Concrete floors are an essential part of your plant infrastructure. Let’s face it, there’s no other real affordable option for large product storage areas. But, these large floor have to have joints to allow for stress relief and expansion/contraction to prevent cracking that could lead to eventual structural failure.

These joints have always been a weak point in the flooring system for areas of heavy traffic. However, the introduction of automated lifts and carts have pushed conventional joint design past its limits. These machines are precise. So precise that the wheels never vary from the most efficient and direct path. This shows up in wear patterns in the floor. However, the real damage is to the joint. These heavy loads are concentrated on smaller wheels that make the machine

The bar for affordability of a pump for joint filling just dropped. Just because your projects are smaller, working on your hands and knees to fill floor joints shouldn’t be your only option.

Check out this updated article explaining how much more affordable pumping joint filler is now. The article is the same. But, the numbers are crazy low.

So, you’re comfortable filling floor joints on the average job. It’s easy. Just get some cartridges and start pumping. But now you’re looking at a larger project and there are far more joints to be filled than your average job. You’re adding up the cost of the cartridges you’ll need on this one and it’s a big number. Plus, you’ll need more people to install it 20 ounces at a time.

You know that these materials are available in bulk

We design and build various structures using concrete because we need its strength. Pouring concrete allows for it to take virtually any shape we need it to and its strength is in its solid form. The weak links in other materials like the mortared joints in masonry and fasteners like nails and screws in wooden and metal structures are not needed. Concrete structures are indeed solid literally. But these structures are affected by the same outside forces that affect all other types of structures. Since concrete is ridged, it lacks flexibility and therefore is more prone to crack or break in response to outside forces like soil settlement as well as interior issues such as rebar corrosion.

Epoxy injection is a very economical option to repair these non-moving cracks (not control or expansion

So, you’re comfortable filling floor joints on the average job. It’s easy. Just get some cartridges and start pumping. But now you’re looking at a larger project and there are far more joints to be filled than your average job. You’re adding up the cost of the cartridges you’ll need on this one and it’s a big number. Plus, you’ll need more people to install it 20 ounces at a time.

You know that these materials are available in bulk units. But you’d need a pump and you’re not sure you’d have another need to use it again any time soon. Seems like a like a bad investment for just one job. Let’s take a look at the math for a clearer picture.

Example: Assume you have a 6” thick slab and have 7500lf of 1/8” saw cut joints. The depth of the cut is 25% or 1.5”. The average coverage for this joint is

Concrete joint sealants and joint fillers are different in both chemical formulation and intended use. Elastomeric Joint Sealants are cold-applied elastomeric single or multi-component materials used for sealing, caulking, or glazing operations on buildings, plazas, and decks for vehicular or pedestrian use, and types of construction other than highway and airfield pavements and bridges. The primary purpose of a joint sealant is to keep water, dirt, and debris out of the joint. Designed to be able to expand and contract along with the joint, sealants are relatively soft and flexible materials, typically polyurethane, silicone, or acrylic in composition.

Hard-wheeled vehicles, carts, and pallet jacks traveling over a sealant-filled joint will cause it to deflect, leaving the edges of the joint unprotected. Leading to edge cracking and spalling.

Sure, replacing a concrete foundation or other structure with concrete makes perfect sense. It was, after all, designed for concrete. In a vacuum, replacing it makes sense. However, construction and maintenance projects in today’s industrial environments are subject to a wide range of constraints and obstacles that make what sounds simple complex. Clients have market and economic pressures that are driving them to require you meet a schedule that doesn’t’ seem realistic using conventional construction materials and techniques. And you’re right.

Time to Go Unconventional

There are options available today that, in the past, had been considered “patching” or “repair” products. The old “patches” have become widely varied in working time, redesigned for larger pours and accelerated for faster strength gain. These products are now considered a

Traditional grouting has long been a labor intensive task that most people don’t look forward  to doing. While its clear that grouting is a crucial step in the installation process, it doesn’t always get the same attention as other steps in the installation process. However, it has to be done well in order for the total installation to be successful at attaining or exceeding the life expectancy of the installed equipment.

It doesn’t help that many times, the grouting is in question. It’s a task that always seems to be a point of contention between parties during a project. It comes as the last step prior to major process installations or just prior to start-up.  Everyone seems to be holding their breath waiting on the results from QC or 3^rd party inspectors. So how do we grout equipment to get the very best chance of

When placing concrete and cementitious concrete repair mortars, especially in hot and dry weather, evaporation rate is one of the most critical factors to take into consideration. The evaporation rate is the rate at which moisture is being lost from the concrete or mortar surface, which affects a few elements of a concrete or repair mortar placement. If the evaporation rate is too high, water is leaving the surface too rapidly, and creates difficulty during finishing operations. Equally important is that a high evaporation rate during placement and initial curing greatly increases the likelihood of plastic shrinkage cracking in the concrete surface. Plastic shrinkage cracks leave a concrete surface vulnerable to the future intrusion of water and chlorides and leave the surface with an overall unpleasant appearance.

Evaporation

Keeping your plant floors and slabs in good condition is critical to keeping your operation humming. Cracks and potholes in slabs can cause extensive damage to your lifts and other equipment. This may leading to high maintenance costs and shortened life of some very expensive equipment. Uneven or sloped areas can also prevent automated lifts from operating at all. These lifts have built in safety sensors that shut them down if it detects irregularities in the level of the chassis. This could completely shut down your ability to move finished products or raw materials.

Most plant and mill maintenance personnel are focused on the process systems and keeping them running at high efficiency. After all, that’s the heart of the production process. It’s easy to forget the role of the plant