When spring arrives, you can finally notice how devastating the winter was to the concrete around your home. There could be damage to your sidewalks, driveway, concrete stairs, pool area concrete, and many more areas. If you don’t repair these damages, they can become more dangerous, resulting in more expensive repairs (or replacement). Anyone can face accidents as a result of the uneven concrete, and the curb appeal (and resale value) will be reduced significantly. In this article, we’ll talk all about lifting and leveling your sidewalk before spring comes.
Why Should You Lift and Level Your Sidewalk?
There are many reasons for why you need to lift and level your sidewalk before spring arrives. The main reasons include:
Accessibility and Safety
The most important reason you need to lift and level the sidewalk before spring hits that once the warmer weather hits, more people are out and about utilizing the sidewalks and walkways. If left uneven and unsteady, people can trip and fall, causing additional liability for the homeowner.
Cost Saving
If you don’t address the sidewalk problems in the early stages, they’ll become more damaged, and the surroundings can deteriorate. It’ll eventually become more expensive as you’ll need to do extensive repairs or even replace the sidewalk.
Legal Standing
In some states, there are rules and regulations on maintaining the sidewalk near your property. If you don’t tend the sidewalks and any problem happens or the legal entity notices, you can face litigation. It’s less expensive to repair your sidewalk than to pay for insurance and medical bills for an accident on your property.
Property Value
If you want to increase the property value, a proper sidewalk is necessary. If people notice a hazardous sidewalk, they’ll decide not to choose your house even before entering it. Spring is a popular time for buying and selling homes, so repairing the sidewalk will bring higher resale value.
Water Drainage
Uneven sidewalks will make the water drainage more complicated and dangerous, specifically in spring rains. You’ll see water pools near the sinking slabs and in the surroundings. This will lead to soil erosion on your property, and your foundation can face dangerous aftereffects from it.
Appearance
Aesthetic appearance is also important for your property, but it’s not the top priority factor. But to increase the overall look of your property, you can’t avoid repairing the sidewalks. And in spring, when nature blooms, your sidewalk needs to be matched and repaired.
Steps to Lift and Level the Sidewalk
The steps for how you should lift and level your sidewalk properly are:
Inspection
Before starting anything, you need to evaluate the whole situation regarding the sidewalk and inspect the surroundings. Pinpoint the exact underlying reasons for why the slabs became unleveled to solve the problem precisely, within a short time, with less cost, and more efficiently. If you’re in the Kansas City area, reach out to the experts at PolyMagic for a free estimate.
Choose Method
The second step to lifting your sidewalk is to decide which methods are suitable for the process and which is the most efficient one. There are several methods on how you can lift and level the sidewalk. The most popular methods are:
Mudjacking
Mudjacking is a cost-effective concrete sidewalk lifting method where cement slurry is injected through holes to fill the voids and lift the slabs. This is less effective and much messier than polyjacking.
Polyurethane Foam
Polyurethane foam injection, polyjacking, is also a method where you need to fill the voids underground using lightweight foam made with polyurethane. It’s a quick solution and more effective than mudjacking.
Foam Lifting
Foam lifting is also similar to polyurethane injection, as you’ll need to inject expandable foam that solidifies within a short time. But here, other materials other than polyurethane are used.
Hydraulic Jacking
Sidewalks with smaller slabs can be lifted by a hydraulic jack. This method is usually used when you need to lift the whole slab with exact precision.
Push Piers
Push piers or helical piers are also used underground to lift and level concrete slabs. However, this method is only used when there will be so many heavy loads on the sidewalk or the soil beneath it is so unstable that a driven pier is the only strong solution.
Drill Openings
For all types of methods, you’ll need to make openings on the slabs or near them. For injecting materials, only small holes are needed, and you can drill them anytime. For push piers and hydraulic jacks, you’ll need to create big enough openings for all the equipment.
Inject or Push Materials
Once the openings are all set, you need to inject slurry or foam in some cases or drive the pier or jack in other ways. For the liquid materials, you’ll need to inject enough to fill the voids, and for the solid objects, you’ll need enough to stabilize the soil and slab.
Lift Slabs
Sidewalk slabs will be lifted once the liquid materials expands, and solidify, or the pier and jack are stabilized in their respective positions. When you see the slabs are even with the existing intact sidewalk, stop pouring materials or stabilizing the components.
Patching Gaps
When you’re satisfied with the leveling of the sidewalk, you need to patch and seal all the openings on the sidewalking slabs. You can use a concrete mixture to blend the holes for aesthetic purposes.
Curing
For mudjacking, foam injecting, and pier lifting processes, you need to let the sidewalk cure for the time being before it’s open to use again. If you apply loads before everything is settled properly, the balance will be damaged, and the slabs will start sinking again.
Evaluating Work
After all the work is done, you need to do a final evaluation and inspection before using it normally. In this step, if you see the process isn’t conducted properly or has safety, leveling, or stability issues, you can call the contractor and make them do the final touch to meet the standards.
Maintenance
Although you don’t need regular maintenance for the sidewalks, make sure to inspect from time to time for any negative signs to take action before any problem happens.
Lifting and leveling the concrete is definitely not a DIY job. So, hire an experienced professional that can complete the project within a short time, at a lower cost, and in the best method so that the finished work is of high-quality and doesn’t need leveling for years. Call the Kansas City experts today! 816-765-4800