structures.  Read more...

Air Compressors

The FS Curtis series of air compressors we offer are the go to choice for powering your PMC drum pumps and air powered proportioners.  Dedicated to their customers, this brand name is synonymous with legendary reliability.  Read more...

Custom Slab Lifting Gun

We also manufacture an injection gun designed specifically for slab lifting. It is custom built to handle back-pressure. For detailed information, read this blog post: MixMaster Pro- The Reliable Slab lifting Gun.

Accessories

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Kiawah Island, located in Charleston, South Carolina, is home to about 5 championship golf courses. On this island there are a lot of corrugated metal storm sewer pipes that carry water from place to place. Many of these underground storm sewer pipes began to leak due to decay caused by aging.

To start this repair, the contractor used inflatable dams to stop the water from going through the pipes.  We then advised them to drive 8 foot long grout probes into the ground along the outside of the 72 inch sewer pipes. These probes were used to penetrate the surrounding soil and start plugging the active leaks from the outside with Alchemy-Spetec H100. With the inflated dams in place diverting the water, they were also able to climb inside the sewer pipes. While inside they pumped H100 through to the other side of the pipe, out into the soil. Next, they used spin casting to seal off the inside of the pipes. Spin casting is a method in which a small machine with a hose on one end spins around in a circle shooting a coating material to seal the pipe off after grouting.

With a combination of probe grouting and spin casting, they were able to complete this storm sewer pipe repair and ensure leakage no longer occurred.

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In this case study, I will share a story about waterproofing warehouse slabs. There was a distribution center in North Carolina sitting on land that had a high water table. Eventually, the slabs in this 100,000 square foot building began to accumulate moisture.

There were offices next to the warehouse area. The moisture that was seeping through the concrete slabs was first noticed as the carpet in the office area began to get damp.

To combat this issue, we helped the contractor come up with a plan to inject polyurethane chemical grout through the slab floors to create a positive side waterproofing membrane underneath. That was completed by injecting Spetec PUR H100 underneath the slab using a diamond pattern. This technique is called curtain wall grouting. The contractor was able to waterproof the warehouse slabs while simultaneously keeping the moisture out of the building. 

Want more information on curtain wall grouting?