OUR BLOG: INSIDE THE LIFT

20Jan 2015

URETEK Stabilizes Flex Space Footings and Walls

By Robert Armstead

Flex space buildings can run as large as 60,000 square feet, or more.  What makes them unique is the ability to move walls and change the configuration of the space based on a tenant’s needs. When weak bearing soils cause footing and slab settlement, it can create structural problems interfering with the tenant’s operations.

Area of building where cracks appeared.
Area of building where cracks appeared.

This is what happened at the JLL Townpark warehouse in Kennesaw, GA. When the vinyl composition tile (VCT) began to pop off the floor, causing trip hazards, and the ceiling grid buckled and ceiling tiles began to fall, URETEK Holdings was called in to analyze the cause and propose a repair for the least invasive method for stabilizing the soils supporting the building.  

Picture2
Cracks appearing in the interior walls
An exterior vertical joint on the left side of the building near the front
An exterior vertical joint on the left side of the building near the front

After reviewing the soils’ report, voids up to 8 inches were discovered beneath the slabs.  URETEK’s project manager, Robert Emfinger, designed a pattern, utilizing different quantities and depths, for deep injecting URETEK’s geotechnical polymer into the soils beneath the building to increase the bearing capacity of existing support soils beneath the footings.

URETEK’s Deep Injection® process was completed on a weekend with no disruption to the tenant’s business operations.  The footings, walls and slabs of the building were stabilized so that no further settlement will occur and cosmetic repairs will last.