SQF 11.2.3 Wall Construction

Has anyone had to deal with pockmarked concrete in their facility, such as the attached picture? The holes do not go more than 1/3 inch into the wall, and were caused by improperly settled concrete that was just painted over.

I totally agree that this does not meet the requirement for 11.2.3, but I'm looking for suggestions on how to fix for our facility correctly. So far, we've come up with several maintenance fixes:

1. Caulk each individual divot
- Would fill each hole, but look pretty bad. Caulk may crack or crumble out, and wall would potentially still not be smooth (but would at least be mounded, instead of divots?)
2. Plaster over the portions of wall
- If (and when) a hi-lo hits the wall patches, they will crumble and be a bigger food safety risk. 
3. Cover all affected areas with sheet metal
- Seems to meet requirement the best, but will be most costly and time consuming, and may provide challenges to cleaning in a couple areas of the building, but we haven't totally flushed this idea out yet.

Would option 1 of caulking each individual hole still meet the requirements for smooth surfaces?

Is anyone familiar with adding additional cleaning detail or tasks to their MSS list to account for structural issues like this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

I wouldn't use caulk.  I would use something that closely matched the concrete such as concrete patch material or even tile grout.  Anything you use to fill the holes will likely need to be painted over like the wall.

For the most long term fix the wall will need to be roughed up, and even some holes enlarged to allow the filler material to bond well, then a final painting over with something that holds up to your water, and/or chemical cleaning if needed.  You will of course need to monitor it over time to see how well it holds up and if anything is flaking or peeling off.

Good luck, that's not a fun boat to be in.  It's too bad the company didn't hold the original contractor liable and make them fix their work at the time.

Sand down, followed by glazing and seal.

I was the resident "expert" for flooring and wall issues with a large club type store chain and then same application for a hotel chain  - your wall issue could have been caused by a number of issue including the one mentioned (settling) - looks a lot more like improper balance of ingredients in the final makeup of the material, too much water and or a high level of calcium (salt) in the mix.

It was fun to discover the reason why so many facades to hotels were bleeding white powder -- a large concrete company mixed beach sand in directly without washing - apparently it is a lot cheaper to go to the beach at night and get a couple hundred truckloads of sand than it is to get pre-washed.

Has anyone had to deal with pockmarked concrete in their facility, such as the attached picture? The holes do not go more than 1/3 inch into the wall, and were caused by improperly settled concrete that was just painted over.

 

I totally agree that this does not meet the requirement for 11.2.3, but I'm looking for suggestions on how to fix for our facility correctly. So far, we've come up with several maintenance fixes:

 

1. Caulk each individual divot
- Would fill each hole, but look pretty bad. Caulk may crack or crumble out, and wall would potentially still not be smooth (but would at least be mounded, instead of divots?)
2. Plaster over the portions of wall
- If (and when) a hi-lo hits the wall patches, they will crumble and be a bigger food safety risk. 
3. Cover all affected areas with sheet metal
- Seems to meet requirement the best, but will be most costly and time consuming, and may provide challenges to cleaning in a couple areas of the building, but we haven't totally flushed this idea out yet.

 

Would option 1 of caulking each individual hole still meet the requirements for smooth surfaces?

 

Is anyone familiar with adding additional cleaning detail or tasks to their MSS list to account for structural issues like this?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Hi Hustoski,

Don't know about costs in US but for a dissimilar although analogous problem, we used No.3 via thin SS sheeting. Not so expensive or particularly time consuming. One advantage is result is relatively easy to clean and although visually inelegant has a sanitarily acceptable appearance..

You could attach glasbord panels or PVC panels to the concrete.  If installed correctly they make a great hygienic alternative to stainless steel and look good: 

https://cranecomposi...rp-wall-panels/  is an example of glasbord and https://www.altrofloors.com/AltroWhiterock is PVC.

Thanks everyone,

This building has been a pain since we originally remodeled and moved in several years ago. Surprisingly, the holes in the concrete have not been the worst of our problems, haha.

I think the stainless option may be our best option, as filling the holes with any substrate will take a longer time due to the amount of walls with it.

Is it acceptable to just specifically call out these areas on our MSS lists while we work on sealing them off? 

I think the suggestion with the PVC panels is better than stainless.  Yes on the MSS.

 

Thanks everyone,

 

This building has been a pain since we originally remodeled and moved in several years ago. Surprisingly, the holes in the concrete have not been the worst of our problems, haha.

 

I think the stainless option may be our best option, as filling the holes with any substrate will take a longer time due to the amount of walls with it.

 

Is it acceptable to just specifically call out these areas on our MSS lists while we work on sealing them off?