Foundations
Cellular foam concrete has a decades-long track record on large commercial retaining walls, road sub-bases, and slab-on-grade construction, void filling, and many other uses. The same advantages that make it the engineer’s choice on those demanding projects — no compaction required, reduced lateral wall pressure, self-leveling placement — make it a game-changer for foundation repair and related uses. And it is why an increasing number of foundation repair contractors are already using CFC to solve problems and provide a wider and better range of services to their customers.
Richway equipment is already in the hands of contractors throughout North America and the world doing exactly these large-scale applications with equipment producing up to 100 cubic yards an hour of cellular concrete. Now Richway is bringing that proven technology within reach of foundation repair contractors with the LV Series Cretefoamers, as low as 3 cu yds/hr continuous production rate.
Scroll down to see more ways that foundation service contractors are providing services to other contractors or to solve other problems.
Four ways cellular foam concrete (CFC) helps solve
problems
Backfill Foundation or Basement Wall
Cellular Foam Concrete has been used in large geo-technical and infrastructure applications for many years. Foundation repair contractors can use CFC to provide their customers with better solutions for many problems while reducing labor costs and call backs from reoccurring problems. CFC is made by adding bubbles of air to a ordinary portland cement slurry which reduces density.
Backfill with CFC to reduce lateral and hydrostatic load on the wall to zero. Self levelling and self-compacting for low labor cost. Permeable cellular concrete may be used to provide drainage.
Void Fill
Large subfloor void fills are no match for CFC which easily flows into even the smallest areas to
provide permanent 100% support with minimum labor and reduced substrate load. CFC void fill is permanent and will not wash out like a sand fill.
Slab Support
Raise a slab with poly and provide complete support with CFC. Put a slab in position then fill around with light-weight highly flowable CFC which is self leveling and self compacting for reduced substrate load and full contact support of the slab. Smaller slabs with good substrates are best done with polyfoam, but for large slab lifting CFC provides a controlled lift because it does not expand after injection and is less expensive than polyfoam.
Crawlspaces
Crawlspace floors of self leveling CFC are clean, solid, reduce moisture and insect problems. Just six inches of CFC can provide a chill stopping R9 insulation. Often used with encapsulation with the membrane placed first. Also valuable when there is not enough clearance for people. Highly flowable so most crawl spaces are easily filled from only one point.
CFC is a lightweight concrete made by adding air to a Portland cement and water slurry. The air is added by using an detergent type foam to precisely control the density and other properties. Densities usually range of 25 lbs/cu ft to 75 lbs/cu ft. (Water is 62.4 lbs/cu ft) It can be made to be very flowable to fill even the smallest void and be made either self-leveling or stiffer to stay where it is placed. It is always self compacting and when cured behaves like full density concrete, but at a lower density and strength. By using the proper foaming agent, Cellular Foam Concrete can be made permeable to provide drainage or prevent uplift in high water table or tidal areas.
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Here’s what some other foundation services contractors are doing with their Richway cellular concrete equipment.
This contractor has been primarily a polyfoam lifter, but they have gone way beyond that! They are innovative, very technically oriented, and always seeking new challenges. When they added Richway Cretefoamer Cellular Concrete equipment to their line-up, they were already booking jobs, but even they were surprised at how fast they work came in. Mark, their President, has always done “lunch and learns” for their technical service offerings and explaining cellular concrete to engineers and others over the lunch hour was a “natural” for him. Once they understand it, engineers, architects, and other contractors can see how CFC can solve problems for them and Mark’s firm is ready to help them.
This foundation services contractor has had Richway Cretefoamer equipment for several years and has done a variety of “non-foundation” work. Filling a decommissioned nuclear power plant reactor vessel was their most high-profile project and took about 18 months from start to finish with a lot of testing and approvals, as well as staff training and certification for working in the power plant. The contractor has also done sinkhole fills, retaining wall backfills, large roadbase sub-base fill, and parking lot fill over soft soil. And of course they do a lot of CFC foundation work.
Seawall backfill in Southwestern Florida. In addition using his equipment for “regular” foundation work, Charlie does seawall backfill, concentrating mostly on repair, mostly replacing washed out sand backfill. Unless the washout is large, this type of work can be done quickly and without need for permitting.
A meat locker and processor in Iowa had a problem that needed an immediate solution. Part of their processing area had a heavy wood floor with a shallow crawl space underneath. The floor was collapsing, but for several reasons could not be easily replaced. Cellular Foam Concrete to the rescue: the contractor pumped the crawl space full of CFC to fully support the wood floor and the area was back in service in 24 hours without interruption. The pumpability, flowability, self-leveling, and self-compaction of CFC made the job possible and even easy!
One contractor has found a niche by subcontracting to fiberglass swimming pool builders to backfill under the steps and “tanning ledges” of new pools. This is normally done by having someone squirm around under the pool and hand pack or use garden tools and a short 2×4 board to compact gravel fill under the steps, slopes, and tanning ledges. With CFC, the contractor is only on the job for a short time by pumping the highly flowable and self compacting cellular concrete from just a single set-up location.
A homeowner had a cold and damp bedroom that had been added over a very shallow crawl space with an exposed dirt floor. The 14 x 14 bedroom was cold in the winter and always damp and musty. Solution: 30 lb/cu ft CFC injected from one corner of the room to fill the crawl space. Result: Warm in the winter and no longer damp and musty! This project was done by the President of Richway Industries, Tony Borglum, for his own home!
One Cretefoamer owner-contractor, though a bit more of a “generalist” than most foundation service contractors, regularly does abandonment fills for pipelines, fuel oil tanks, and even an occasional coal bin in his major northeastern US city. He usually is pumping with a small engine power diaphragm “trash” pump, though some jobs are direct.
Cretefoamer is a trademark of Richway Industries.
