JW> shrinking permafrost ...
 JW> As they slowly melt the mud jackers fill the void.

 DD> I assume they are using some form of plastic - which may cause
 DD> other problems down the road.

Yeah, in the old days they used a mud-like mixture of soil, lime-
stone and cement, and forced it through holes in the slab using
enough hydraulic pressure to raise and level the slab. Hence the
name mudjacking.

Today they use quickly expanding rigid foam. They shoot two
chemicals through the slab which quickly react with each other to
make a quick drying, very rigid foam that fills air holes, displaces
water and is strong enough to lift the slab (and the building on top
of the slab). They can even run it in narrow strips to lift a
foundation wall. It is more properly called slab jacking or foam
jacking. The foam is called polyurethane and it's a polymer. The
two starter chemicals are monomers called isocyanate and polyol.
Every jacking contractor has its own proprietory secret formula.

PU is pretty inert and remains buried so it isn't a future hazard.

Buildings sitting on really bad soil structures may need repeat
treatments every decade of so.
 
 JW> Loblaws also owns Shoppers Drug Mart now
 
 DD> They sure sound like the 800# gorilla, though.

They are. Our anti-combines people barely allowed the merger and
imposed all sorts of conditions.

 DD> by comparison shopping I've learned that Amazon is not always
 DD> the lowest price.

That's been my observation too. Roslind uses it for speciality
textbooks not otherwise available.

 JW> we also have a (non-practising) Mennonite BIL

 DD> in this area / Most are Lutherans ... but not all. There are Roman
 DD> Catholics, etc.

Ours are either Amish-like Mennonites or randy, whisky swilling heathens.
No middle ground.



Cheers

Jim


... Software gets slower more quickly than hardware gets faster.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5