Water Tower Support Pedestals Coast Guard Station, Yorktown, Virginia

The scope of work on this project was to repair the water tower’s concrete support pedestals back to a structurally sound condition.

The outer surfaces of the supports had delaminated to a depth ranging from 12 to 16 inches. This deteriorated concrete was removed, down to sound concrete, using electric demolition hammers.

The exposed steel rebar was mechanically cleaned to remove an loose rust and scaling. It was then treated with a coat of Sika’s Armatec 110 EpoCem as a bonding agent and corrosion inhibitor.

The next step was to apply a bonding agent for the concrete repair materials. Sikadur 32 Hi-Mod epoxy was used as the primer in this application.

Forms were fabricated and installed to match the original pedestal profile. SikaTop 111 Plus was chosen as the repair material for this form and pour type of repair. The SikaTop 111 was extended with 3/8” pea gravel to increase the yield.

The top surface of the pedestals required a tapered surface, sloping from the base of the steel support column to the outer edge of the pedestal. SikaRepair 222 repair mortar was troweled in-lace to achieve the desired results.

A fillet of SikaFlex 1A was applied around the steel column’s base plate to provide a watertight seal. The final step of the repairs was to waterproof the exposed areas of the pedestals. SikaTop Seal 107 was used for this step. It is a flexible, waterproofing, and protective slurry mortar. The slurry was brush applied, thus completing the repairs.