Concrete floor silage pit joint sealing

[DaveGrohl]

I've not had much response in the Buildings section so trying my luck here.

We have a silage pit that was put up some years ago by ourselves but we didn't seal the joints in any way. I'm proposing cutting down the joints with a stihl saw and filling the resultant slot with some sort of effluent resistant joint sealer. What should I be looking at? There are some bits near the back of the pit where the joint crack has become a little "wide". Some short joint lengths have gapped to about 3 inches, might we need a different product for those? Would hot tar be any good poured in?

Are you just going to tell me to ring Quattro?

TIA.

 

[Bald Rick]

Hot tar

Or you could give these a bell for the price of a call

Repairing, Protecting & Sealing Silage Clamps & Silage Pits : Arcon Supplies

Concrete Repair Materials, Joint Sealants, Protective Coatings, Tanking and Waterproofing Materials for SIlage Clamps, Silage Pits and Silos

www.arconsupplies.co.uk

(I assume you’re not a tight arse like @DeeGee who asked for advice and then turned a cloth ear when I suggested he spend a little money.)

 

[Dragon]

I use sorting similar as pictured.
Been down 3 years not going anywhere.
Not a nice job to do, you will need something to heat it up with.

 

[shumungus]

Another vote for tar here, only thing worth a toot.

 

[DaveGrohl]

Thanks for the suggestions, not a total tight arse so all good. Has anyone used tar and used products like acorn supplies to form a knowledgable comparison? Is the tar durable to effluent attack for long?

 

[Bald Rick]

Thanks for the suggestions, not a total tight arse so all good. Has anyone used tar and used products like acorn supplies to form a knowledgable comparison? Is the tar durable to effluent attack for long?

Tar is best for floors or sealing floor to bottom panels as it’s difficult to use vertically.
Effluent acidity is a fact hence if it’s was me, I would use an acid resistant mastic designed for the job. Generally they are going to be much easier to use and apply than tar

 

[shumungus]

As @Bald Rick has said walls are a no no with tar. Floors on the other hand its the only thing we would use. Have silo's here 12 to 20 years old with tar in the floor joints and never had to be fixed yet. The poultry sheds were originally done with expensive mastic stuff when new but the scraping out and power washing every 7 weeks started to remove it after a bout three years. Re cut all the joints and done with tar 7 years ago and have been fine since.

 

[startinghandle]

the only concreting I have done is to put a length of girder into a good dollop of concrete then weld a post to it 3 feet away so my knowledge is limited... why are you getting 3 inch gaps at joints ?

 

[Jim75]

Silkaflex TS+, just had sepa on to us and that is what they recommend for acidic environments.

 

[DaveGrohl]

the only concreting I have done is to put a length of girder into a good dollop of concrete then weld a post to it 3 feet away so my knowledge is limited... why are you getting 3 inch gaps at joints ?

Effluent has found a route through the join and then started eroding it over time. The wide gaps aren't any length just odd bits like that. We were quite surprised once we got them properly cleaned.

We've done an emergency patching job yest using a slightly stony mortar mix with Quattro Q/Pol in it. We'll use tar next year on the bulk of the pit once we get it cleaned out, ran out of time to do anything else now.

 

[sjt01]

Cover the whole floor in hot rolled tarmac. We first did this 20 years ago, and have had zero deterioration. The 12 year old floors with the proper concrete had to be tarmaced 2 years ago. Not cheap but permanent.