Monday, August 13, 2007

Types Of Walls

Most of our work involves waterproofing structural walls. Using our injection equipment we saturate the ground with our Hydroclay which fills the voids and fissures that have formed over time allowing water to build up and enter your structure.

The most common walls we encounter are block, which can be hollow cinderblocks or an older solid block both which need a concrete mortar for a binder, or poured walls which are constructed by using a form on each side and concrete is poured in the middle. The form acts as a mold preventing the concrete from spreading out. Newer style forms are made up of a styrofoam panel connected with tie-rods and are meant to stay in the ground. Older style forms are reusable but still use tie-rods to hold together so "blow-out" doesn't occur.

The mortar and the tie-rods are usually the first things to go. Mortar has a limited life span and can start deteriorating within years of applying and is greatly accelerated by moisture. The metal tie-rods that hold both sides of your poured-wall forms together have to be left in the concrete. When in contact with moisture they rust out and leave a pathway for water intrusion.

The Great Lakes Waterproofing Method works in almost all of these situations. Once injected it fills in cracks and openings in the wall preventing further moisture penetration.

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