Foam Concrete Leveling: The Best Slab Lifting Option

Concrete is one of the most common building materials on the planet. It is strong. It is versatile. It is also very heavy. When that heavy concrete is placed on soil that is not properly compacted or is suffering from erosion, it will start to sink and settle. And when your concrete starts to sink, polyurethane foam concrete leveling is your best option.

What is Foam Concrete Leveling?

Concrete leveling is basically the process of injecting a substance beneath a portion of a settling portion of a concrete slab to lift it back into alignment with the rest of the slab or with the slabs around it.

The standard used to be mudjacking, but, with advances in technology, that has shifted to polyurethane foam lifting, also sometimes called polyjacking. In this method, an expanding polyurethane foam is injected through a small hole in the slab, filling any voids in the soil and lifting the portion of the slab back to level.

Why You Might Need Concrete Leveling

The problem with concrete settling isn’t necessarily the settling itself. If an entire concrete slab were to uniformly settle a small amount, it might not even cause any issues.

Unfortunately, when weak or eroded soil is the problem, it is rarely similarly weak or eroded over a large area. That means the settlement is uneven rather than uniform. And uneven settlement stresses concrete, causing cracks.

Because the cracks separate portions of the slab that are settling at different rates, the two sides of the crack aren’t going to be level with each other. And where there is an elevation change in cracked concrete, there is a tripping hazard.

The more the concrete settles unevenly, the more cracks will form. Eventually you might get to the point where the concrete is even too damaged to be leveled and the entire slab must be replaced.

That is why foam concrete leveling is important. It can improve the look of your slab and eliminate tripping hazards while also prolonging the life of your concrete. And that can save you money in the long run.

How Does Polyurethane Foam Concrete Leveling Work?

Given that the problems are caused by the weight of the concrete causing it to sink into the weak soil below, it makes sense that the solution must also come from below the ground.

When the foam is injected under the concrete, it expands, hydraulically lifting the slab while also expanding outward to fill voids and gaps in the soil. This serves a similar function as compaction, except from under the ground.

The foam injection process also allows us to lift your slab with a high degree of precision.

How Long Does Polyurethane Foam Leveling Last?

While some other concrete leveling techniques have a tendency to erode or break down over time, that is not true of polyurethane foam.

The foam is chemically structured to not break down in the presence of water or chemicals within the soil.

When done correctly, foam concrete leveling is not just some temporary fix.

Read more about this topic.

Our Concrete Leveling Process

While there might be slight variations based on the size of the slab or whether it is indoor or outdoor, there is a basic set of steps that fits any polyurethane foam concrete leveling job we do.

1. We inspect the site to determine the optimum places to inject the foam. We do not guess.

2. We drill a small hole at each injection site. These holes will later be filled and are much smaller than those used for other lifting methods such as mudjacking.

3. We inject the foam beneath the concrete, monitoring every step of the way to give your concrete slab a precise lift to both raise the slab section enough to make it level and avoid over-correcting.

4. Any excess foam is cleaned and the holes are refilled.

Using the Right Foam is Key

Not all polyurethane foams are equally effective.

We use Precision Lift foam from a company called Prime Resins, an industry leader in manufacturing structural repair, leak sealing, coating/lining, slab lifting, and soil stabilization products.

Precision Lift does more than just lift the slab. It contains special technology that controls soil erosion, while stabilizing the surrounding soil and having the highest strength void filling.

Precision Lift is the top choice for slab-lifting foam.

Contact Us For a Slab Lifting Estimate

If you are in need of foam concrete leveling, contact us today for information or to schedule a free, no obligation analysis.