PERMENANT STURCTURAL
FOUNDATION CRACK REPAIR
USING EPOXY INJECTION
Why is it so important?
Because epoxy crack injection is the only permanent foundation repair capable of restoring concrete elements to their original design strengths. There are numerous reasons why cracks develop in foundation walls. However, when or why they occur are not always important but how they are repaired and why, is.
What are the benefits of permanent crack repairs?
Epoxy crack injection restores a foundation wall to its original design strengths allowing the foundation to function as a uniform, monolithic structure as designed, capable of resisting the shear and tensile strength forces of foundation settlement. If left untreated or improperly repaired, foundation wall segments are more susceptible to differential settlement and bowing.
Epoxy Resin vs. Polyurethane Foam
Over the last fourty-five years, expanding polyurethane foams have been highly touted and promoted for foundation crack repairs. This highly touted process is most popular with installers because the product is easy and inexpensive to install, requires little experience or equipment. It should also never be used other than to stop an actively leaking crack. Whenever possible foundation cracks should always be injected with a 100% solid epoxy resin because of their structural contributions, water proofing capabilities and their permanent. Polyurethanes are less expensive to install than epoxies but cheap is not a benefit. In fact, polyurethane crack injections are detrimental to a foundation’s ability to resist the forces of foundation settlement. Poly foams are incapable of bonding a foundation together to resist the forces of settlement. Once a crack is injected with a poly foam the crack can never be re-injected with an epoxy to provide a structural contribution because the crack surfaces are covered with foam inhibiting an epoxy from bonding to the concrete.
Whenever possible foundation cracks should always be injected with a 100% solid epoxy resin because of their structural contributions, water proofing capabilities and their permanency.
Often times basement waterproofing companies tout the use of an epoxy when performing crack repairs to your foundation. But be careful, using an epoxy is far different than injecting an epoxy into a crack. Ninety-nine percent of crack repairs performed use epoxies but less than five percent of all cracks are injected with epoxy resins. Most crack repairs begin with the use of an epoxy paste to seal the surface of a crack to contain the product selected for injection, which most often is an expanding foam to inhibit water infiltration. In these few instances where an installer injects an epoxy resin its with a cartridge gun or caulking gun configuration.
First, permanent structural foundation repairs begin with a desire to serve the homeowner, giving them what they need and are paying for. Second, it requires knowledge of proper product selection, experience with installing the various products and proper equipment use and selection. The most renowned and reliable epoxy injection equipment in use around the world today is Lily Corporation’s CD-15 epoxy dispenser. No other equipment has the capacity, capabilities, or reliability to perform permanent structural repairs. It’s what the professionals use and what we use.