Concrete Repair & Leveling in Joliet, IL

Concrete repair and leveling can bring a sunken or worn slab back for a fraction of what replacement costs, when the concrete itself is still sound. HomeGuide's leveling guide lists mudjacking at $4 to $9 a square foot and foam lifting (polyjacking) at $8 to $25, against $6 to $15 a square foot for full replacement. In Joliet, where freeze-thaw and road salt work on every outdoor slab, the trick is knowing which problems a repair will fix and which ones will come back.

Common problems we see

• Sunken panels: a driveway panel by the garage, a walk panel or a stoop that has dropped as soil underneath washed out or settled
• Trip edges: one panel higher than the next along a walk
• Scaling: thin flakes popping off the surface after a few winters of freeze-thaw and salt
• Cracks: hairline shrinkage cracks, or wider cracks that have opened or shifted
• Water toward the house: a patio or walk that now tilts back toward the foundation

Leveling: mudjacking and foam

Both methods drill small holes in the sunken slab and pump material underneath to lift it back into place. Mudjacking uses a cement-based slurry; polyjacking uses expanding foam, which is lighter and needs smaller holes. HomeGuide says leveled concrete generally lasts 5 to 10 years or more, with mudjacking at 5 to 7 years with good drainage. Most contractors charge a minimum of $300 to $700 for a leveling job, per HomeGuide. Leveling fixes the drop, but not the reason for it, so we also look at downspouts, gutters and grading.

Resurfacing

A thin cement-based overlay can cover light scaling and surface wear on a slab that is otherwise solid. HomeGuide lists resurfacing at $3 to $5 per square foot for a basic driveway and $3 to $7 for patios and walks, lasting about 8 to 15 years. It is not a fix for a slab that is still moving.

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When to replace instead

HomeGuide's resurfacing and leveling guides both point the same way: cracks wider than a quarter inch, crumbling, heavy spalling and structural problems usually mean replacement. So do slabs broken into many pieces, slabs that keep sinking after a lift, and surfaces where scaling has gone deep across most of the area. We will put the repair price and the replacement price side by side so you can decide.

Crack sealing

Flexible sealant in a crack keeps water and salt out, which slows freeze-thaw damage. HomeGuide lists crack filling at $0.50 to $3 per linear foot. Sealing is maintenance, not a structural repair, and it works best on cracks that have not shifted.

Panel replacement

Sometimes one or two panels of a driveway or walk are bad and the rest are fine. We saw-cut the damaged sections, remove them, prepare the base and pour new panels doweled into the old ones. In Joliet, replacing part of a driveway still falls under the city's driveway permit, which we file for you.