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An Ingenious Application for Expanding Foam: Lifting Concrete Slabs

How can such a light material lift something so heavy? Because, science

By Rain Noe - May 16, 2016

in Materials | Architecture

Expanding foam insulation is amazing stuff for sealing gaps. The hazard is that it can, as it expands, distort the door or window frame you're trying to seal, which is why they sell low-pressure, low-expansion variants for that application.

Moving in the other direction is an expanding foam called PolyLevel. The stuff is designed to intentionally move whatever's adjacent to the gap it's being sprayed into. Specifically, heavy concrete slabs that have settled over time and are in need of raising. The following video shows how dramatically effective this is. (Warning, turn down your speakers if you're in an office environment.

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As designers, we ought be curious about how the world around us is constructed—and how materials can fail over time. To learn about how concrete slabs can fail, check out this video:

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Via The Awesomer

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L H

8 years ago

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But expanding foam is crazy packed with isocyanide, and used in such large amounts may not be heathy.

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Mark Emge

8 years ago

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This technique was recently used on the side walk in front of my house. It worked by raising the sidewalk back level with the other sidewalk panels near it, but the foam also expanded into a void area in my yard under my grass, slowly killing the grass (I know I sound like an old person, and get off my yard). I caught it, dug up the dying grass and removed the excess expanding foam, replacing it with dirt and sod. I was really surprised to see they used expanding foam, but sound like it may become more common.

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D Louder

8 years ago

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I work in Commercial Construction when I'm not freelancing ID. While I usually work in an office on the preconstruction side of things, I learn a lot about how things are constructed above our heads and under our feet.

If there's a way for something to get messed up (either from time or error), you can bet there's a solution. It may be expensive and take a while but you'll get it patched and fixed back to safe working condition.

Construction is all about "how" where architecture is all about "what". Interesting stuff.

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