Concrete Repair & Leveling in Omaha, NE

Concrete repair and leveling can save a driveway, walk or patio that is still in one piece but has sunk, tipped or started to wear. Not every slab can be saved, and patching the wrong problem just wastes money. The first job is figuring out what went wrong. In Omaha, the usual causes are water getting under the slab, soil that settled after the house was built, the freeze-thaw cycle and salt. Repair that ignores the cause tends to fail again within a few winters.

Leveling: mudjacking and foam

When a slab is solid but has dropped, it can often be raised back into place. Small holes are drilled through the concrete and material is pumped underneath until the slab lifts.

• Mudjacking pumps a cement-based slurry under the slab. HomeGuide lists it at $4 to $9 a square foot, with results lasting about 5 to 7 years.
• Foam lifting (polyjacking) uses expanding polyurethane foam. It is lighter, uses smaller holes and cures quickly. HomeGuide lists it at $8 to $25 a square foot.

Leveling works best on sidewalk panels that have created a trip edge, a driveway panel that tips toward the garage, a patio sloping toward the house, or a stoop that has dropped. It is not the answer when a slab is broken into many pieces.

Resurfacing

Resurfacing puts a thin layer of polymer-modified material over a solid slab whose surface has worn, pitted or flaked. HomeGuide's resurfacing guide lists basic driveway resurfacing at $3 to $5 a square foot and patios or walkways at $3 to $7, with results lasting about 8 to 15 years. It only works on concrete that is still sound underneath. HomeGuide notes that cracks wider than about a quarter inch can point to deeper problems, and that large cracks, crumbling or spalling mean replacement is usually the better choice.

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Crack filling and joint sealing

Cracks let water into the base, and in winter that water freezes and pushes the crack wider. Filling hairline and small cracks with a flexible sealant slows that down. HomeGuide puts crack filling at $0.50 to $3 per linear foot. We also reseal joints between the driveway and garage floor, and between a patio and the house, where open gaps send water toward the foundation.

When replacement is the right call

• The slab is broken into several pieces that move independently
• Scaling or spalling covers most of the surface
• The slab has sunk so far that lifting would crack it
• Tree roots are still pushing it up
• The concrete was poured too thin for what sits on it

In those cases we will tell you so and quote replacement, with the repair price alongside if one is possible, so you can compare.

City-flagged sidewalks

If the City of Omaha has sent you a letter about a raised or sunken public sidewalk panel, lifting may be a faster and cheaper fix than replacing it, as long as the panel is in one piece. KMTV reported that the city considers sidewalks in need of repair when any part is cracked, raised or sunken, so a lifted panel that still has a large crack may not satisfy the letter. We look at each flagged panel and tell you which fix fits.

Keeping a repair working

Send downspouts away from the slab, fill cracks as they appear, reseal every few years and avoid ammonium-based de-icers. Most settling comes back because water keeps getting under the concrete, so fixing the drainage is part of fixing the slab.