Seeking advice on concrete trough repair

[Craig-TX]

I've got a concrete water trough that is about to get the best of me. It was built about 60 years ago. It never used to leak but it does now. The water is slowly seeping through a hairline crack between two separate pours. It's not a straight line, just the seam left when they were mixing another wheelbarrow of concrete. Obviously it's causing a big mess all around the trough and this winter it will be slicker than owl sh-t when it freezes. This is in a high traffic area at the lot and I'm about sick of messing with it.

I've tried almost everything including epoxy and silicone. The problem is that the crack is too tight inject any type of sealant and the inside of the trough is sloughing off in wafer thin flakes so nothing holds.

I'm either going to have to plaster all the sides and hope it's not too brittle or swab the inside with roofing tar. Unless somebody has a better idea. I'm all ears.

Craig-TX

 

[Campground Cattle]

I've got a concrete water trough that is about to get the best of me. It was built about 60 years ago. It never used to leak but it does now. The water is slowly seeping through a hairline crack between two separate pours. It's not a straight line, just the seam left when they were mixing another wheelbarrow of concrete. Obviously it's causing a big mess all around the trough and this winter it will be slicker than owl sh-t when it freezes. This is in a high traffic area at the lot and I'm about sick of messing with it.

I've tried almost everything including epoxy and silicone. The problem is that the crack is too tight inject any type of sealant and the inside of the trough is sloughing off in wafer thin flakes so nothing holds.

I'm either going to have to plaster all the sides and hope it's not too brittle or swab the inside with roofing tar. Unless somebody has a better idea. I'm all ears.

Craig-TX

Hey old friend the best stuff I have found to repair a crack is some stuff called kiwk crete at Lowes. Patched a leaking pool that had been giving me fits. I had to chip the crack out bigger then patched the leak has worked for the last couple of years.

 

[Chuck]

Virden Perma-bilt Products in Amarillo can help you. I have used several of their products different times and have always been very happy. Call them and tell them what you are doing-they will suggest a product. Very nice people. (806)352-2761

 

[MrBilly]

Get Water Weld, by JB Weld , or just their JB Weld quick seal. This stuff will seal anything. I get it at Tractor Supply, but it can also be ordered direct http://www.jbweld.net/

Billy

 

[dun]

Virden Perma-bilt Products in Amarillo can help you. I have used several of their products different times and have always been very happy. Call them and tell them what you are doing-they will suggest a product. Very nice people. (806)352-2761

Maybe it's the medicayion, but in the middle of the night when I saw this response I thought, what a great foorum these boards are. The depth and breadth of knowledge is a really superb resource. As more folks start to participateit gets better and beyyer. Keep up the good work and thanks to Macon for providing the opportunity for so many to share the diverse experience, information and knowledge.

dun

 

[Craig-TX]

Virden Perma-bilt Products in Amarillo can help you. I have used several of their products different times and have always been very happy. Call them and tell them what you are doing-they will suggest a product. Very nice people. (806)352-2761

Maybe it's the medicayion, but in the middle of the night when I saw this response I thought, what a great foorum these boards are. The depth and breadth of knowledge is a really superb resource. As more folks start to participateit gets better and beyyer. Keep up the good work and thanks to Macon for providing the opportunity for so many to share the diverse experience, information and knowledge.

dun

Amen to that and thanks for the ideas folks. I've tried the water weld (which is usually a great product) but it wouldn't hold due to the sloughing. Wasn't the product's fault. Couple of other good ideas above. Either way, I know what I'll be doing this weekend. Ha.

BTW, for those rare times when you need to drain a big trough, the cows are somewhere else, you don't have a generator or gas powered pump handy… The fastest way I've figured out is to siphon with the hose off a shop vac. Submerge the entire hose so it's full of water, hold your palm over one end and lay it on the ground. It will pull a big trough down pretty fast till you get down to the sump.

Then it comes to having a little patience and a big grain scoop. Haven't figured out a faster way to get the crud out yet. I'm getting pretty good at all of this. Dang it.

Craig-TX

 

[eric]

If its a problem with getting enough of the stuff into the crack to work, then can you grind the crack bigger and open it up more? we have to do this all the time when welding up cast iron. Small cracks dont take any rod, so we grind a bigger valley for the rod to flow in.

 

[Brad B]

Going out on a limb with this one, but you might try some Bentonite clay. It is used to seal leaky ponds, or tanks as some of you folks would call them. Wouldn't cost much to try.

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

You can get some stuff at the boat place, it is some sort of epoxy for repairing leaks in boats, will even set up under water. That way you would not have to make the crack any bigger.It sets up like concrete, and is there for the duration.

 

[ollie]

Craig I wonder how that bed liner stuff (like rhino liner) that you get in a can to do the truck bed. Could a guy just coat the inside of the tank and make it seamless plastic?

 

[Jake]

we've coated the bottom of a steel tank with tar and that worked great, wonder if that'd work...

 

[Craig-TX]

Well, just about when I have myself convinced there's nothing else to try and I might as well take it easy, y'all have to come up with all these ideas! Now I'm fresh out of excuses.

Seriously, I appreciate each one. There are some good thoughts here. Over time I'll be trying each one till something works. Now the problem is figuring out which to start with. Thanks everybody.

Craig-TX

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

When you find the solution, share it with the rest of us! ;-) :cboy:

 

[Scotty]

I have some things that might help. Never fixeda trough but have repaired I beams on bridges that had hairline cracks. We use a two part appoxy. Drill a whole at the start half way into the thickness of the repair site. Do the same at the end. Inject the appoxy into the crack until it comes out the other end. Fill your holes with the same stuff and use a puddy knife and smooth the lenght of the crack. It wrks on bridges. I have seen this stuff come like cocking and has a special gun. Depending appon your temp. at application is how fast it sets up.

You may be able to just chip a little of the concrete away at the crack and fill that void with the appoxy.
Hope this helps.

Scotty