Concrete Protection In A Storage Building

[kieran1]

Can anyone recommend any special precautions to be taken for the concrete floor and walls in a storage building. The main storage material will be Nitrate based fertilizers. I intend to use horizontally spanning precast concrete wall panels between steel columns for the retention of the fertilizer up to a retained height of 6.0m.
The floor slab is to be in-situ concrete slab on grade.
Are any special additives etc required in the concrete

Kieran

 

[kieran1]

any takers???????????

Kieran

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Ok...I'll take a shot at this one. Consider either a specialty coating, maybe a 2-part epoxy, and/or a concrete additive. We have used Sika products for many years in industrial settings (electric generating stations) to successfully protect concrete from chemical attack. The chemical attack here is from sulphur-based compounds but the chemistry for nitrogen-based compounds is probably similar.
Take a look at

http://www.sikaconstruction.com

You may want to contact Sika to discuss your situation & get a specific product recommendation, I have found their technical staff to be both knowledgeable & helpful.

 

[kieran1]

thanks SlideRuleEra will check it out

Kieran

 

[jheidt2543]

A couple of additional thoughts:

1. Contact Master Builders, Sonoborn and W. R. Meadows, they all make a variety of concrete coatings for various enviorments.

2. A few years ago I was involved in the construction of a chemical storage facility. The majority of the products were fertilizers. In that instance, the only floor coating was a cure & seal coating to keep down the dust. However, the materials stored were all in some type of manufacturer's packaging: barrels, bags etc., no chemicals were stored directly in contact with the concrete. It sounds like your in a situation where the fertilizer will be stored in bulk, on the concrete floor.

 

[witchdoc]

This response may be a little too late. We have found that an additive called Correchem improves concretes resistance to nitrate attack. It is marketed in the US by Norchem (

http://www.norchem.com).

If you want additional information, just ask.