Concrete Leveling for Your Driveway
Concrete driveways are heavy and so are the cars that park and drive on top of them. If the soil beneath it isn’t properly compacted or has been weakened by erosion or other problems, chances are it will begin to sink and settle. When this happens, it is time to contact a driveway leveling contractor before the resulting cracks become too large to repair.
Childers Brothers offers polyurethane foam concrete leveling solutions in Northwest Texas, serving cities such as Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, Midland and Odessa. We also serve portions of Eastern New Mexico, including Roswell, Hobbs and Clovis.
Why a Sinking Driveway is a Problem
When concrete sinks, especially unevenly, it places the slab under stress. These forces lead to cracks, and those cracks, if left unchecked will grow and weaken the entire slab.
What’s more, you are likely creating several different types of unnecessary hazards.
- The Cracks Themselves: Concrete cracks, unless they have been fixed, tend not to be smooth and level. When a sinking slab is at fault, there will almost certainly be an elevation change on either side of the crack, leading to a trip and fall hazard. They aren’t great on your car and tires either, constantly driving over damaged concrete.
- The Top and Bottom of the Driveway: If your driveway is sinking, there is a good chance that the driveway is no longer level with the garage slab or possibly the sidewalk or road as well. If it settles a significant amount, these can cause some of the same tripping hazards and tire wear issues as the cracks.
- Drainage: Your driveway is designed to drain water off of it and, hopefully, not toward your home’s foundation. If the driveway sinks and cracks, the grading might change. Cracked sections could end up creating pools of water. Most of the year, this is merely annoying, but if it happens during winter, those pools could become ice, both potentially creating slipping hazards and further damaging the slab.
How to Level a Driveway
Assuming that the problem is the driveway slab is sinking, you have three main options.
- Replace the Driveway: This is the only method that will completely eliminate the cracks by itself. It is also the most extreme and the most expensive. It also comes with a big caveat. If you don’t fix the underlying soil or drainage issues that caused the slab to sink in the first place, you will soon end up right back where you started from.
- Mudjacking: This used to be the go-to method for concrete raising. There is a reason, however, why it is being replaced by a different kind of concrete leveling. It isn’t as precise, the cement slurry adds weight and can be difficult to control on steeper grades, and it requires larger holes. Read more about mudjacking vs. polyjacking.
- Foam Concrete Lifting: Polyurethane foam concrete leveling, also called polyjacking, is the method that has begun to supplant mudjacking. In the hands of a trained installer, it is precise, it only requires drilling coin-sized holes, and the expanding foam does not break down under the ground, making it a more long-lasting solution than mudjacking.
What if the Driveway Isn’t Sinking?
Here is the caveat, and why it is good to hire a concrete leveling contractor who has more than one solution. Sometimes, especially in areas with active clay soils like the Texas Panhandle, the driveway might no longer be level not because it is sinking but rather because of soil upheaval.
In this case, soil stabilization might be necessary rather than concrete raising. Childers Brothers offers a scientifically proven soil stabilization method that severely limits soil’s shrink-swell cycles, stopping upheaval problems in their tracks.
Read more about our soil stabilization methods.
How We Level Driveways With Foam
First we inspect the site to determine the correct places to inject the foam under the driveway. We do not guess or assume.
Next, we drill a small, coin-sized hole at each injection site. These holes will later be filled after the injection process is complete. The small size is a big benefit to both how the slab looks after the lifting is complete and to its utility in certain cracked areas.
After the holes have been drilled, we inject the expanding polyurethane foam beneath the concrete, monitoring closely so the driveway is leveled rather than over-lifted.
Finally any excess foam is removed, the holes are refilled and the site is cleaned. The foam is ready within minutes, so you don’t have to wait a day or two to use your driveway.
Contact Childers Brothers for Driveway Lifting Services
Whether your driveway is suffering from settlement or upheaval, Childers Brothers has the scientifically-proven tools and expertise to level it, saving you from the far greater cost of replacing the entire driveway. Contact us today for more information on our concrete leveling services.