Concrete Repair & Leveling in Taylor, MI

Concrete repair and leveling is often the smart first call for Taylor homeowners with a dropped walk, a tipped stoop or a driveway panel sitting low at the garage. Not every damaged slab needs to be torn out. Some just need lifting back into place, a sealed crack or a new top layer. Others are broken or undermined, and spending money on them only pushes the replacement back a year or two. We look at what caused the damage before recommending anything, and we put the repair and the replacement price side by side when both are real options.

What we look at

• Is the slab in one piece? A panel that sank but did not break can usually be raised. One that broke into chunks cannot.
• Is the surface sound? Shallow flaking on otherwise solid concrete can be resurfaced. Crumbling that goes deep cannot.
• How wide are the cracks? Hairline shrinkage cracks just need sealing. HomeGuide's resurfacing guide flags cracks over a quarter inch as a sign of deeper trouble.
• Where is the water going? If roof or driveway runoff is still soaking under the slab, any fix is temporary until that changes.

Wet clay is usually the culprit

Taylor sits in the low, flat Ecorse River watershed. Wikipedia's article on the river says its clay soils and heavy development limit how much rain soaks in, and its South Branch, along with several county drains, runs right through the city. Around a house, that means water from gutters and driveways tends to collect under slabs instead of draining away. Over years it softens the ground and washes out fine material, a hollow forms, and the concrete drops into it. Lifting the slab fills the hollow. Extending downspouts and fixing the grade is what keeps it filled.

Two ways to lift a slab

Both methods drill small holes through the sunken concrete and pump material underneath until it rises back to level. Mudjacking uses a cement-based grout, which is heavy and inexpensive. Polyjacking uses expanding polyurethane foam, which weighs far less and needs smaller holes. HomeGuide's leveling guide puts typical mudjacking at $4 to $9 a square foot and foam at $8 to $25, says leveled concrete generally lasts 5 to 10 years or more, and notes mudjacking usually lasts 5 to 7 years with good drainage. Steps, stoops, walk panels, patios and the driveway panel by the garage are the usual candidates.

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A new top on old concrete

When a driveway or patio is level and solid but its surface has flaked away from salt and freeze-thaw, a bonded resurfacer can give it a clean new face for less than replacement. The old surface has to be thoroughly cleaned and any loose material removed, or the new layer will peel. HomeGuide says resurfacing usually lasts 8 to 15 years before needing repairs, and advises replacing instead when there are large cracks, crumbling, spalling or structural problems, or when the repair layer would need to be more than two inches thick.

Swapping out a bad section

If only one or two panels of a driveway or walk are beyond help, we saw-cut them out at the joints, rebuild the base beneath them, and pour new panels pinned to the neighboring concrete with dowels so they stay level with it. Expect the new panels to look brighter for a season or two until they weather. Taylor's permits page lists concrete work among jobs needing a permit; the city waives its zoning review fee when existing concrete is removed and replaced, and we handle the permit either way.

When repair is not worth it

• Damage spread across most of the slab, not one area
• A base that was never built, or has washed away
• A slab that now drains toward the house
• Patches that keep failing every spring

Then we price a full replacement and tell you plainly why a repair would not last. After any repair, seal new cracks early, keep downspouts discharging well away from concrete and reseal surfaces every few years.