EQUIPMENT NEEDED:
1. Electric Grinder with Masonry Disc or Wire Wheel
2. Rotary Hammer with 5/8", 1/2", or 3/8" bit
3. Airless Sprayer With Zerk Coupler
4. Screw Driver or ¼" Nut Driver
5. Prime Packers or Bang in Ports
6. Socket Wrench with 3/8" deep well socket and extension
7. Flush Wand
8. Vice Grips
9. Hammer
10. Safety Goggles
11. Rubber Gloves
12. Long Sleeve Shirt & Pants
MATERIALS NEEDED
1. Prime-Flex 920 and 900 XLV or 900 LVSF
2. Prime Flush
3. Prime Plug
DRILL RELIEF HOLES
Reduce water pressure as much as possible. Drill relief holes (also to be used as injection holes) below or at the side of the leak. When the crack is patched the water will be diverted through the relief holes and the pressure on the crack will be reduced. A 5/8", 3/8", or 1/2" hole should be drilled at a 45° angle so that it intersects the crack at roughly 1/2 the depth of the concrete. 18 inches is the maximum depth required on almost any structure. Prime-Resins recommends the use of a heavy duty rotary hammer for drilling. Hammers with vacuum bits are not recommended.
Cracks tend to veer off in one direction or another below the surface level. For this reason it may be necessary to stagger injection holes from one side of the crack to the other. This will insure that at least half of your holes intersect the crack. Hole spacing depends on the width of the crack, but typically for gushing leaks only a few holes are necessary.
FLUSH INJECTION HOLES
This is not necessary if water is running out of the holes already. A flush wand that will reach the back of the injection holes should be used to flush out the drilling dust. USE ONLY CLEAN WATER TO FLUSH OUT THE HOLES. Make sure to get the holes as clean as possible to insure penetration of the grout.
APPLY THE SURFACE SEAL
Apply Prime Plug (a fast setting hydraulic cement) to clean, sound concrete. If the crack is extremely wide, the activated oakum technique may be used (see Activated Oakum Technique).
INSTALL PACKERS
5/8" Prime Packers are high pressure injection ports. Install so that the top of the rubber sleeve is flush with concrete. If the rubber is not flush with the concrete it may either spall the concrete when tightened down or blow out when the injection pressures start to rise. Use a 3/8" deep well socket to tighten the Packers. Do not beat on the Packer with a hammer. This will damage the threads and the tip will not be able to screw on. Leave off tips of Packers until you inject.
NOTE: The rubber in the Packer tends to relax if left in the wall for more than eight hours. This causes the Packer to become loose and may cause blow outs when high pressure is used to inject the grout. To avoid this, the Packers may need to be re-tightened prior to grout injection.
INJECT THE GROUT
Please see MSDS before working with any Prime-Flex product. Always wear safety glasses, rubber gloves, long sleeve shirts, and pants when doing any type of pressure injection.
It is best to use two different pumps - one for flushing and one for grout injection. If this is not possible, be sure to thoroughly flush the pump out with Prime Flush cleaning solvent before switching from water to grout.
Grout may be injected as a single component or two components. For two component injection, a two component pump with a static mixing chamber at the end of the hoses may be used. Prime-Flex products can be mixed at a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of grout to water. The mix ratio has only a slight affect on cured properties of grout. Call Prime Resins for more information on pumping equipment.
If, after surface sealing, you are still encountering problems with water flow, inject Prime-Flex 920 with a maximum dose of Prime-Kat (920). The Prime-Flex 920 reacts very fast and expands up to 2,900%. It will seal off the leak very quickly. If the crack is expected to move, or if the surface seal was sufficient to control the leak, a flexible material (Prime-Flex 900XLV or 900 LVSF) should be injected. The 920 requires a catalyst, so they should be poured into a mixing bucket and mixed with the proper amount of Prime-Kat Clear. See technical literature or label on pail for proper mix ratio. Do not allow any moisture to enter the pail.
In most pressure injection procedures it is necessary to leave the tips off of all the Packers that have not had grout injected through them. They allow air and water to vent out of the crack. Failure to do this will result in excess pressure building up in the crack and possibly cause further damage to the structure. This is not always necessary with a gushing leak. If the leak is bad, the pressure will vent to the water source.
Remove the tips from all of the Packers. Re-tighten the Packers if necessary. Put a tip on the lowest Packer and begin injecting Prime-Flex. The lowest pressure that will get penetration should always be used (250 p.s.i. minimum), but it may be necessary to increase the pressure as high as 2,500 p.s.i. Be very careful when increasing pressure. If the surface seal blows out and grout begins to flow freely from the crack, Plug 10 may be necessary to re-plug the leak. Clean the grout off of the crack as much as possible before applying the Prime Plug. It should set within a few minutes.
Continue to pump until material has penetrated the entire distance between the first and second Packer. The grout should begin to flow out of the second Packer. If this occurs, put the tip on the second Packer and continue to pump into the first.
FLUSH THE PUMP
At the end of day the pump should be thoroughly flushed out using Prime Flush non flammable solvent. Material left in the pump overnight may set up.
REMOVE THE PACKERS
In a gushing leak, the packers can usually be removed within an hour after injection is completed using A 3/8" socket and wrench, vice grips, and a small screwdriver.
PATCH INJECTION HOLES
Seal the injection holes to a depth of one inch with an epoxy gel (Speed Bond #1).
GRIND GROUT OFF SURFACE
Use an electric grinder with a grinding disc or a wire wheel to remove the any excess grout from the surface. Use caution, a wire wheel can "grab" the grout and be pulled from the technicians hands.
