THE JOB
This commercial floor void fill project is located in Manhattan. During a Local Law 11 inspection, the owner of a coop building’s first floor asked the GC to investigate a settled slab floor inside part of the building. The contractor began opening up a 2′ square hole in the floor. During this, all the debris was disappearing. After opening the hole it was apparent why. There was a 2′ to 3′ deep void around the entire perimeter of the building footprint.
THE CHALLENGE
Filling a 90CY void under the floor of an operating business can be a challenge anywhere. Complicate it with a 40′ x 10′ laydown area, Mid-Town Manhattan traffic, and cold winter temperatures, and you’ve got quite the challenge.
The cause of settlement was the consolidation of poorly placed fill, which was primarily construction debris. Lightweight void filling material is best to minimize future settlement of the underlying fill material.
THE SOLUTION
At the suggestion of an on-staff structural engineer, the general contractor’s project manager reached out to CJGeo about performing polyurethane grouting to fill the voids. CJGeo proposed using a low-exotherm, high mobility bulk void filling foam to fill the voids. 3′ deep voids are too deep to fill with most polyurethane grouts. A true low exotherm foam is needed for efficiently and safely filling any voids thicker than about 6″. High mobility foams are also critical when filling voids in order to ensure complete coverage.
CJGeo mobilized a two-reactor polyurethane grouting rig. The CJGeo crew installed approximately 4800lbs of CJGrout 20SDB geotechnical polyurethane grout over a two-day period. CJGeo pulled continuous negative pressure on the void through the floor. This was to allow for continuous operation of the facility during grouting. CJGeo’s work didn’t disturb operations at all. All of the voids were completely full of grout at the end of the project. The polyurethane grouting process used here for slab foundation repair is sometimes also called slab jacking or structural polymer grouting.
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