Remove loose material and create a shelf on both sides of the joint with a minimum profile of 1.5” deep and 2” wide on each side. Vacuum and thoroughly remove dust and contaminates.
Create a repair base by filling repair area halfway to grade with bulk mixed 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ combined with 10-20 grit silica sand.
Use a ratio of 1 Part mixed Concrete Mender to 2 parts silica sand. Up to 1/2 part additional sand may be added during application to assist with troweling and placement. Be sure to leave the lower half surface rough and sand covered to accept the next layer.
EXAMPLE
1 Qt side A,
1 Qt Side B,
4 Qts 10-20 silica sand,
Up to 1 quart additional sand as needed.
Once the first layer sets and turns grey, continue with an additional layer up to flush with the surface.
The mixed material should always be resin rich and the sand should be fully saturated when applying to the repair area.
For extra surface strength, 30 grit aluminum oxide may be broadcast and troweled in place on top as the materials start to gel in about 5 minutes after placement. Allow to fully cure and grind flush within 24 hours. OPTIONAL: Re-saw the contraction join
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™
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.
The problem:
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.
This floor presented thousands of feet of shrinkage and stress cracking. The cracks were all fairly clean without excessive foreign debris or dirt at time of repair.
The Plan:
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.
No-cut crack repair with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ uses removable peel-and -stick weatherstrip to form a temporary well that holds the Concrete Mender in place while it soaks down into the crack.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender injected deep into cracks using the Roadware Easy Injection System.
Wehtherstrip is used to hold Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender in place while it soaks deep into cracks.
Application:
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
Pour equal parts A and b into a mixing container and mix for about 15 seconds with a mixing stick.
Crack repairs are filled with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender to refusal and the excess is removed.
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.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender filles hairline cracks completely using the dam and flood method. No cutting is needed.
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
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.
Scoring a concrete crack with a diamond grinder.
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:
Delivery of materials to the repair area.
The repair material needs to set before if flows away from the repair area .
The repair has to be structurally effective.
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.
Diagram showing Concrete Mender Soft-tip mixer injection into a concrete slab.
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.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender with Easy-injection mixer repairing a hairline crack.
Concrete Mender crack injection into 24 inches of concrete. Notice the material penetrating full depth.
Hairline cracks less than 20 mil across repaired using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender and Easy Injection application. UV Forensic Photography. See More Here
Make Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender part of your bridge preventative maintenance program. Repair cracks as they develop when they are small. Don’t let small cracks turn into big problems. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is extremely tough and will withstand even the harshest punishment. Use all year long… may be applied at temperatures as low as -20° F with excellent results.
The Gilbert Bridge in the Philippines.
Crack repairs on the Gilbert bridge in the Philippines with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is great repairing surface cracks in a bridge deck. The flow-and-go application along with the 10 minute cure time allow repair crews to get on and off the bridge quickly. Traffic can be returned to the bridge in just 10 minutes after application. In the Philippines, crews often work at night when traffic is low and working conditions are cooler.
Crack repairs on the Gilbert bridge in the Philippines with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
Crews work in teams. One person shoots the Concrete Mender from 600ml cartridges, one person applies filler sand, and one person trowels the repair smooth.
Sunset photo of the Bantum Bridge in the Philippines.
Workers repairing cracks in the Bantum Bridge in the Philippines using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
Workers repairing cracks in the Bantum Bridge in the Philippines using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
What are the reasons DOT’s Roadware?
1) “Safety for the driving public.” Roadware repairs are ready for traffic in 10 minutes. Lane closure time is dramatically reduced.
2) “Safety for my crew.” The interstate is a dangerous work environment, the quicker repairs are made, the less exposure to the hazards of working on a heavily traveled interstate.
3) “Saves a lot of money.” Quick cure times, easy mixing, straight forward application, and good long term performance makes Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender a good value. After a few days of training, the crew was able to repair a bridge in half a day. One district in Wisconsin saved about $1500 per bridge over conventional repair methods. No overnight lane closures are needed and crews are more productive with less equipment requirements.
A 24″ deep core sample shows 100% injection repair with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
For many years, engineers have looked for ways to fully inject repair polymers into cracked concrete structures. The general consensus is to seal off the crack with a sacrificial epoxy and install injection ports every few inches. Then thick epoxy is injected under high pressure into the crack with expensive resin injection pumps. The process is time-consuming, the epoxy is brittle, the equipment is expensive and the skill level is highly specialized. This makes epoxy injection slow, expensive and not really effective in the field.
At Roadware, we look for ways to make concrete repair fast, effective and easy.
Fast is better. When injecting Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender into concrete, the fast gel and cure time allows you to make a full depth repair from the bottom of the crack up to the top. If the crack you are injecting has a large hidden void, Concrete Mender repairs will start to gel and plug up the void in several minutes. Injection epoxy that takes several hours to cure will sink to the bottom of your crack and pool in the base before it has a chance to cure.
Effective. Concrete Mender is a Structural Polyurethane**. It is about as hard as typical concrete with much greater tensile and bonding strength. It is super thin at 8cps with a surface tension 1/3 of water. It can to penetrate concrete cracks and surfaces. Concrete Mender does not need to be forced into cracks with high pressure pumps and extraordinary methods. Concrete Mender can easily flow into cracks and fissures with just simple manual tools and a specially designed application mixer. You can repair more cracks in less time with less waste then ever before. Repairs are structural in nature and will move with the concrete, not against it like very hard epoxies.
Easy Application. For a repair to be effective in the field, it has to be simple enough for crews to apply efficiently. Installation productivity saves money.
Diagram showing Concrete Mender Soft-tip mixer injection into a concrete slab.
To start, simply drill a 3/8″ diameter hole about one inch deep into the crack at several points along the crack. Clean the crack and holes with a vacuum.* (Click here to learn how to work safely around silica dust).
Tape off the top of the crack and around the holes you just drilled with clear duct tape or Gorilla Clear Repair Tape. These tapes have a good adhesive that will stick to the surrounding concrete. Do not use packing tape or other tapes without testing them first.
Assemble a cartridge of Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender using out specially designed Soft-tip static mixer. Purge the cartridge of air as directed and insert nozzle into the first hole you drilled earlier.
Gently squeeze the handle of the gun and slowly inject Concrete Mender into the crack. Work product into several holes at a time, moving the cartridge back and forth among them. Allow time for the Concrete Mender to start gelling in the bottom of the crack. As the crack starts to fill completely, you will see Concrete Mender flow under the clear tape from one drilled hole to the other. You may see air bubbling up from one hole as you inject Concrete Mender into adjacent holes.
Once the crack is filled to refusal, move on to the next few drilled holes until the whole crack is filled.
After 10 minutes at 70 degrees or 23 C, pull the tape. You can use a razor scraper, grinder or polishing device to remove and excess material and blend in the repair.
Drilling a pilot hole into a crack to prepare for injection with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
A pilot hole drilled into a concrete crack and ready for injection with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender. Clear repair tape temporarily seals the crack while being repaired.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is slowly injected into the crack using a Soft-tip sealing mixer.
Inject Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender into the crack until the product appears under the tape. This repairs the crack from the bottom up. Work several holes at a time allowing the product to gel and seal the bottom as you go.
Slowly injecting Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender into 24″ of concrete using 600ml cartridge and soft-tip injection mixers.
Core drilling of the repair shows full depth repair down 24 inches using this method.
The core sample shows full depth repair down 24 inches.
Concrete Mender repair shown under UV light. See how the Concrete Mender flows into the smallest cracks and brings the concrete back to a pre-cracked condition.
Using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender and Soft-tip injection mixers, you can structurally repair concrete cracks and delaminations with simple tools and methods. This unique system saves time and money and allow for a high production rate for installers. The drill hole/inject method is much less invasive than traditional cut and fill methods and creates a lot less silica dust on the jobsite. The Microdoweling properties of Concrete Mender and Soft-tip Injection promises to be a winning combination for tough concrete repair challenges.
1006-STR 24-element static mixer with Easy Injection Tip
1006-STR 24-element static mixer with Easy Injection Tip
*“Workers may be exposed to dangerous levels of silica dust when cutting, drilling, grinding, or otherwise disturbing materials that contain silica. These materials and tasks are common on construction jobs. Breathing that dust can lead to serious, often fatal illnesses.” The Center for Construction Research and Training. Click here to learn how to work safely with silica.
** Structural Polyurethane: A polyurethane based material that restores structural integrity and aggregate interlock to distressed concrete by using low surface tension and low viscosity to penetrate concrete surfaces and cross-linking polymer chains to bond directly to the concrete-aggregate matrix. This bonding action utilizes capillary forces to self-inject polymer chains into the surrounding concrete. This material should have a modulus of elasticity less than the surrounding concrete and should not become brittle over time. This material may be combined with manufactured sand to form a PCC compatible polymer concrete that can structurally repair concrete cracks and spalls.
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.
Finished Concrete Mender repairs ready for traffic.
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
Pool spalls are cleaned and prepared for repair with Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender.
What do you do when your pool has cracks and spalls and it has to be open is three days? Back in 2001, the City of South Saint Paul, Minnesota had a problem with their new splash pool. Just before opening the pool for its second season, cracks and spalls were discovered in the concrete pool bottom and along corner where the floor meets the wall. The damaged was probably caused by the first Minnesota winter for this neighborhood splash pool facility. The repairs needed to be done fast. The pool was scheduled to be open in just three days. Any delay would be a disappointment for local families and political problem for the City who spent a lot of money to build this water recreation facility.
The call went out to see if anyone could come up with a solution. Roadware Incorporated, also located in the City of South Saint Paul, received a call from the Parks and Recreation Maintenance Department to see if we had any ideas. It turns out, Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is a great product for repairing concrete pools. The cross-linked polyurethanes in Concrete Mender and very resistant to water, chlorine and other pool chemicals.
Roadware personnel were at the pool within a few hours and repairs were made using a mixture of Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender and manufactured sand.
Mixing 10 Minute Concrete Mender with sand in a bucket prior to repairing a spall in the concrete pool floor.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender is flooded into the spalled ares and seeded with manufactured sand.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender and sand are applied to spalls in the pool floor.
The Concrete Mender and sand bland can be troweled in place and will cure in about 10 minutes.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender mixed with sand is troweled into place.
Vertical surfaces can be repaired by mixing Concrete Mender with fine manufactured sand and troweled in place.
Pool repairs at the pool edge are made with Concrete Mender mixed with sand and troweled in place.
Repairs can be painted using standard methods in 10 minutes after application at 70 degrees F (23C).
Finished repairs were ready for paint in minutes.
All the repairs took just a few hours to complete and the pool was ready for a fresh coat of paint in minutes. The pool was painted and filled with water the next day. The Concrete Mender repairs have largely been forgotten, but continue to perform to this day.
The South Saint Paul Splash Pool in 2017. Concrete Mender repairs in the pool still look good 16 years later.
The Milan-Malpensa MXP International Airport in Ferno, Italy handles nearly 20 million passengers per year and over 500,000 tons of international freight annually. Crews are using Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ to repair cracks in taxiways. The deep penetration of Concrete Mender and the 10 minute cure helps keep the historic airport running at top efficiency.
Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is a tough high penetration polyurethane quickly soaks into small cracks and repairs them before they become big problems.
The MXP Airport saves time and money by repairing cracks early when they are small. The Concrete Mender cures in just 10 minutes. This is perfect for repairing taxiways that have to remain open 24 hours per day.
Crews use Concrete Mender supplied in self-mixing 600ml cartridges to quickly apply material exactly where it is needed. No material is wasted. Manufactured sand is added to extend the product volume and control how much Concrete Mender flows into the crack.
Repairs are ready for airport service in about 10 minutes at 70 degrees F (23C).
The GCCE covers all aspects of cold storage warehousing and logistics. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ is the go-to product for repairing cracks, joints and spalls in all kinds of refrigerated and freezer warehouse applications.
The cold environment and heavy weight traffic in a freezer warehouse represents the ultimate challenge for a concrete repair material. Roadware 10 Minute Concrete Mender™ has been used for over 20 years in tough cold storage environments.
See Roadware in Booth 5128 at the 2017 Global Cold Storage Expo in Chicago.
For reduced or free admission to the GCCE, contact Kelton Glewwe – kglewwe@concretemender.com, by June 1st, 2017. For qualified attendees only. Limited time offer.
