Coatings and Sealers to Treat Concrete Deterioration

Project ID: 8232
Principal Investigator: Kurt Von Fay
Research Topic: Repair and Maintenance
Funded Fiscal Years: 2013
Keywords: concrete sealers, concrete sealing, concrete crack repair

Research Question

Which physical properties of concrete sealers and coatings are the most relevant for predicting in-servive performance?

Need and Benefit

Cracking in concrete is widely regarded as a long-term durability and maintenance problem. Cracks can allow ingress of moisture and and other compounds into concrete leading to further deterioration. Cracking is a problem that occurs in most geographical locations and climates, and in many types of concrete structures.

Reclamation has a large inventory of aging concrete that is experienceing deterioration. Effective sealing and coating compounds could slow or halt deterioration in some cases. In addition, there is very little known about which sealing and coating properties are the most relevent to review when choosing a product. Being able to select products that are the most likley to work based on their published material properties will help ensure that repairs are made as effectively as possible.

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Bureau of Reclamation Review

The following documents were reviewed by experts in fields relating to this project's study and findings. The results were determined to be achieved using valid means.

Concrete Sealers Scoping Study Science and Technology Project ID: 8262 (final, PDF, 3.6MB)
By Kurt Von Fay and Richard Pepin
Report completed on November 14, 2013

Effective sealing and coating compounds could slow or halt concrete deterioration. Being able to select products that are the most likely to work based on their published material properties will help ensure that repairs are made as effectively as possible. In addition, following application requirements can have a large impact a products performance.

Return to Research Projects

Last Updated: 6/22/20