SW-RP6: Soil Stabilization for Seawall Repair

SW-RP6 is ideal for stabilizing soil around ancillary structures during the seawall repair process. This comes into play with buildings, parking garages, roadways, and other infrastructure in close proximity to seawalls with soil loss and settlement. In cases like this, the Seawall Repair Network contractor essentially creates chemical grout columns to provide stability.

Eco-Friendly Seawall Repair Material

SW-RP6 is phthalate-free and NSF certified to NSF/ANSI/CAN 61 (approved for contact with drinking water).

Low Viscosity, Durable Seawall Repair Material

SW-RP6 is a single-component, moisture-activated, hydrophobic, extra-low viscosity soil grout. Once it permeates the soil and cures, the resulting mass is incredibly strong.

Watch the demo video below, in which the seawall repair material SW-RP6 is mixed, permeates sand, and cures to a strength greater than crystalline bedrock.

SW-RP1 – Rock Solid Seawall Repair Material

Rock Solid Seawall Repair

In the blog post What is SW-RP1? Why Do You Need It for Seawall & Bulkhead Repair?, we posted the following info about SW-RP1…

The hallmark of the Seawall Repair Network is our proprietary SW-RP1 repair permeation solution. Simply put – it is the best product on the market for seawall soil stabilization.

• SW-RP1 is essential for sealing your seawall’s panel cracks, filling voids and defects behind your seawall, and perhaps most importantly, proving soil stabilization for your seawall.
• SW-RP1 transforms the surrounding soil of your seawall into a water-tight impermeable mass, which blocks the transference of energy and lateral stress caused by the typical build-up of hydrostatic pressure behind the seawall.
• SW-RP1 is environmentally safe and is certified to NSF (61-5) standards for contact with drinking water.

Repairing a Seawall with High-Strength Material

One detail that cannot be emphasized enough, however, is the strength of the material. Once SW-RP1 cures, it is stronger than crystalline bedrock. Watch the brief video below for demonstrations of the injection process and the strength of SW-RP1 in cured form.

See SW-RP1 Bulkhead Sealer in Action

The Disadvantages of Filling Seawall Voids with Cement

Many Contractors Still Do Not Know How to Repair a Seawall

Before the advent of advanced seawall repair materials such as SW-RP1, contractors often attempted to fill voids behind seawalls with cement (which cures into concrete). Unfortunately, there are still inexperienced contractors out there who are using this outdated method.

The Disadvantages of Filling Seawall Voids with Cement

Concrete Puts Unnecessary Pressure on the Seawall and Surrounding Soil: Concrete weighs a lot. Filling a void behind a seawall with cement creates additional lateral load pressure on the seawall. The heavy concrete also further destabilizes the soil over time.

Concrete Displaces Supporting Soil and Breaks Apart Over Time: Unlike our SW-RP1 seawall repair material, cement does not permeate and stabilize loose soil surrounding a void. Instead, cement just displaces the surrounding soil. This leaves open the possibility of further erosion and void formations below and around the cured concrete. Once the surrounding soil begins to give way, the concrete will often break into pieces over time (see the featured photo in this blog post for an example).

Concrete in the Soil Impedes Advanced Seawall Repair Methods: Since void-fill with cement is not a lasting solution for seawall-supporting soil, proper repair with advanced materials such as SW-RP1 will eventually be required. Unfortunately, concrete in the soil surrounding the wall just makes this process slower and more expensive. Concrete in the soil obstructs advanced seawall stabilization methods such as installing repair material via injection rods and installing an anchoring system. In a case like this, additional time and resources would be required to excavate and dump the old void-fill concrete, then replace it with fresh fill soil before beginning the repair process.

So consider yourself warned if a contractor proposes filling the voids behind your seawall with cement. What once (long ago) may have seemed like a common-sense solution has been repeatedly proven to make the situation worse over time.