In food and beverage facilities, one of the most important tasks is cleaning and sanitation. Trench and drain maintenance are an often overlooked – yet critical – aspect of keeping your floors clean and up to USDA standards. With the constant clean up, your trench or drain is constantly wet with water, cleaning chemicals, and waste. Unfortunately, with all that water flow, a damaged trench goes unnoticed and it may begin to leak into the surrounding soil. All of that water has to go somewhere so it runs downhill.

The leaking trench creates a void. As these voids form, it reroutes the water causing your trench to be undermined. Once this happens, your trench is vulnerable for a collapse. If a vehicle or an employee travels over the trench, not only is the trench damaged but an employee could be severely injured as well.

Luckily, there are materials that can stop the flow of the water outside of the trench that come in easy

Voids between baseplate and grout may be discovered after grouting. These voids may be the result of obstructions, trapped air, or varying grout levels during placement.

There are basic steps to addressing these voids that are meant to ensure maximum contact between base and grout so unused forces are properly transferred to the foundation.

Step 1: Identify the Void

The most common method is sounding. Tap the plate and listen for hollow areas. Mark those areas to define the void.

Step 2: Determine Injection Holes

The hole needs to be near the center of the void or the part of a larger void to ensure travel to edges of void. Remember, tighter voids require the holes to be closer together than larger voids. Drill.

Step 3: Locate Holes for Air Relief

These holes need to be close to the edges of the void. They will allow for the air to escape, so the total area of these holes needs to exceed the area of the fill hole. Drill.

Step 4: Prepare Holes for Injection