Safe at Home: Birmingham’s Regions Bank Ballpark Uses NCFI's TerraThane Geotechnical Foam on Renovation

MOUNT AIRY, NC—September 4, 2014 – Regions Field, home to the Birmingham Barons, an AA affiliate minor league team of the Chicago White Sox, needed a quick fix for a fast-track renovation project. The ballpark opened in 2013 and prior to the start of the 2014 season   they found they needed to run utilities for the dressing rooms in the mezzanine level of the park. It was a unique problem; they'd already poured the concrete slab and couldn't cut into it, so would have to run the utilities on top, but that meant they would have to insulate and cover them.

The original design called for laying sandwich concrete slabs and insulating between the slabs, but engineers nixed the plan as too heavy for the one foot-18-inch concrete foundation. The second attempt employed hand-­cutting 8-­10-inch thick sheets of Styrofoam and placing it between the sandwich slabs. Again, the sheets were weighty, and the process was taking too long.

"They needed a light weight fill," says Stan Black, president of Bulldog Construction, Madison, MS., a company that specializes in commercial and municipal repair projects, "Dirt was too heavy, as were other fill materials. We convinced the GC and engineers that TerraThane Geotechnical Polyurethane Foam Systems from US company, NCFI Polyurethanes, was the best solution."

Black says his company uses the geotechnical foam on many commercial projects where concrete slabs need lifting, or voids created by erosion beneath the foundation need filling. "TerraThane is an ideal lifting and insulating foam for something like Regions Field. We sprayed one foot-­15inches of foam around the utilities, and once it cured they concreted over the foam. TerraThane weighs only 150 lbs. per cu. yard, while dirt, or grout, weighs as least 4,000 lbs. per cu. yard. It works in-ground, or like this job, in conjunction with concrete."

Black says because TerraThane is simpler to spray from 50 gal drums, it took them only six days, and minimum clean up time. "We can be in and out in no time and with no mess, which makes life simpler for the contractor and the owner. "Bulldog and TerraThane made it possible to complete the project, make it work, and with no inconvenience to the ballpark or delay in the season."

ABOUT NCFI: Celebrating 50 years of foam. NCFI, headquartered in Mt. Airy, NC since 1964, manufactures polyurethane foam chemical systems for spray foam-­in-­place insulation (SPF), geotechnical, agricultural, roofing, marine floatation, packaging, specialty molding, and many other uses. The company also offers a complete line of flexible foams for furniture seating, transportation seating, bedding, carpet underlay, and packaging. NCFI also has manufacturing plants in Hickory, N.C., Dalton, GA., and Salt Lake City, UT. NCFI is a Barnhardt Manufacturing Company, Inc. company. To learn more about NCFI please use the contact information and links provided below.