Load Bearing Foam? 1

[SteelPE]

I have a project were the client is asking me to reinforce some severely corroded beams. The beams are located in the basement of an old building and support a sidewalk, brick facade and a small section of floor. Water is believed to have infiltrated the building through the sidewalk and the brick facade. The water issue has been significantly reduced since the client added an awning over the front of the building 10+ years ago.

Please see the attached sketch of the existing construction.

I am only being asked to shore up the existing beams at this time; however I believe I may be asked to take responsibility for the entire sidewalk by the time I am done. I may even recommend shoring up the area under the sidewalk as well since the existing plates are severely corroded in some areas.

My concern revolves around the gap between the sidewalk and the steel plates. We know about this gap because of some of the corrosion in the steel plates which allowed us to see the gap. We believe the plate was added sometime after construction (we are not quite sure how they got them into place).

I am interested in filling the gap between the plate and the sidewalk. I seem to remember a company that has a structural spray foam product but can’t seem to find them online. Has anyone had any experience with using a foam product in this instance? If so, what manufacturer was used?

 

[JAE]

Are you sure the facade wall doesn't align with the beam below? Usually they do.

Here's a link to a foam injection system in our area:

https://www.gothrasher.com/concrete-lifting/polylevel-injection.html

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[SteelPE]

Jae, we are pretty sure. The construction is very old and there are some embedded glass blocks in the sidewalk. We were able to located some blocks that we could see above and below to ascertain the position of the beam.

Also, the brick wall was added at a later date. I believe there are actually 2 brick walls we are supporting. The sidewalk/basement framing is a bit of a mess.