Join me, Kelton at Roadware at @ICRIorg’s Virtual Fall Convention #ICRIFall20. I’ve been selected to present in a product demonstration, Less Invasive Crack Repair for Concrete Floors and Structures on October 13, 2020. 2:40 – 3:10PM CST. See a preview of the presentation on YouTube. Learn more about the virtual convention here.
Here is the Roadware Concrete Mender One Page Pitch. Things you need to know when considering, recommending, specifying, and using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™
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Full depth crack repair in warehouse floors usually involves cutting open the cracks with dry diamond saws. This is a slow process and creates a lot of hazardous silica dust that needs to be mitigated. Repair contractors at an Amazon Warehouse project are using an innovative way to repair cracks in the floor without the traditional cut and fill methods.
Some people question why these types of cracks should be repaired. Cracked floors in industrial and commercial settings are a liability. The cracks will continue to get larger as wheeled traffic starts to crush the sidewalls. (More) Cracks will also fill with dirt and debris creating a hard to clean surface. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is a structural polyurethane that will restore load transfer and can bring a floor back to original serviceability.
This three level Amazon Warehouse developed thousands of linear feet of shrinkage cracks prior to being places into service. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender will be used to repair them.
Use sacrificial vinyl weatherstrip to make a dam parallel to the cracks that will hold Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ in place while it soaks down into the cracks. Concrete Mender™ is nearly water thin when mixed and will flow easily deep into open cracks. Since Concrete Mender™ will start to gel up in 5-7 minutes, it will naturally self-seal the bottom of the crack as it cures. It sometimes takes three of four light pours of material, but it will fill the crack completely and start the structural Microdoweling™ process. Microdoweling™ is how Concrete Mender™ uses low surface tension and molecular attraction to penetrate concrete surfaces and locking into the aggregate and rock matrix.
With Concrete Mender™, expensive pumps and equipment is not needed. Once cracks are vacuumed and the surface is cleaned. The weatherstrip dam can be applied. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ can be mixed on one gallon batches by hand in a bucket and poured directly into the cracks. Additional manufactured sand can be added for larger cracks, but it is not recommended for this type of repair. See more here: Concrete Mender Bulk Application Instructions
When the Concrete Mender™ cures in about 10 Minutes at 72 degrees F (21C) , the weather stripping and excess material can be shaved clear or ground smooth with standard equipment.
After buffing and clearing excess material, floors can be returned to service immediately.
Finished concrete crack repair blend in nicely at an Amazon warehouse using full depth Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™.
Additional buffing and service traffic will blend the repairs even more into the surrounding concrete.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender Technical Data Sheet
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Concrete Mender™ TDSProduct used in the project:
Roadware stands ready to supply immediate concrete repair needs for warehouses, cold chain logistics, manufacturing, and supply. Repairs can be made with almost no downtime and under operational conditions. Please call 1-800-522-7623 or 1-651-457-6122 to be connected with our worldwide network of distributors waiting to assist. Or, send email to sales@concretemender.com
We ask that visitors to Roadware Headquarters in South St Paul, MN, or any of our Roadware Distributors, call the location ahead to verify operating hours and local conditions.
Local distributor information can be found here:
Thank you and be safe,
Roadware, Inc.
AGV’s or Automated Guided Vehicles are the reliable workhorses of the modern warehouse. They are designed to run smoothly and predictably all day and everyday. AGV’s are great at repetitive tasks moving freight as needed day in and day out. These repeated trips over the same path can be very punishing to concrete floors. The small hard wheels of an AVG can crush control joint sidewalls and grind the concrete surface to dust. This leads to rough, uneven floors that can cause premature breakdowns of AGV drive systems, wheels, and even damaged freight.
“If your AVG could talk, it would ask for Concrete Mender. ” Richard King, Roadware, Inc.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender with Microdoweling™ penetrates into concrete surfaces repairs concrete cracks, joints and spalls where others fail. Over the years we have noticed some conditions needed for successful repairs in the path of AVG’s.
Two post automotive hoists and lifts are generally bolted to the floor using compression anchors. When the lift needs to be replaced, the new anchors can not interfere with the old anchor points. If the old anchor points are too close to the new anchor points, the concrete needs to be replaced before the new lift can be installed. This can close a service bay for a month or more.
With Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender, we can remove the old compression anchors, repair the concrete and install new compression anchors without having to replace the concrete.
After removing the old lift, the compression anchors need to be removed. If the original anchor hole was drilled full depth, they can be driven down beneath the floor with a hammer and a punch. If the anchor are not full depth, a core drill is used to remove the anchor.
After drilling, the holes are cleaned and reamed with a reaming bit to roughen up the sidewalls. A shop-vacuum is used to remove all dust and debris. The concrete is than cleaned with alcohol or a similar evaporating cleaner. The holes have to be clean and completely dry before proceeding.
Use duct tape to mask off the holes to be filled with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™
Gather the materials needed to repair the holes. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is designed to repair cracks, spalls and holes in concrete. Not just simply fill them. The Microdoweling™ penetration of Concrete Mender into the concrete is a structural repair and can bring the concrete back to original design parameters.
Items needed:
We made a short video to demonstrate the basic technique of filling a core drilled hole in concrete. Concrete Mender doubles in volume when adding sand. All we need to do is fill the hole halfway with Concrete Mender and then add sand to bring it up to the top. Note: In the field it may be impractical to get the bottom of the hole completely dry or clean especially if the hole is full depth into the base material. Simply repair the bottom 1/4 of the hole with Concrete Mender and sand first and allow it to cure before repairing the rest of the hole up to the top.
Measure out equal parts of Side A and Side B Concrete Mender and combine them into your mixing bucket. Mix with a stick by hand for about 15 seconds.
Pour equal parts A and b into a mixing container and mix for about 15 seconds with a mixing stick.
Fill the holes half-way with mixed Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
Add sand into the hole bringing the Concrete Mender level up to the surface. Make sure all the sand is completely saturated.
Level the surface with a trowel or stick and allow to cure for about 10 minutes at 70 degrees F (21C).
Remove the tape after the Concrete Mender cures and turns grey in about 10-15 minutes.
A finishing rubbing brick is used to quickly bring the repairs flush with the floor.
Holes to anchor the new lift are marked and drilled into the concrete. Time to test the repairs and make sure the repairs will hold the anchors for the new lift.
New compression anchors are installed and torqued to the specified level.
For the repair to be successful, the compression anchor must hold 3000 lbs or 1360 kg for 12 hours without cracking or splitting of the surrounding concrete.
Several anchor were tested. All passed and the lift was installed the next day and placed into service. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is designed to bring most concrete slabs back to original design strength. Repairing anchor holes prior to new automotive lift installation with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is now the specified choice for two of the largest auto service companies in the United States.
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Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ and Easy-injection mixers make full-depth crack repairs in hairline cracks without cutting. This less evasive crack repair technique breaks the rules for concrete repair.
Broken Rule One Hairline cracks are not worth the trouble fixing.
Broken Rule Two You have to cut open a hairline crack if you want to actually repair it.
Broken Rule Three Crack injection requires pumps, ports, slow epoxy, and lots of time.
Let’s look at these “rules” one by one.
Broken Rule One: Hairline cracks are often dismissed as not worth fixing. However, it’s important to note that almost every concrete crack starts as a hairline crack. Some of these cracks are so tiny that they are not visible to the naked eye.
Cracking naturally occurs in concrete slabs as the concrete cures and shrinks. We use saw-cut control joints to guide the concrete to crack inside the designated joints, but sometimes the concrete cracks in unexpected places. We wish there were an efficient way to fix hairline cracks, but for now, we generally ignore them and attribute them to the nature of concrete. We might reassure customers by saying, “It will be fine; you still have aggregate interlock, and the crack is just on the surface,” or “All concrete cracks, and it’s just the nature of the product.” Unfortunately, customers who have invested in a new concrete floor are usually dissatisfied with these explanations.
The truth is, we would fix hairline cracks if there were a good and efficient way to do it.
Broken Rule Two: You have to cut open crack if you really want to repair it. A repair material has to actually get into a crack so it will actually do some good. Anything short of that is no better than caulk. For the most part, this is true. We can’t repair what we can’t reach. Traditional cut and cover techniques us a diamond blade saw to open up a crack, forming a shallow well for Concrete Mender to accumulate and flow down into the crack. It works really well, and Roadware has been doing it for over twenty years.
What is needed is a way to actively push repair products into hairline cracks. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender can do the job with simple techniques and Easy Injection Mixers. That brings us to:
Broken Rule Three: Crack injection requires pumps, ports, slow epoxy, and lots of time.
For a successful crack injection repair you need to accomplish three things:
The Roadware Easy Injection mixers make it easy to fill cracks as small as 20 mil (0.02 inches) with Concrete Mender. Simply drill a 3/8-inch hole into the crack and then push the almost-water-thin Concrete Mender into the cracks. You can see the Concrete Mender flow along the entire length of the hairline crack. You won’t need expensive injection pumps for this – just a cartridge of Concrete Mender and a manual application gun.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender starts to thicken and cure in about 5 minutes after application, so the material will stay where you put it. Traditional injection epoxies take hours to cure. In many cases, at the end of the day, the epoxy all ends up under the slab and no longer in the crack.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ with Microdoweling™ penetrates traditional bond lines and repairs concrete from the inside out. This structural polyurethane will not become brittle over time. Epoxy injection resins become very hard and brittle. As the concrete deflects under traffic, the brittle epoxy will start grinding away at the bond-line and the deterioration will start all over again. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is designed to restore aggregate interlock and deflect with the concrete under heavy traffic and loading. This structural polyurethane will not become brittle over time and is designed to bring the cracked concrete back to original pre-cracked condition.
Getting Started
Bill Neal of Neals Design recently repaired spalled and cracked concrete on the fly at a service station in Washington. A customer had broken an ankle stepping out of a truck into the badly spalled concrete. Bill was able to make the repair in minutes, eliminating the safety hazard without major disruption to the service station.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is your go to product for making long-lasting repairs with minimal downtime. At 70 degrees F or 21C, A Concrete Mender repair can be ready for heavy truck traffic in about 10 minutes.
The ultra low viscosity Concrete Mender mixes very easily with manufactured sand or quartz. A tough and durable polymer concrete mortar can be mixed in a bucket by hand with simple tools. No expensive pumps or power mixers needed. See how it is done here. Concrete Mender™ Bulk Application Instructions
Product used:
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ Two-gallon Kit #80020
The Busan Transportation Corporation uses Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender to repair the roll-way of Busan Metro Line 4 in South Korea. Metro Line 4 is a rubber-tired line with 14 stations and runs driverless with pneumatic tires on a 6.7 mile (10.8km) concrete track. Concrete Mender is used to structurally repair the cross joints in the track approximately every ten meters.
Concrete Mender is the right product for the job because it has a long service life and cures in about 10 minutes. This allows for minimal down time and keeps the Busan Metro Line 4 running on time with minimal service interruption.
Repair crews of a very limited repair window, The train operates approximately 20 hours per day from 5am to 1am the next day. That leaves a minimal amount of time for maintenance and repair operations. Crews have to be efficient and productive. The fast cure and rapid strength gain of 10 Minute Concrete Mender is well suited for these mission critical applications.
Having a smoother roll-way saves wear and tear on the rubber tires and reduces operating costs. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender will keep the Busan Metro Line 4 running smooth and efficiently for years to come.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is a self-injecting structural polyurethane for the permanent repair of commercial floors, decks, slabs and surfaces. The exclusive Microdoweling™ action in Concrete Mender allows it to migrate past bond lines, restore aggregate interlock and make long lasting repairs.
Click here to request more information of find a local Roadware distributor.
Click here to request more information or find a local Roadware distributor.
