Concrete Leveling

At Tillotson, we know you need the concrete around your building to be functional and attractive.

In order to do that, you need concrete that drains water away from your property and safe walking surfaces with no tripping hazards. The problem is settling soil causes uneven concrete making water run back toward your building and creating trip hazards which makes you feel vulnerable to lawsuits. We believe property owners deserve concrete that is poured correctly the first time. more time should have been spent doing the job right from the beginning. We understand maintaining proper drainage, and concrete void of trip hazards is not your strong suit. We are a trusted name in concrete work and have been fixing concrete issues for 20 years.

1. Schedule your no obligation inspection.
2. We inspect the issue and give you a detailed proposal to meet your needs. And your budget.
3. Stop worrying about tripped hazards and standing water.

In the meantime, download our FREE PDF: “Ways You Can Stop Soil Settling and Protect Your Building from the Future”. Stop water’s continuing erosion from putting you at risk for higher, more costly repairs in the future and instead get the water draining properly and make those trip hazards go away so you don’t fear the next time mother nature sends moisture your way.

How Foam Jacking Works

First a hole is drilled, and a foam port is placed in the hole. A foam gun is connected to the port. A foam machine heats and pressurizes the foam where two chemicals then meet at a mixing chamber inside the foam gun. When the two chemicals meet, they make what is called foam. The type of foam controls the reaction speed, typically the foam starts to expand in 10-15 seconds. Foam is injected through the port under the concrete in usually small amounts by triggering the gun. Foam spreads out and expands and fills voids and crevices and compresses the soil until finally there is no place for the foam to go under the concrete. The upward force of the expanding foam raises the concrete. Actually, larger the slab the easier it is to raise the concrete slab back into the correct alignment.

Key Reasons to Raise Your Sunken Slab

SAFETY. Trip hazards can harm you or someone else. This can allow your property to be open to unwanted liability. Don’t wait until it’s TOO LATE!

COST. In some cases, nearly 1/2 or 2/3 the cost of replacement!

TIME. Polyurethane concrete lifting is ready to use immediately. Jobs are completed in hours, NOT days!

TROUBLE-FREE. No need to tear out old concrete with noisy machinery, no damage to the yard or surrounding areas. No need to worry about rain delaying the project.

BE GREEN. Save your current concrete from being torn out and deposited in a landfill. When a homeowner calls Tillotson will offer a free estimate for concrete leveling. Owners are often happily surprised they can have perfectly aligned concrete again, in a matter of minutes, saving them time and money.

LESS INVASIVE. No heavy equipment needs. No tore up lawn no need to reseed.

LESS MESS. Once we are gone, the only thing you can tell we were there would be a slight discoloration where we drilled the holes.

NO MORE SETTLING. Foam will resist erosion. The foam can’t erode but only the soil under the foam. As compared to mud jacking where the mud itself can erode.

In short: Foam jacking when compared to concrete replacement is inexpensive and is extremely faster

Key Benefits:

• New concrete will have to cure depending on the use from 1-7 days. Foam jacking is ready for use within hours.
• Foam jacking has fewer and smaller injection holes as compared to mud jacking
• Cost of foam jacking is less than new concrete
• Foam jacking won’t wash out when compared to mud jacking

Why Does Concrete Settle?

Poor Soil Conditions: Clay-rich soils are ‘elastic.’ They expand and contract with moisture content. As soils become saturated with water, the clay expands and loses strength. This condition allows slabs to sink just like standing in wet mud. This can occur from heavy rains, melting snow or plumbing leaks.

Poor Compaction: Many homes are built on backfilled soils. If the soil is not compacted correctly, backfill will slowly and unevenly compact, sometimes over a period of a year, allowing slabs to settle.

Tree Roots: Trees and large shrubs can consume up to 30 gallons of water a day. If located near concrete, the loss of water in the soil will make the soil shrink and can cause the slabs to settle.

Poor Drainage: Improper drainage or misplaced downspouts can cause soil instability by creating areas of saturated soils allowing the slabs to settle. Many homeowners make the mistake of waiting until the problem worsens or spend 2x as much on replacing the concrete. Until the problem is fixed your home remains at RISK.

Steps to Raising Concrete

Most concrete raising jobs will take between 1-2 hours – start to finish – and your concrete will be ready for use immediately upon completion!

Step 1
5/8 inch injection holes are strategically drilled around the areas where the concrete is sunken and requires lifting. This hole when compared to mud jacking hole is from 1-2 inch in diameter therefore significantly smaller.

Step 2
Once everything is prepped and the hose and materials are in place, the polyurethane foam is injected through the holes which fills the space underneath the concrete slab. First the foam fills the crevices and voids after these are filled the expanding foam starts to lift the concrete back to its original, correct level.

Step 3
Upon completion of leveling the concrete, the injection hole(s) are discreetly filled with new cement, allowing you to use your surface immediately.

Summary
Polyurethane Concrete Raising uses a foam material that is injected under the concrete slab. When the materials are mixed, a reaction causes the material to expand, which then fills any voids beneath the slab and raises the concrete. This material is permanent and will never lose density and will weigh only about 2 lbs. per cubic foot.

Uses of Foam Under Concrete

Relining Concrete
When soil settles for poor compaction or improper drainage it can make concrete out of aliment. By injection foam in the right spots concrete can be made to come back into alignment.

Void Filling
Concrete can have large voids under the slab. These voids occur from excessive settling or wash outs. This void can be filled by injecting foam under the concrete. Foam weighs on average 15-25 times less than mud jacking materials. Void filling is like raising concrete but uses a slower reacting foam which tends to spread out more and don’t expand quite as much.

Joint or Slab Stabilization
This is where the slabs lack support under where two slabs meet. If left this way one or both slabs can crack when a load exceeding the threshold amount is over the joint area. Unstable joints are corrected by injecting a void filling foam in the joint area to fill then space causing an unstable joint. This type of foam has an extremely long reaction time which allows the foam to spread out. Stabilization foam has minimal expansion properties so not to raise the concrete but allows the foam to do its job which is to stabilize the joint.

• Places that foam has been used: Sidewalks, steps, garage floors, front or back porches, basement floor, driveways, roads, bridges, swimming pools, runways for airplanes, factors floors, etc.