Sinking & Settling Concrete Floor Slab Repair Near Lexington, Richmond, Georgetown

Causes & Repair Solutions For Cracked, Sinking Concrete Floors

The Problem:

Is your concrete slab floor showing signs of sinking, sagging, or settling?  Or are your floors cracking or the walls separating from the floor above or the ceiling below?  Here are some signs to look out for:

Telltale Signs:

• Interior wall cracks, commonly off the corners of interior doors.
• Walls pulling away from adjacent walls
• Floors dropping and separating from the walls, forming a gap between the floor and wall.
• Cracks in the concrete floor
• Interior walls separating from the ceiling, forming a gap between the wall and ceiling.

How to Fix It:

The installation of a slab pier system underneath your concrete slab floor may just be the solution!  These specially designed piers extend down to strong supporting soils to ensure long-term support.

What Causes A Concrete Floor Slab To Settle?

Concrete floor settlement is often accompanied by other foundation problems in your home as well.  If this is the case, it could mean serious damage to your home.  When the soils underneath your home cannot support the weight of the concrete, this often causes floor slab settlement. 

The three most common causes of settling concrete floor slabs are as follows:

(Click for more information.)

If you would like a free foundation slab stabilization quote to address concrete slab floor settlement issues, call or e-mail us today!  We have fast, effective solutions for any problem.

Installing The Supportworks Slab Pier System

Supportworks Slab Pier System stabilizes the concrete floor slab in your home.  This system provides the best opportunity to relevel the floor and lift non-load bearing partition walls that may have settled along with the slab. To install our system, our contractor will take these six steps:

What NOT To Do

As with most home repairs, some work all of the time, some work some of the time, and some don't work at all. Here are three "fixes" that we at The Basement Doctor of Central Kentucky do NOT recommend:

Concrete Slab Replacement:

To completely replace a concrete slab is disruptive, time-consuming, and expensive.  All home furnishings, floor coverings, and interior walls within the building must be removed.  Once this is complete, a crew jackhammers the existing floor into small pieces and removes them by hand.

To replace the removed floor, a new one is poured.  It could take at least two weeks for the slab to cure sufficiently, so the homeowner should allow enough time for this.

This process uses up many resources and often does not even solve the real problem.  Without addressing the solid problems that originally lead to the cracks in your concrete floor, your new floor may "break" over time too!

Mudjacking:

Mudjacking is not a permanent solution.  It strives to fill the void under your floor to stabilize any damage by drilling a series of holes through your concrete floor and then pumping high-pressure grout beneath the slab.

This process may fill the current voids, but the soil below will continue to settle.  Additionally, it's likely that the grout alone will not be able to lift heavy partition walls that sit on top of the slab floor upwards to their original, level position.  Even if the mudjacking does lift the slab, the slab might not lift evenly.

Along with these conditions, the process of injecting this grout underneath the slab is quite messy.  In many cases, it will spew out of other holes and cracks within the slab.

Be cautious when choosing mudjacking- you may be calling your contractor all too soon to mudjack again... and again, and again, and again.

Releveling Grout On Top Of The Slab:

All floor coverings must be removed that were on the slab to begin this process.  After that, the floor is prepared so that the grout will be able to bond with the slab surface.

Once the floor is ready, a self-leveling grout is poured along the slab surface.  This grout will fill in the low portion of the floor to create a level surface.  This releveling must be allowed to cure for several days before the floor covering can be replaced. 

Even after the process is complete there are still cases in which the grout may not bond well to the concrete surface of the original floor slab.  If this is the case, it may lead to large chunks of the new floor breaking off over time.

Additionally, the grout will add weight to the slab, potentially making the situation worse by causing further settlement.

And, just like with the last two options, the real problem of soil settlement is not addressed!

Looking For Foundation Slab Repair Contractors In KY?

At The Basement Doctor of Central Kentucky, we provide proven solutions for concrete slab floor leveling -- as well as other foundation repair solutions -- to homeowners throughout Kentucky. We provide each of our customers with a free, no obligation slab repair quote, in writing, before any work is done. To schedule your appointment, call or e-mail us today!

Our service area includes Lexington, Richmond, Georgetown, and nearby areas such as Frankfort, Nicholasville, Shelbyville, Danville, Middlesboro, Somerset, Berea.

Looking for a price? Get a no cost, no obligation free estimate.