The soil beneath your home plays an important role when it comes to the health and stability of the whole structure. The weight of your concrete foundation, basement, and property structure all bear down on the soil below your property. If this soil is not fit to bear the weight during damp and dry changes, it can cause foundations to crack due to natural expansion – contraction. The process doesn’t just affect your home—your driveway and any other concrete structures on your property could easily fall victim to soil-based issues.
What is PolyRenewal™?
If the cracks or depressions in your property floor are cosmetic or related to soil instability, the PolyRenewal™ system will not only fix the cracks and depressions, but it will also provide support to the surface in question. This is because of how the polyurethane foam expands and hardens.
PolyRenewal™ is a unique polyurethane foam that is injected beneath cracked concrete. Once it has been placed, it expands quickly to fill the space between the soil and the surface above it. PolyRenewal™ has many geotechnical capabilities, including:
- Lifting settled paving slabs
- Lifting settled segments of foundation
- Strengthening and stabilizing loose soil
- Filling voids and sinkholes
- Treating soil to improve its load bearing characteristics
In doing so, PolyRenewal™ removes the need for excavation and seriously disruptive repairs within properties with mild to moderate foundation damage. In short, PolyRenewal™ is an effective solution for cracked, settled, or depressed concrete flooring and foundations. While it cannot replace more invasive solutions for the most severe forms of structural damage, it provides a cost-effective option for smaller issues.
Why Choose PolyRenewal™?
PolyRenewal™ may be a patented system, but there are many generic alternatives that claim to offer the same results, often at a lower cost. However, there are many reasons for homeowners to choose the PolyRenewal™ repair system from Innovative Basement Authority above all others.
Here’s what you need to know about the PolyRenewal™ concrete lifting system:
- Versatile
PolyRenewal™ can be used for various areas with cracking, sinking concrete around your property, both inside and outside your home. Some of these areas include:
- Patio
- Porch steps
- Sidewalk
- Driveway
- Garage
- Pool deck
- Interior concrete slabs
- Lightweight and Strong
Pound for pound, PolyRenewal™ is one of the strongest, non-invasive solutions on the market. Weighing just 4lbs per cubic foot where conventional filler weights up to 120lbs per cubic foot, PolyRenewal™ is stronger than many conventional fill materials. Despite its lightweight nature, it can support substantial loads and has greater lifting power than mudjacking. Furthermore, it is better suited to weak or unstable soils because of its lightweight nature.
- Waterproof
Once it has been cured, PolyRenewal™ is tough and waterproof. It will not wash away, dissolve, or allow water into your property. This makes it particularly useful for application in situations where water is a part of the reason for cracks.
- Stable and Inert
PolyRenewal™ is a stable material that will not react with moisture and will not leak harmful toxins or chemicals into the soil underneath it. This makes it a clean and stable solution that poses no risk to your yard or the environment around your home.
- Adjustable
Because PolyRenewal™ is a two-part system, its density and expansive force can be tailored to a wide range of geotechnical uses. Our team can fine tune the lifting force and density of the mix to cater to the weight of your property, the characteristics of the soil under your home, and even the weather and temperature thresholds. There are even special formulations that can displace water.
- Non-Invasive
Unlike traditional concrete lifting methods like mudjacking, PolyRenewal™ is a non-invasive, minimally disruptive solution to certain kinds of structural damage and instability. It can also be installed quickly and with minimal mess.
- Cures quickly
PolyRenewal™ cures extremely quickly when compared to similar, generic products. Full loading of the structure or surface in question can usually resume 15 to 30 minutes after installation. This ensures minimal disruption to your routine.
- Long-Lasting Results
Once successfully installed, PolyRenewal™ provides a durable, water-resistant, and effective solution. Provided the condition of the soil under it doesn’t degrade further, your property should never see a recurrence of cracks and depressions in the affected area.
- Invisible
Unlike many other structural repair tools, PolyRenewal™ is invisible after installation. You will not need to cover, hide, or decorate around any equipment or hardware. This may be a small benefit when you consider the kind of damage that these measures address, but for those who are house proud it can be a real relief to know that there will be no unwieldy evidence of repairs.
In short, PolyRenewal™ is a durable, strong, lightweight, and cost-effective solution to structural damage that does not require excavation or serious disruption to your home and daily life. This makes it the premier choice for those who have mild to moderate structural damage to worry about and want to avoid excavation and mess in their homes while it is repaired.
What’s Causing Cracks in Your Concrete?
Broadly speaking, there are three possible issues that a structure might experience when it has problematic soil: subsidence, settlement, and heave. Each of these problems are caused by a specific set of conditions.
- Subsidence
Subsidence is most often caused when the soil beneath a structure is oversaturated by precipitation. A very wet soil can often shift because it becomes weak and unable to support the weight of your home. As a result, the building can start to sink, usually in an uneven manner. This is a problem on its own, of course, but can cause other issues, like bowing walls and cracks in your foundation. These cracks occur because of the excess strain placed on certain parts of the structure.
- Settlement
Settlement is the other side of the coin when it comes to soil saturation; soil that is too dry can shrink as a result of dehydration. Dehydration most often occurs when there is a drought, of course, but other factors (such as the presence of mature trees) can also contribute to this. When it does so huge cracks and chasms can open up under your home. This can cause the areas of a property that are not properly supported to settle into the cracks.
- Heave
When the water in soil freezes quickly or tree roots spread under a structure causing the earth to heave upward, it can do serious damage. The most common result of this kind of damage will be a bulge and cracks in the concrete.
This kind of damage can cause a huge number of issues within a property: dampness, mold and mildew formation, pest infestation, bowing walls, and uneven floors are just some of the issues that can come with subsidence, settlement, and foundation heave, but the first sign is always a spreading network of cracks, especially in poured concrete.
Foundation Repair Solutions
Fixing cracks in your concrete floor and walls can be tricky. If you do not identify and address the underlying cause before you fill in the cracks, they will simply reappear time and time again. More than this, the underlying issues causing the strain on your property could escalate and leave you with much more severe damage to attend to. Foundation problems and bowing walls, for example, are guaranteed to escalate steadily, causing more and more damage. They could even lead to the collapse of walls and flooring within your home.
You should always start by booking a professional inspection of your property when you notice cracks spreading through the floors and walls. Innovative Basement Authority offers free, comprehensive inspections which come with same day, written estimates without obligation to book repairs.
If the source of your cracks is an unstable or damaged foundation, repair methods like helical or push piers may be the answer. This damage could’ve caused your basement walls to bow or lean; if this is the case, they may also suggest stabilization and straightening methods like wall anchors or wall braces. These solutions will stabilize your property and ensure that you are safe. Once the structure of your property is safe, you can work on repairing co-occurring or cosmetic damage.
PolyRenewal™ Injection
FAQs
If you have noticed spreading cracks and depressions in concrete floors and surfaces in and around your home, there are many potential factors that could be at play. Identifying the precise causes of these issues can be tricky because there is often more than one cause at work. Extreme weather, soil saturation, soil dehydration, erosion, and even underground water sources can all influence the health of your home.
- Soil-Related Issues
When it comes to a damaged foundation or flooring within a property, the most likely cause is in the soil beneath your home. This can extend to issues of heaving and sinking in your driveway, too. The most common issues are dehydration, saturation, and erosion. While each of these situations are different, they all have the same results; a lack of support which causes concrete flooring or foundations to sink or crack.
Soil dehydration and saturation are two sides of the same coin. If you have poor moisture management in the soil around your home, it will become saturated during rainstorms and incredibly dehydrated during droughts. This will lead to poor support for your property as saturated soil can cause subsidence while dehydrated soil will shrink and crack, leaving large gaps for concrete flooring, paving, or foundation to sink into. Erosion, by contrast, occurs when the soil has nothing to keep it in place; it can be washed away by rain or blown away when too dry. This is very easy to spot, thankfully.
- Extreme Weather and Natural Phenomena
Extreme weather conditions are most likely to damage your property foundation by altering the soil under it. Heavy storms, or water runoff can easily cause flooding, for example. Likewise, extreme droughts can lead to soil dehydration and erosion. The only real exception to this is a severe tornado, which can damage your property from the top down.
Finally, a natural phenomenon or disaster like an earthquake could cause sinking, heaving, or cracking in your property foundation or in structures surrounding your home. Thankfully, occurrences like this are not overly common in Minnesota, North Dakota, and eastern Montana. Nonetheless, when they do happen, they can be very damaging.
If you have concerns about spreading cracks or sinking sections of your basement floor, garage floor, or driveway there are several potential solutions that you could employ. It is unwise to decide on a solution alone, however, unless you have experience in implementing structural repairs professionally. As such you should start by contacting a professional to have your property inspected. This will ensure that you identify all the contributing factors.
- Foundation Piers
If the sinking and damage to your property has occurred either partially or wholly as the result of foundation damage, foundation piers are likely to be a part of the solution. Helical and push piers are used to transfer the weight of a property’s foundation away from incompetent soil and onto load-bearing strata. This will ensure that your foundation, once lifted, stays in place.
The two kinds of piers work in different ways, of course. Push piers are driven into the soil under your home and rely on the weight of your property to push them firmly into place and hold them. Helical piers, by contrast, are essentially screwed into the ground and spread the weight of your property more widely through the soil below the frost line.
- The PolyRenewal™ System
If foundation problems are not at the root of the cracks and sinking in your concrete flooring, or the foundation damage is relatively minor, the PolyRenewal™ system could be the perfect solution for you. This sturdy, lightweight polyurethane foam has huge load-bearing capacity and can aid in the straightening or lifting of concrete as well.
Injected directly into the site in need of repairs, PolyRenewal™ is non-invasive and minimally disruptive to your home. Better yet, it cures quickly and will not need to be reinstalled unless serious damage is done to the existing repairs. This makes it a cost-effective and long-term solution.
In short, no. You cannot install the PolyRenewal™ system alone unless you are yourself a foundation repair professional. This is largely because of the mixing process. PolyRenewal™ is a two-part system which must be tailored to suit the task at hand. If you mix it incorrectly, the foam will either expand too much or not enough. Furthermore, if you make a mistake during the mixing, it could fail to cure properly.
- PolyRenewal May Not Always be the Best Solution
There is very little that you, as a homeowner, can do to ensure that PolyRenewal™ is the right solution for your property. Identifying the causes of cracks, sinking, and foundation damage can be incredibly complex. That’s why there are so many foundation repair specialists; it’s not something that every contractor can do, let alone a DIY enthusiast.
If you try to install this solution without seeking a professional opinion, you could end up only addressing part of the problem. Worse still, you could cover up co-occurring problems and allow them to grow unnoticed. In these cases, you could end up with a bigger repair bill further down the line. As such, it’s better to seek the help of an expert.
- Improper Mixing Will Cause More Damage
If you create a mix that expands further or with more force than is needed, you will cause more damage to your property. This will cause overcompensation which pushes the concrete upwards into a hump or bulge. This is not only incredibly damaging, but it can be considerably time consuming and costly to rectify because of how quickly PolyRenewal™ cures.
If you mix the foam incorrectly and it under expands, you will not only be left with no support for your sinking concrete surface, but you may need to excavate the area to fix the problem. As mentioned above, PolyRenewal™ sets very quickly. This will exacerbate any mistakes which occur and make rectifying them more difficult – as such it is generally more effective to have a professional undertake this work.
Innovative Basement Authority Is Here to Help
If you have damage to your property and you are ready to see why PolyRenewal™ is the superior choice when it comes to concrete lifting in and around Minnesota, North Dakota, and eastern Montana, you have come to the right place. The Innovative Basement Authority team is made up of highly trained and experienced professionals who know just what it takes to properly lift damaged concrete surfaces.
Our inspectors are friendly and take a customer-centered approach, so do not hesitate to ask them questions if you have any concerns. Above and beyond all else, remember that there is no obligation to book with us during an inspection.We want you to have the time and information to make the best decision for you. If you have any worries at all about the health of your home, please do not hesitate to call Innovative Basement Authority today for a free inspection and repair estimate.
