Abilene, Texas · Taylor County
A sidewalk panel that has dropped an inch, a driveway that tilts toward the garage, a patio that now drains toward the back door: in a lot of cases, the concrete itself is fine. The ground under it went somewhere. Abilene Concrete Builders lifts sunken slabs back into place with mudjacking or foam, then deals with the water that caused the drop, so you aren't calling us back in two years.
The USDA's description of Tobosa clay, one of Taylor County's main soils, says water enters the soil rapidly when it's dry and cracked and very slowly once it's moist. In practice, that means the first hard rain after a dry spell pours straight down the cracks along a slab edge, the clay swells, and later it shrinks back and leaves a void.
A broken sprinkler head or a downspout dumping beside a walk can wash fine soil out from under a slab one watering day at a time. Abilene's water conservation code already counts a broken sprinkler head or other controllable leak as waste of water that has to be fixed, so fixing it helps your concrete and keeps you on the right side of the City's rules.
NOAA's normals for Abilene Regional Airport put May and June as the wettest months, at 3.21 and 3.44 inches. If a slab drops, it's often after a wet spring.
Mudjacking pumps a cement-based slurry through holes drilled in the slab and into the void, raising the slab as it fills. It's heavy, which helps it stay put under driveways, and it's the lower-cost option. HomeGuide puts mudjacking at $4 to $9 per square foot nationally.
Foam lifting injects an expanding polyurethane through smaller holes. It's light, cures fast and adds little weight to soft ground. HomeGuide lists foam leveling at $8 to $25 per square foot nationally, and either method often comes with a $300 to $700 minimum charge.
In our opinion, foam earns its price on slabs over soft or wet soil, or where you need to drive on it soon. Mudjacking makes sense on a big, sound slab with good access. We'll tell you which we'd use and why.
Leveling works on a slab that's still in one piece. If a section is broken through, heaved up instead of sunk, or crumbling, lifting it just raises broken concrete. That's a replacement job, covered on our concrete repair and replacement page. Sidewalk panels along the street are the property owner's responsibility under City rules, and our sidewalks and walkways page covers that work.
We fill the injection holes, then seal the joints and the crack at the edge of the slab with flexible sealant, because an open joint is how the next void starts. If a downspout or sprinkler is the cause, we'll show you where it's draining so you or your irrigation tech can redirect it.
Send a photo of the sunken area with something for scale and tell us how far it has dropped. Call (325) 728-4111 anytime, or use the quote form and choose "Concrete Leveling."
Prefer to talk? Call (325) 728-4111 anytime.
See every service we offer at Abilene Concrete Builders.
