What Are the Benefits of an Epoxy Concrete Crack Repair?
If you need to repair cracked concrete, then a resin injection solution is often a good bet. Resins can repair cracks quickly; injection techniques fill cracks extremely effectively. However, you do need to choose the right resin for the job.
An epoxy-based solution is a good fix in many cases. Why is epoxy so effective at repairing concrete cracks?
Epoxy Adds Strength to the Concrete
Some resin crack fillers have some flex to them. They can cope with minor movements and are strong enough to cope with some stress loads.
However, they may not be strong enough to successfully fill a crack that requires additional strength. Their tensile load may not be high enough. If the wall moves a lot or if the filler has to bear a particularly heavy load, then the material might fail. It may crack or tear.
Epoxy fillers are stronger than the norm. This material can actually set harder than the concrete around it. It also bonds the concrete together around the crack rather than just filling the space.
So, an epoxy fill gives you a better tensile strength. The material should be able to stay in place and in one piece even if it is subjected to high tension or stress. This is a particularly good option if you are repairing cracks caused by structural damage as the injections restore the concrete's strength.
Epoxy Has Variable Viscosity
You inject epoxy in a viscous liquid state. You can, to a certain extent, choose how viscous the material is.
This gives you some extra flexibility over other fillers. For example, polyurethane fillers typically come as foams that expand into cracks. While this works well in some repair jobs, the consistency of the foam is not always a perfect solution in others. For example, injecting a high-pressure foam into smaller cracks can leave you with more foam outside the crack than in it.
You can control the state of an epoxy to tailor it for a specific job. If you're repairing smaller cracks, you can go for a more runny consistency. Or, you can go for a more solid consistency for larger cracks. The viscosity of epoxy also means that it has a longer curing time than foams. This can be useful. The epoxy has longer to seep into the bottom of a crack as it cures; it can flow into all the gaps and spaces in the concrete.
If you aren't sure which material to use on your cracked concrete, ask crack injection service companies for advice.
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