Alchatek Blog

If you're not familiar with polyurethane soil stabilization, here's a basic overview excerpted from the brochure you can download at the bottom of this blog post:

Unstable soil can be defined as soil that will not stay in place on its own, and therefore requires extra support. It should be noted that unstable soil can threaten the stability, security, and safety of infrastructure and can damage, degrade, and even destroy a number of structures, such as buildings, bridges, and roads. There are a variety of factors that can cause unstable soil including erosion, poor compaction, freeze/thaw cycles and decomposition.

Soil can be stabilized with AP Soil 600, Spetec PUR H40, Spetec AG100 and Spetec AG200. Once the bearing capacity of the soil has been increased with this process, then the structure can be lifted if necessary.

For a detailed explanation of the process in a variety of settings, watch the animated video below...

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Winter is coming fast and it is already the time of year when winter storms are a possibility. High winds, heavy rain, high tidal changes and large waves have already begun in some of the coastal areas of the country. Winter weather plays havoc with our beaches and shorelines and our seawalls really take a beating.

Alchemy-Spetec can help. We make soil stabilization resins that can stop erosion of unstable soils and sand. We can help stabilize the areas behind seawalls suffering from soil erosion and settling. AP Fill 700, AP Soil 600, Spetec PUR H40 and Spetec PUR H100 are just a few of the resins we have to address soil stabilization, erosion and water leak issues. We also have the AP Lift 430, AP Lift 440 and AP Lift 475 lifting resins to raise areas like concrete structures that have sink due to erosion.

Don’t wait for potential problems to become worse or serious. Let us offer you solutions with our powerful polymers and painless procedures that will give you rapid results. A lasting repair and peace of mind for your soil stabilization problems are only part of what we do.

At Alchemy-Spetec, we’ve got your back!

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Most of you are probably familiar with our most popular product offerings: polyurethanes for sealing leaks, lifting slabs, and stabilizing soil.  But it's important to be fully aware of all the tools at your disposal.  We also offer water stop, crack repair, and soil stabilizing acrylate products.  Let's take a closer look:

Water Stop

The Spetec Injection Tube System kit is used in conjunction with our leak seal resins as a primary waterstop in cold joints and pipe joints. This system can also be used in retrofit applications for expansion joints and other wide cracks or joints measuring over 3/8 of an inch.

SST500 strips are simply fastened onto an existing joint.  When in contact with water in a confined space, SST500 will swell and stop water infiltration.

Crack Repair

Epicol T is a putty with a simple mixing ratio suitable for filling and moulding.  It can be applied underwater and it sticks to wood, stone, concrete and metal.

Epicol INJ is a low-viscosity epoxy resin for structural bonding of cracks and micro cracks in dry or wet concrete.  It can also be used as glue for bonding and anchoring.

Acrylates for Soil Stabilization

These are three-component, water-swelling hydrogels based on acrylate that harden to an elastic form.  They are especially noted for their low blending viscosity that is almost equivalent to the viscosity of water.

AG100 has a 20 cps mixed viscosity.  It can be used for curtain grouting and ground stabilization.

AG200 has a 40 cps mixed viscosity.  It can be used for ground stabilizion, preventing erosion around floors, walls, etc.  In adddition it can be used for curtain grouting and crack injection.

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Part of my job is keeping an eye out for Alchemy-Spetec mentions on the web. The other day I found this article on the global soil conditioners market, featuring our company alongside industry leaders such as BASF, Dow Chemical and Eastman Chemical.  The article was published on TechSciResearch.com. Here's an excerpt...

Global Soil Conditioners market, which stood at around USD4.90 billion in 2016 is projected to witness healthy growth at a CAGR of 8.16% to reach USD7.83 billion through 2026. The growth in the global soil conditioners market can be attributed to the broad array of applications in the agriculture as well as industrial sectors. 

Global Soil Conditioners market is controlled by these major players, namely– BASF SE (Germany), The Dow Chemical Company (US), Akzo Nobel N.V. (Netherlands), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Solvay S.A. (Belgium), Croda International Plc (UK), Clariant International AG (Switzerland), Lambent Corp. (US), Adeka Corporation (Japan), Eastman Chemical Company (US), Syngenta AG (Switzerland), Novozymes A/S (Denmark), Vantage Specialty Chemicals, Inc. (US), Alchemy-Spetec (US) and Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. (Israel) among others.  Read more...

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When it comes to soil stabilization and void filling, I get a lot of calls to help local contractors. Recently I was advising LJS Waterproofing on a structure that had issues with unstable floors. I instructed them to use the technique of probe grouting.

They inserted the grout pipes about 22 feet in the ground. Next, they began to pull the probes out of the ground while pumping about 2 gallons of AP Fill 700 every foot. This was done 5 times until they reached the 17 foot marker.

After the grouting was complete, the damaged floors were removed and replaced. This time around the floors should have a longer lifespan since they are supported by solid, stable soil.

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It was about 2 AM when the fire alarm when off in my hotel room.  I have never heard an alarm so loud in my life; all I wanted to do was get out of the room but it was so disorienting that I could barely throw some pants and a shirt on.  My instincts told me this was a false alarm as I trudged down 5 flights of stairs to the bottom level.  I was behind an elderly couple so it was slow going as we navigated our way out.

This particular stairwell brought us out on the side of the building and I noticed it was dimly lit.  This was a nice ocean front resort hotel and the lighting in my opinion should have been brighter.  About the time I noticed that, the elderly lady in front of me tripped and fell right on her face on the sidewalk.  She was about 5 yards in front of me and I was first to her side; she had fallen behind her family.  Fortunately a quick responding fire department rolled up right then and I ran over to get their help.  They got her up and into the paramedic truck. 

It looked like the lady was going to be okay but the point is that this was probably avoidable.  When I ran to her side I could see the sidewalk tripping hazard that had caused her to fall.  Combined with the dim lighting it was a case of dual premises liability.  I give talks to groups like IFMA and BOMA just on the topic of Tripping Hazards and Premises Liability.  The numbers are staggering when you look at the amount of incidents and the costs associated with them.  The toll is financial: lawsuits, settlements, workers comp, bad press.  And the toll is physical: injury and sometimes death.  This is the cost of not knowing that you may have tripping hazards on your property; or worse it is the case of knowing and not doing anything about it.  Those factors weigh heavily in court.

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We talk a lot about soil stabilization underneath existing structures, but what about new construction? Before construction can begin on any new structure, stable ground underneath is obviously an essential prerequisite.

Unstable soil can be defined as soil that will not stay in place on its own, and therefore requires extra support. It should be noted that unstable soil can threaten the stability, security, and safety of any potential new construction projects, such as buildings, bridges, and roads. There are a variety of factors that can cause unstable soil including erosion, poor compaction, freeze/thaw cycles and decomposition.

Soil can be stabilized with AP Soil 600, Spetec H40, Spetec AG100 and Spetec AG200. Once the bearing capacity of the soil has been increased, then the new construction can begin.

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The Great Plains of Canada stretch from Manitoba, across Saskatchewan, and on into Alberta.  This predominantly agricultural region is the breadbasket of our neighbor to the North.  Small towns and villages are scattered across these thousands of square miles, serving as the small population bases for the farming communities.  These rural municipalities are faced with unique challenges when it comes to managing their water systems, roadways, and other infrastructure.  For example, if there is a road that needs a small amount of paving or some concrete that needs to be poured, there may only be one time per year when the mobile batch plants comes through town.  Combine this with some bitter cold, a very limited budget, and long distances to industrial centers, and you can see how it is hard on the small municipalities.  Small issues are major, and major issues can be catastrophic.

In central Saskatchewan we have a contractor, JACC Structures, that we have been working with going on our third year now.  The owner, Randy Serhan, purchased a slab lifting poly rig from our company and we helped him on his first big job, lifting all of the slabs in a cement plant that was being converted to a seed sorting facility. (Click here for the case study on that job.) Since that successful project, we have increased Randy and his crew's training to include crack injection, curtain wall grouting, and permeation grouting for soil stabilization.  With these skills he has found a lot of opportunities to stop leaks and stabilize soil for mines, agricultural facilities, and municipalities.  Many times a hero in his 22 years working as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, he is now seen in that same light as he saves small communities thousands of dollars saving roads and infrastructure that otherwise might fail. 

Take the small community of Star City, Saskatchewan as a recent example.  They had a corrugated metal culvert that passed under a gravel road for about 60 feet.  Most of the roads there are gravel and this was one of the major routes used by farm combines and tractors.  The last several years Saskatchewan has been plagued by high water tables, often making some farmland unusable.  The culvert in Star City was subject to a good amount of water flow and over time, the water actually washed out the soils around the inlet of the pipe.  This progressed until there were actual streams of water flowing beside and beneath the pipe, rather than through it.  This is not unusual and in a lot of cases it is undetected; the erosion of the soil eventually washing out to the point that the the overburden collapses.  In this case the road would have caved in unless it was treated. 

For anyone who has ever installed large culverts made of plastic or corrugated steel, you know that it is the back fill around the pipe that provides a lot of the strength.  Trying to pack soils or rock underneath the lower areas of a pipe is difficult at best and that's often an area of weakness.  In this case the soils washed out and something needed to be done.  Star City and JACC knew of each other through tradeshows like the SWA conference in Saskatoon.  The municipality reached out to Randy and asked him to come take a look at the problem.  "You betcha" was the standard Canadian reply when they asked if he had a solution. 

As I mentioned, these types of problems with erosion around culverts are not unusual.  The town was already looking at a $65,000 outlay to have the road and culvert dug up and replaced, in addition to the $25,000 cost of the culvert itself.  Not to mention the downtime and inconvenience of having to go miles out of the way to get past the road closure.  Working from the inlet of the pipe and on through it, JACC injected two rows of structural AP Lift 475 through the wall of the pipe, to provide a bedding for the pipe and to fill up the erosion voids created by the water flow.  One row was at approximately the 5 o'clock position in the pipe and the other row mirrored at the 7 o'clock position.  This work was all completed without any excavation or road closure.  The end result was a total success with the water flow cut off, the pipe bedding stabilized and strengthened, and the voids filled.  It was completed in less than a day and at a cost to the city below 5 figures.

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The terms hydrophobic and hydrophilic may not mean anything to the average person. But, to a contractor, these terms can mean a world of a difference. Hydro means water while phobic means “to fear” and philic means “to love”.  Alchemy-Spetec offers both hydrophobic and hydrophilic polyurethanes, so it is important to be aware of the differences between the two types.  

Hydrophobic Polyurethanes

Hydrophobic polyurethanes naturally repel water (similar to the way oil would repel water and stay separate if you were trying to mix them in a glass). These products push water out of the area in question as they expand. Hydrophobics are used with catalysts which allow you to adjust the set time. They also have zero shrinkage after curing.

Check out these hydrophobic polyurethanes:

• AP Fill 700
• Spetec F400
• Spetec F1000
• Spetec H100 
• Spetec H40 
• AP Lift 475
• AP Lift 440
• AP Lift 430
• AP Soil 600 

Hydrophilic Polyurethanes

Hydrophilic polyurethanes naturally mix with water before curing (similar to the way gin and tonic mix thoroughly in a glass). This characteristic allows for a very strong chemical and mechanical bond, as water helps pull the material into the pores of the concrete. These products do not require a catalyst. You can pump them straight out of the pail.

Check out these hydrophilic polyurethanes:

• AP Seal 500
• Spetec GT350

Don't Oversimplify These Concepts

Don't get caught in the trap of oversimplifying hydrophilic vs. hydrophobic.  There are varying degrees of each (see chart below for more information on how this is measured) .  

Some hydrophilic materials will keep absorbing water (10-15 times their original volume).  Others (such as our AP Seal 500) only absorb as much water as is necessary for their reaction and then they reject the rest.  Yes, hydrophilic gels will shrink like crazy in the absence of water, but the AP Seal 500 won't.  It is completely safe to use in a dry environment.

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Continuing with this week's review of essential recent blog posts, we'll take a look at three articles on soil stabilization. The first post is a very informative case study on a sinkhole repair job. The next two posts profile key soil stabilization products that every contractor should be familiar with.

Case Study: Sink Hole Repair

By Anthony Sandone

Kiawah Island is located in Charleston, South Carolina. Due to the makeup of this area, water flows abundantly in every area naturally. In this post I'll discuss a sinkhole that appeared on one of the island's bike trails. This was caused by the soil eroding away under an asphalt sidewalk. This particular bike trail rested on and around a pond that contained fresh fish. The only acceptable route to fix this issue was to use Alchemy-Spetec's H100, which has been certified as safe for contact with drinking water.

Click here to read more...

Stabilize Soil with H40

By Thad Brown

Unstable soil can be defined as soil that will not stay in place on its own, and there­fore requires extra support. It should be noted that unstable soil can threaten the stability, security, and safety of infrastructure and can damage, degrade, and even destroy a number of structures, such as buildings, bridges, and roads. There are a variety of factors that can cause unstable soil including erosion, poor compaction, freeze/thaw cycles and decomposition.

Click here to read more...

Soil Stabilization with AP Soil 600

By Thad Brown

AP Soil 600 is used mainly for three types of applications: permeation grouting, the stabilization of loose sand and soil, and sinkhole remediation. This product does not require a catalyst. It's great for encapsulating and strengthening loose soil. AP Soil 600 provides excellent soil penetration due to its low viscosity.

Click here to read more...

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