At Western Construction Systems, we have restoration solutions for 95% of the foundations we inspect. We are experts at finding repair and restoration solutions when a foundation replacement may have been recommended. Our process of repairing and restoring foundation walls provides a cost effective opportunity for us to complete the work without having to replace the foundation. We implement a variety of repair methods, depending on the type and severity of damage. Repair solutions may include crack injection, steel reinforcing, stabilization, carbon fiber reinforcing or acrylic cement reconstruction. Schedule your complimentary site inspection to learn more about our repair methods.

We strive to specialize in foundation repair and foundation restoration, and a lot of that includes waterproofing and structural repair.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, especially in the Portland area, we find many porous concrete walls. These provide the foundations that start to crumble and deteriorate. The biggest cause of this problem is when they were originally installed, all of the concrete was mixed on site by hand, usually in wheelbarrows, and just dumped in the hole. There was no reinforcing concrete.

To counteract this problem, there’s really two ways to repair it. The most common way is to dig down on the outside, excavate the whole foundation, and apply some sort of waterproofing membrane like tar or rubber.

Here at Western Construction Systems, we’ve developed a system to allow us to densify the walls and provide almost that same level of confidence working from the inside. It includes densifying the concrete, penetrating sealers, and structurally repairing the foundation. The first thing that we do is come in and remove all the surface deterioration from the wall, prep and clean the wall, and then apply multiple coats of a penetrating concrete sealer densifyer. It penetrates several inches into the wall and reacts with the salts and chemicals in the concrete, therefore densifying the wall and reducing the moisture content in the concrete.
After we’re done sealing the wall, we repair the surface using a really high-strength fiber reinforced acrylic mortar. This mortar is, on average, about 3-4x stronger than regular concrete. Basically, we’re skim coating and structurally repairing the surface of the wall.
When the cement repairs are complete, we usually apply a multi-coat acrylic latex foundation coating to the wall that provides a clean, uniform surface and also acts as a vapor barrier.

What we’ve accomplished throughout this restoration process is densifying, structurally repairing, and restoring the concrete, and we did it all by working from the inside.

If we can do it from the interior, and achieve the same thing as working from the exterior, it’s a lot more cost effective.