At Roadware, we encounter many two-component polymer concrete repair products that claim to be similar to Concrete Mender™. One product even refers to itself as “Quick Mender.” However, these products are primarily polyurea-based and are often too thick to effectively penetrate concrete surfaces. Additionally, they are highly reactive, becoming sticky and gooey just one or two minutes after mixing, making them difficult to trowel. When you examine the details, you will notice a significant difference between these alternatives and the genuine Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™.

• What is Concrete Mender? Proprietary Polyurethane Blend
• Formulation: Classified
• Manufacturing: South Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
• Origin: NATO program for rapid bomb damage repair on runways.
• Function: To penetrate deep into concrete cracks, joints, and spalls, creating a structural repair in 10 minutes.
• Military Use: Classified
• Civilian Use: Repair cracks, joints, and spalls in commercial, industrial, and civil applications.
• Service Life: Indefinite
• Cure Time: 10 Minutes at 70°F (21°C)
• Distribution: Worldwide Distributor Network

Surface Tension:

Surface tension measures a liquid’s ability to overcome its internal friction and penetrate materials such as concrete. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ has a surface tension that is one-third that of water, allowing it to enter concrete cracks and fissures more quickly and deeply than water. This low surface tension enables Concrete Mender™ to infiltrate standard bond lines and promotes structural bonding with the concrete’s aggregate. For more details, please refer to the electron microscope slide below.

Low surface tension offers another hidden benefit: it enables Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ to be mixed with more than two parts sand while still remaining workable and easy to trowel. In contrast, if you try that with a polyurea, you’ll end up with a gooey mess.

Structural Polyurethane

Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is a polyurethane-based material designed to restore the structural integrity and aggregate interlock of distressed concrete. Its low surface tension and low viscosity allow it to penetrate concrete surfaces effectively. The product utilizes cross-linking polymer chains to bond directly to the concrete-aggregate matrix. This bonding action harnesses capillary forces to self-inject polymer chains into the surrounding concrete.

The material is engineered to have a modulus of elasticity that is lower than that of the surrounding concrete, ensuring it does not become brittle over time. Additionally, it can be mixed with manufactured sand to create a polymer concrete that is compatible with Portland Cement Concrete (PCC), enabling effective structural repairs for concrete cracks and spalls.

Advantages– One of the key benefits of this material is its very low surface tension and viscosity, which allows for effective saturation bonding of cracks without significant effort. This characteristic enables the repair process to be straightforward, requiring only minimal preparation, such as removing loose debris from the area before application.

Once applied, if the material is allowed to flow freely to the full depth of the crack, the repair can be classified as structural. To enhance the durability of the repair and prevent issues such as water pooling underneath the slab, it may be advantageous to incorporate manufactured sand or quartz into the mixture. This addition helps to optimize material usage and improve overall stability.

For cracks measuring greater than 0.125 inches in depth, it is recommended to mix the polyurethane with sand at a ratio of two parts sand to one part polyurethane. This not only extends the volume of the repair material but also significantly increases its strength. The inclusion of sand provides the added benefit of aligning the thermal coefficient of expansion of the repair material more closely with that of the surrounding concrete, thereby minimizing the risk of future cracking due to temperature fluctuations.

Another notable advantage of these polyurethanes is their versatility in application temperatures. They can be effectively applied in a wide range of substrate temperatures, making them particularly useful for repairs in freezing conditions and cold storage environments. These materials can even be applied in extremely low temperatures, as low as -20°F (-23°C), ensuring that repairs can be conducted year-round, regardless of weather conditions.

Finally, one of the practical benefits of this repair material is its quick curing time. Typically, repairs will be fully ready to accommodate traffic in approximately 10 minutes when applied at a temperature of 72°F (22°C). This rapid turnaround time minimizes downtime and allows for efficient maintenance of surfaces in both commercial and industrial settings.

Toughness:

Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ mixed with sand gets about as hard as concrete, yet it’s modulus of elasticity is slightly less than concrete so it will move with the slab, not work against it.

Common uses for 10 Minute Concrete Mender™

 

Spalled control joints and cracks.

 

 

 

Spalls and holes.

 

 

Delamination Repair

Uneven slabs and thresholds.

 

 

Crack Injection using gravity:

 

Typical crack injection repair techniques involve epoxy, ports, pumps, and pressure to force thick epoxies into a crack.  Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ with its low surface tension can do same job in less time, less mess, and better performance.

 

 

 

Easy Floor Crack Injection using cartridges:

Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender can be injected into a wide range cracks and delaminations using a simple cartridge and special Soft-tip injection mixers.  Successful full-depth repairs have been made in 24″ of concrete.

Polishable:

Polishing your floor to a mirror like finish? Repairs made with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ will not smear into the surrounding surface or gum-up diamond polishing pads.  You can even add natural sand to match the grain and color of the surrounding concrete.

Lower Cost:

By adding two parts silica or quartz sand to a gallon of Concrete Mender™ you will yield about 2.2 gallons of repair material.

A gallon of polyurea or epoxy will yield a gallon of repair material.  That makes polyurea more expensive to use even at half the material cost! This does not even factor in the hidden costs of short repair life, damage to the surrounding concrete caused by pre-mature failure, or the cost of redoing the repairs when they fail.

Packaging:

Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ hand packed with state-of-the-art packaging materials.  They have to be good. The very low viscosity and surface tension require it.

Freezers:

Working in the cold?  We’re from Minnesota. We know first hand what it takes to work in freezing temperatures. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ can be applied at temperatures below -30 F ( -34C).  That is really cold.  Exposed flesh will freeze in seconds.  That is almost too cold to go ice fishing. Most repair products would freeze solid before curing and quickly fail.  Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ generates its own heat. Curing will take several hours, but you will still get the same great performance.

History:

For over twenty years, Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ has performed without fail in thousands of applications. Many times outliving the facility itself.

Utilizing technology developed to repair bomb damaged runways for NATO, Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ was reformulated and brought to commercial markets in the early 1990’s.  You can find us in nearly every industry that has concrete floors, decks, slabs or surfaces.

Links:
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™

Availability:

Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is made in the USA and is available from Roadware authorized distributors and dealers worldwide. Call 1-800-522-7623 or 1-651-457-6122 to find a dealer near you.

Specifications:

Concrete Mender™ Data Sheet