Concrete Foundation Crack Repair

Foundations made of concrete can crack as a natural process of the concrete curing. These cracks are called concrete shrinkage cracks and as the name suggests, concrete actually shrinks as it cures. This process of shrinkage builds up stress and the concrete must crack to relieve this stress. While they are a normal condition for a home's foundation, foundation cracks do have downsides like letting water leak into the basement. Water that gets into the basement can damage carpets, insulation, drywall and any of the homeowner's possessions. That is why before you begin an expensive remodeling of your basement, you should make sure that the foundation cracks do not leak by performing concrete crack repair.

Homeowners traditionally had to call professional waterproofing contractors to perform concrete crack repair and chisel out a vee-notch in the concrete wall and fill it again with hydraulic cement. The hydraulic cement temporarily fixes the leaking problem. Unfortunately, as water enters the crack and evaporates out into the basement, salts dissolved in the water are left behind and concrete crack repair by hydraulic cement fails. Indeed, eventually these salts build up and cause the bond of the hydraulic cement and concrete foundation to fail. The hydraulic cement cracks let water back into the basement after a while. Now homeowners and professionals can perform concrete crack repair with a liquid urethane injection process. The urethane is injected directly into the crack in a liquid form for concrete crack repair. The urethane begins to foam and expand inside the crack and this expansion fills the crack from top to bottom and from front to back. Once completed, the foundation crack will not let any more water into the basement. Also, this type of concrete crack repair gives a long life because water cannot enter the crack and deposit salts.

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