Wet Basement Wall Crack - epoxy,hydr cmt, or elastomer

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vjp2.at 2 years ago

RadonSeal epoxy calls for dry cracks. No way my crack will dry.

Is there an epoxy that works on wet cracks? I know there are underwater epoxies.

What is this thing with ports, some of it seems hokey because you need to push inwards, and they work upwards.

And some epoxies only have one substance: I know epoxy to be binary, using two substances, that depend on each other, instead of water or air, to harden. I got feeling some of the advertisements online are deceptive or at least misinformed.

In the past, going back 50yrs, I've found epoxy harder to manage, with complexity that could go wrong.

If it moves (expands), elastomer seems advisable. Certainly it is advisable for above ground cracks where I have used it successfully for a decade.

Just had to fix a 1" wide crack with hairline crack deep inside running about a yard in length. Used Hydrochloric acid and blow torch, but on bottom 2" hydraulic cement dried before we could force it in and it still leaks (much less). The original crack leaked like a faucet. Will fix just these 2" waiting to formulate a better plan while tending to other equally pressing issues.

If I redid it from scratch I would make very small portions and really force it (or any epoxy, elastomer or polyurethane) deep into the hairline crack. Then make a big batch for the wider crack. In a way the big crack is an illusion and the hairline crack matters most.

Any comments, opinions, suggestions, corrections?

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Thomas 2 years ago

What is the structure? In ground pool? House foundation? Pool - fix inside, house - start the remedy outside.

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hubops 2 years ago

If his pool has a basement, the leak is the least of his problems ! John T.

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micky 2 years ago

True, but people who put essential parts of their question ONLY in the subject line deserve to be misunderstood, and they should expect inadquate answers.

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invalid unparseable 2 years ago

Polyurethane glue will work in the presence of water. Actually polyurethane glue requires moisture to set. Gorilla Glue is polyurethane based glue which flows like syrup when it is poured. Before it cures it will bubble and soften to seep into fine cracks. I suggest you squeeze Gorilla Glue into the 1" wide crack and watch the glue sink to the hairline crack at the bottom. After 10-15 minutes it will slowly seep into the hairline crack at the bottom of the 1" crack. Squeeze more Gorilla Glue if you see the glue has disappeared into the hairline crack. After 30-45 minutes you may see the Gorilla glue swell and ooze back up from the hairline crack. Don't try to fill the whole 1" wide crack with Gorilla Glue because it is quite expensive.

After a day or two you can top up the rest of the 1" wide crack with cheaper crack filler. Try to buy polyurethane based crack filler because water is an accelerant for polyurethane glue, so it works in wet cracks.

Gorilla Glue

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You should store the unused bottle of Gorilla Glue in your freezer, otherwise the unused portion will slowly absorb moisture from the atmosphere and harden in a few months. The freezer is the driest place in your home. Freezing won't damage Gorilla Glue in the bottle.

polyurethane concrete crack filler

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Use Gorilla Glue first because Gorilla Glue can seep into the fine hairline crack at the bottom of the 1" crack. The concrete crack filler is too thick to seep into the hairline crack.

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invalid unparseable 2 years ago

Sorry, now I realize from your subject line that the crack is in the wall, not in the floor. Apparently Gorilla Glue cannot "sink" horizontally to the "bottom" of the hairline crack in the wall.

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invalid unparseable 2 years ago

For your 1" wide crack in the wall with hairline crack deep inside about a yard in length, I suggest using a polyurethane based crack filler cartridge in a caulking gun to inject the sealant through a wooden board about 6" by 6" with a hole drilled in the center slightly smaller than the tip of the crack filler cartridge so that you can pressurize the crack filler deep into the crack with the help of the wooden board and caulking gun.

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Thomas 2 years ago

I really did miss that.

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vjp2.at 2 years ago

Many thanks. THe Loctite polyurethane cement caulk we have requires dry, just like the radonseal epoxy. THe only thing I have which works wet is neoprene elastomer "structural" flashing. It seems every manufacturer uses chemical names without precision.

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vjp2.at 2 years ago

On another note, what would happen if I drove a piece of sheet metal into the ground to cover the outside of the crack? Would it keep water from the wall crack or just retain it?

Here's why I have trepidations: I took and NSPE PDH on waterproofing from Boccia Bros (who do French drains in Queens NY) and they showed a 4' wall above a flat roof whose owner had put the same asphalt he put on the roof on. They poked it with a rod and it was like Moses getting water from stone. It spewed water out because it had retained water by capillary action ev'tho the asphalt was only on the inside, not outside, of the wall. THe basic take home from the waterproofing PDH was "You can't stop water, only redirect it"

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Wet Basement Wall Crack - epoxy,hydr cmt, or elastomer

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