Slab Repair: Epoxy Injection

What could eclipse a prospective home buyer’s fears more than “cracked slab?” Not much in our experience. If you recall earlier in our journey, we had solid evidence of multiple cracks in our slab prior to purchase. After getting over the fear of our house being cracked in half (which it wasn’t) we brought in a specialist to look at our situation.

It was decided after we exposed the entire slab that our 40 year home was in better shape than we thought. Our cracks exhibited zero heaving, which indicated that the ground underneath is still level. Also missing was any evidence of moisture being forced upward through the cracks via hydraulic action.

Our budget at this phase of the build was tightening quickly, and funds to hire the engineering firm to fill the cracks had been spent on other projects. Some more research was done on the repair process, and we sourced an epoxy solution that consisted of two different two part epoxies and ports. We epoxied the ports in place about eighteen inches apart per instructions.

Once the ports had cured, we sealed the top of the cracks with the remaining volume of stage one epoxy. It was a very thick material, and I used a putty knife to spread and fill the tops of the cracks. The sandstone material is a self leveling crack sealer for all of the smaller cracks we filled. Color selection was based on sale price.

Once all the ports and epoxy had cured on our two cracks, it was time to inject the cracks with the thinner epoxy. This went rather quickly with a neat exothermic reaction. The image above shows the ports removed and the surface smooth after using a sanding flap wheel on our angle grinder.