Reasons Not To DIY Slab Lifting Foam

Sunken concrete is not just an unappealing sight. It can also be a safety hazard to your home. If your concrete porch steps are uneven, you might fall, hurting yourself. Guests might trip over uneven pavement on your walkway. It can also have a negative impact on your curb appeal. If your concrete has begun to sink, it’s best to fix it as soon as possible. In a previous blog, we discussed What To Do With Sunken Concrete, and why slab lifting foam injections are the smartest option available. Slab lifting foam is minimally invasive, environmentally friendly, and long lasting. Many homeowners make the mistake of assuming that because they know to use slab lifting foam injections, they can simply perform the project themselves. There’s a common misconception that DIY projects will always save you money. While it might be true that you won’t have to pay for professional labor, there are many other ways that DIY projects will cost you money in the long run.

Do DIY Slab Lifting Foam Injections Really Save You Money?

DIY projects might save you money, if all goes according to plan. If you’re able to perform the installation perfectly, if you don’t have any issues with the equipment or material, and if you’re able to take paid time off work in order to perform the job, you might save money. However, rarely in life does everything go according to plan. If your DIY project is poorly finished, you could be paying for repairs or paying to do it all over again. A poor concrete lifting job could mean a lawsuit if someone trips on your concrete and hurts themselves. It’s for this reason that when Bob Vila lists 10 projects that shouldn’t be performed DIY, concrete slab leveling is the second project on the list.(1) There’s also insurance to consider. Professionals are, well, professionals and therefore less likely to make the kind of mistakes on the job that amateurs make. But many professionals are also insured so that if anything does go wrong on the job, the homeowner isn’t held liable. If you perform the project DIY, you won’t have the same safety net, and you may have to pay for any mistakes you make on the job.

Reasons Not to DIY Slab Lifting Foam

We’ve established that a DIY project might not always save money in the way you would think. Still think a DIY slab lifting foam injection might be for you? Think again. Here are a few reasons to avoid going it alone when it comes to concrete lifting.

You Need The Right Tools

To perform slab lifting foam injections, you don’t just need the foam. The foam has to be injected through the concrete slab so that it can fill the uneven space below and level it. This requires an injection tool that is strong enough to break through concrete, but small enough to be as unobtrusive as possible. The right tools can make the difference between a finished, professional look and butchered concrete that leaves you in worse shape than before.

You Need The Right Expertise

Okay, maybe you’re not a concrete lifting expert, but you’re pretty handy and there are plenty of tutorials on the internet. It should be fine, right? Not so much. In order to do a job as precise and critical as slab lifting foam injections, you need to really be an expert in the area. You need to have the right tools, but you also need to know how to use those tools. How much foam is needed to level the concrete slab? Where is the best place to inject the concrete? If you use too much, how do you correct the mistake? You may not be able to find answers to your exact questions from a YouTube video, but your leveling contractor will have them.

You Need a Smooth Finish

Slab lifting foam injections, when they’re done correctly, are the least intrusive method of concrete lifting possible. It involves small, precise injections as opposed to the multiple drills that come with mudjacking. However, you still want to smooth over the injection site when the job is finished, and you want that concrete finishing to look smooth by the end. A professional will not only perform the slab lifting foam injection but will cover the injection site with new concrete that blends in with the concrete slab you already have.

You Can’t Guarantee Success With DIY

The truth is, even if the concrete lifting job looks finished to you, you may not be able to be certain that it is. As stated above, slab lifting foam injection is a precise job. The last thing you want is to find out weeks or months later is that it wasn’t injected properly and that your concrete has begun to sink again. Before you have to do the job twice, consider bringing in an expert. A concrete lifting professional will be able to know whether the job is truly finished and finished successfully. Fortunately, when you need a concrete lifting professional, you have a trustworthy expert available to you. Childers Brothers Leveling has been in business for nearly 50 years, and we use the best products and equipment for all of our projects, including slab lifting foam injections. We prove the difference it makes to have professional contractors on your side, and we even offer financing plans so that your professional slab lifting foam injections can fit within your budget. Want to get started with your slab lifting foam project? Contact Childers Brothers Leveling today for more information or a free estimate to get started. References: