Polyurethane Foam Injection: The Best Solution for Concrete Lifting

“Your home is only as strong as its foundation” is a phrase that rings true amongst all homeowners across the Carolina’s. A weak or compromised foundation can both affect your home’s stability and be a burden on your family. Houses are built on top of concrete slab foundations and experience a degree of natural settlement over time. However, concrete slabs begin to sink and crack when settlement becomes too severe. Solutions for this issue are complicated, but not to us. Carolina Foundation Solutions is a family-owned and operated foundation repair company specializing in a wide array of foundation solutions. One of these solutions being Polyurethane Foam Injection.

What do the experts at Carolina Foundation Solutions say causes settlement?

As previously stated, every home, old or new, experiences some form of settlement over time. Settlement is due to the surrounding soils underneath your home. Think of it as your home settling in and getting used to the location. As the house settles, it starts to rely more on the soil underneath for support. A common cause of excessive settling is voids. Voids are pockets of space between the bottom side of the concrete slab and the ground underneath. These pockets of space vary in size and cause your concrete slab to compensate for the lack of support by sinking, searching for the soil beneath. Think of it as your home trying to compensate for what should be there. Another common cause of excessive settling is due to poor underlying soil conditions. Poor soil conditions result from the layer of topsoil being too weak to support the weight of your home. At this point, this is when a polyurethane foam injection is needed.

What is a Polyurethane Foam Injection?

The polyurethane foam-injection grouting procedure is a type of pressure grouting performed like other grouting but:

• Creates less mess
• Requires less material curing time
• It can be done by drilling much smaller holes

With this type of foundation slab repair, we drill holes through the concrete slab. Then, we inject an Alchemy Polymers polyurethane foam product into the holes. This product is a two-component, high-strength, hydro-insensitive structural polymer foam.

The material is lightweight and provides immediate results that:

• Fill any voids that may exist between the bottom of the concrete slab and the top of the soils
• Consolidate loose and soft soils located next to the upper layers of the underlying soils
• Create a more solid base for the slab to prevent further movement in the future

In other words, this foam expands once injected and lifts the settled concrete back into place and then hardens to create a solid base for the concrete slab and hinder any future movement that may occur.

How do I know I have a problem that this can solve?

The best way to know for sure is to have one of our foundation experts come in and inspect your home. Carolina Foundation Solutions offers a FREE inspection for anyone with a foundation or concrete slab flooring problem. Once you call us at (877) 770-7050 or fill out a BRIEF inspection form online, we will dispatch one of our highly trained professionals to your home to do a thorough inspection of the issue. Our main objective is to serve you and your needs, customer satisfaction is what we want, and when we see a problem, we address it with you. When we come to your home and, upon inspection, discover that there is not an issue, or you can solve it without our help, we will be honest and tell you.

What can happen if I put off this repair?

When you have been doing business for as long as we have, you come across some pretty intriguing cases of damage and instability. Putting off a needed repair to your sinking concrete slab foundation can cause a slew of adverse effects if the problem persists. First, the stability of your home has significantly decreased, causing all sorts of other issues to arise, such as property damage and plumbing issues. Second, the value of your home will reduce by up to 30% of its current market value. Lastly, the problem will worsen over time and cause cracks in your floor and walls, giving pests and water an entryway into your home.

So, what should I do?

The most important thing is to be proactive, not reactive if you can. If you must be reactive, do not put it off for another day. A lot can happen in 24 to 48 hours. Give Carolina Foundation Solutions a call at (877) 770-7050 or contact us online to schedule a FREE inspection with us today!