Compared with traditional grouting materials, leak-proof and high-strength grouting material has two characteristics of leak-proof and high-strength, but the setting speed is too fast, which seriously affects the construction quality. In order to solve the problems of too fast setting speed and bleeding, the effects of hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) and borax on the setting temperature, setting time, water retention rate and flexural strength and compressive strength of leak-proof and high-strength grouting material were studied. The results show that when the HPMC content is between 0.20%～0.30% (the following content are all mass fraction), increasing of the borax content will increase the maximum setting temperature and shorten the constant temperature period time.The addition of HPMC not only improves the water retention rate of the slurry, but also has a certain retarding effect on the grouting material, and the retarding effect of the grouting material is enhanced when it is used together with borax. With the increase of the borax content, the flexural strength and compressive strength of the grouting concretion body increase first and then decrease. HPMC weakens the influence of borax on strength of the grouting concretion body. However, with the increase of HPMC content, the strength of grouting concretion body gradually decreases. When borax content is 0.07% and HPMC content is 0.25%, the leak-proof and high-strength grouting material obtains better working performance under the condition of ensuring good mechanical properties. At the same time, the initial setting time reaches more than 1 h, and the 3 d strength reaches 36.58 MPa. It is found that increasing of HPMC content leads to the transformation of vanadite (AFt) crystal from columnar to acicular, and the flaky mono-sulfur calcium sulphoaluminate hydrate (AFm) gradually decreases, making the structure loose. When borax content is 0.07% and HPMC content is 0.25%, AFt crystal is columnar and evenly distributed, which makes more overlapping points between them, and the structure more compact.