Archive for the ‘Concrete Patching’ Category

When it comes to your basement walls, leakage and seepage issues are more common than most homeowners would like to hear. As springtime approaches, snow and ice begins to melt, compromising the materials of your basement and causing damage. Heavy rain can also destroy the materials in your walls, so it’s important to get a basement wall patch to repair the walls easily and safely.  

Concrete is used all around the world for countless applications, but unfortunately, it’s inevitable that concrete will deteriorate over time. Roots can push concrete sections out of alignment, freeze/thaw and de-icing chemicals can be damaging, and the wear and tear of normal traffic can take a toll. This guide on how to patch concrete will provide you with detailed steps to ensure your concrete repair will get your surface looking as good as new.

The most frequent construction-related causes of partial-depth concrete patch failure include the following:

Failure to square the hole:

The shape of repair is important. Repairs should always be square or rectangular. Long, narrow repairs have a much greater tendency to crack than even sided (square) repairs.

Failure to remove all deteriorated material:

A material placed on a weak or deteriorating surface will bond to the surface. However, there is a good chance that the surface will delaminate from itself. Always remove material until the surface is sound.

Inadequate cleaning:

Good surface preparation is critical for durable repairs. When a repair material is placed on a dusty or dirty surface it will bond to the dust. This is not good! Make sure the surface is clean of all contaminants including oils, sealers, debris, etc. and has a rough profile.

Lack of bond:

Mechanical bond of a fresh material to hardened concrete is dependent on the surface profile. Be sure the hardened concrete is SSD. A rough surface is best. A slurry made from the repair material will also help increase surface tension and bond.

Failure to re-establish the joint:

This will cause compression failure. If you start a repair with a joint(s) the repair needs To be finished with the joint(s).

Variability of the repair material:

Old material (especially in bags) loses its performance and strength characteristics over time.

Insufficient consolidation:

Deep repairs need to be rodded or vibrated to ensure all air pockets are removed.

To determine the cause of failure, look on the back of the repair material that has been removed or has fallen out. A dusty surface (dust/dirt that was not properly cleaned from the repair zone) or some of the substrate (parent material) indicates the cause of failure.

We’re confident that our line of high-quality concrete repair products will meet all of your needs! Here’s a recent ad that details all of our concrete solutions, from High-Performance Fast Set to Anchor Cement. We cover the full spectrum!

Concrete, originally composed of crushed limestone, is an essential fixture of the modern world. Used to build skyscrapers, dams, and airplane hangars—to name a few—it has shaped human history in an influential way. Concrete is sometimes regarded as a simple material, but its complex history proves otherwise. The advances throughout history have also lent much in the way of concrete repair and maintenance.

In fact, the remains of the first concrete-like buildings—created by Nabataea traders in 6500 B.C.—still stand today. Their ability to create concrete allowed the Nabataea tribes to persevere in desert conditions. 500 years later the Romans caught onto the Nabataea secrets. Both of these cultures had local access to fine silica sand, allowing them to waterproof their cement creations. Nabataea cement buildings closely resemble modern cement buildings. Romans, on the other hand, used a unique building process. Rather than pouring concrete into molds to make one smooth, finished product, they cobbled stones together and filled in the gaps with mortar.

By 200 BC, this building process was very successful and was used for most of the contemporary Roman structures. Romans also devised the first substantial uses of cementitious binding agents—harena fossicia and Pozzuolana—to build their more skillful structures as well as those that came into contact with water. Overall, the advances in cement mixtures and concrete built structures proved the Romans to be one of the most influential cultures in the development of concrete.

Concrete History: The Steps to Present-Day Construction

Much has changed since the era of the Romans, though, and we now have access to much more reliable, advanced concrete technology. Portland cement is now used to make concrete, which can be manufactured to precise instruction. It was initially produced in the early 1860s and is still popular today. Considered rudimentary and unsophisticated, Portland cement was rarely used for anything by industrial buildings at first.

We have compiled a time line of influential moments in concrete history from the development of Portland cement into the present day:

• 1875: The first home built from concrete, Ward’s Castle, was completed
• 1877: Construction using steel-reinforced concrete first began
• 1891: The first concrete street was completed in the U.S.
• 1904: The Ingalls Building was built, making it the first high-rise constructed with concrete
• 1917: The standard formula for Portland cement was conceived
• 1930: Air-entraining developments increased usability and resistance to extreme cold
• 1935: The Hoover Damn was completed, requiring 4,360,000 total yards of concrete
• 2011: The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, was built with reinforced concrete

As you can see, concrete has had a long and varied history. Some of the world’s most memorable sights have concrete to thank for their longevity and prominence, not to mention its important role as a utilitarian material found in countless everyday structures. Learn about the unique history of asphalt, another vital construction material, from Unique Paving Materials.