Methods for Repair of Small and Large

Cracks in Concrete
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Repair of small, medium and large cracks in concrete and repair of

crushed concrete is required to enhance the strength and durability
of damaged concrete members.

Repair of small and medium cracks in concrete

Small and medium cracks in reinforced concrete and masonry
structures reduce their strength considerably to bear the design
loads. Thus repair of such cracks is necessary to restore the
designed strength of members.

The repair of small and medium cracks is done by first marking out
the critical damaged zones in concrete members. Then these cracks
can be repaired by injecting cement grout or chemical grouts or by
providing jacketing. The smaller cracks less than 0.75 mm width
can be effectively repair by using pressure injection of epoxy.

The surface of the member near cracks is thoroughly cleaned. Loose

materials are removed and plastic injection ports are placed along
the length of crack at an interval equal to the thickness of the
structural member. These ports are placed on both sides of the
member and secured in placed with the help of epoxy seal.

When the epoxy seal has hardened, the low viscosity resin is
injected into one port at a time starting from the port at lowest
level and moving upwards.

The injection through port is continued till the resin flows out from
the adjacent port or from the other side of the member. Then the
current injection port is closed and epoxy injection is continued
from the adjacent port.
This process is carried out in sequence till all the ports and cracks
are filled with the grout. This method can be used for all types of
structural members such are beams, columns, walls and slabs.

This method can also to repair of small cracks in individual masonry

blocks or for filling large continuous cracks.

Repair of Large Cracks and Crushed Concrete:

Repair of large cracks (cracks wider than 5mm) and crushed
concrete and masonry structure cannot be done using pressure
injection or grouting.

For repair of large cracks and crushed concrete, following procedure

can be adopted:

1. The surface of cracks or crushed concrete is cleaned and all the

loose materials are removed. These are then filled with quick
setting cement mortar grouts.

2. If the cracks are large, then these cracks are dressed to have a V
groove at both sides of the member for easy placement of grouts.

Fig: Filling of cement mortar and stone chips in large cracks in

masonry walls.

3. For cracks which are very large, filler materials such as stone
chips can be used.

4. Additional reinforcement and shear reinforcements can be used

for heavily damaged concrete members or wherever necessary
based on requirements.

These additional reinforcement should be protected from corrosion

by using polymer mortar or epoxy coatings.

5. For damaged walls and roofs, additional reinforcement in the

form of mesh is used on one side or both sides of the members.
These mesh should sufficiently tied with existing members.
Fig: Reinforcement meshes in repair of roof slabs and walls. 1. Wire
mesh on front face, 2. Clamps, 3. Wire mesh on back face, 4.
Cement plaster, 5. Crack in member.

6. Stitching of cracks are done to prevent the widening of the

existing cracks. In this case, holes of 6 to 10mm are drilled on both
sides of the crack. Then these drilled holes are cleaned, legs of
stitching dogs are anchored with short legs.

The stitching of cracks is not a method of crack repair or to gain the

lost strength, this method is used to prevent the cracks from
propagating and widening.