How to repair a basement wall crack.
There are only two ways to repair a basement wall crack – the right way or the wrong way. If you want a permanent solution, avoid using caulks, fillers, and hydraulic cement. Those methods are temporary bandaids and you will quickly find yourself repairing the crack 1-5 years down the road. Epoxies are strong, but typically used for floor cracks. Most basement wall cracks are considered hairline so you want to use a polyurethane. There are two types of polyurethane kits on the market, ones that require drilling and ones that don’t. If you only want to repair the crack once, choose a kit that requires you to drill holes for injection ports. If you use a kit that doesn’t require drilling and uses surface ports, there isn’t enough pressure or depth for the polyurethane to completely fill the crack. Most surface port can’ts also can’t be used where water is present or on cracks that could eventually leak. They are easy to use – but you have to use them often.
Kits like the Foundation Armor concrete repair kit require you to install aluminum ports which are injected into the concrete to intercept the crack. The 5,000+ PSI injection gun pushes the material through the port and into the crack. The polyurethane liquid expands to a foam and repairs the crack from the back of the crack to the front. The crack is completely filled and the bond lasts forever. It can be used on dry, wet, leaking, and gushing cracks.
GC Foundation Armor Concrete Crack Repair Kit Instructions.
