Concrete Repair & Replacement in Bloomington, IN

Concrete Repair & Replacement comes down to one question first: is the slab still sound? A slab that has dropped but stayed in one piece can often be raised. Narrow cracks can be sealed. A slab broken into many pieces, scaling across its surface or sitting on a washed-out base will keep failing no matter how often it is patched. We inspect the slab and what is beneath it, then give you a direct answer and a written price for each option that makes sense.

Why concrete fails in Bloomington

Three things wear out most local slabs. First, freeze-thaw. Bloomington's January daily mean is below freezing and the city gets nearly 50 inches of precipitation a year, so slabs freeze wet over and over. Older concrete poured without air entrainment scales and spalls. Second, salt, which speeds up that damage. Third, the ground. Bloomington is built on karst limestone, and a Purdue and Indiana highway research report on southern Indiana karst describes soil eroding into openings in the rock and causing subsidence. Poor compaction, downspouts dumping water at the edge, and tree roots do the rest.

Repair options

• Crack sealing: a flexible sealant pressed into cracks and joints so water stays out of the base
• Mudjacking: a cement-based grout pumped through small drilled holes to raise a sunken slab
• Foam lifting (polyjacking): expanding polyurethane injected through smaller holes, adding far less weight to the soil
• Resurfacing: a thin bonded overlay that hides light scaling on a slab that is still structurally sound
• Partial replacement: the worst panels saw-cut out and new ones poured, tied in with dowels

When replacement is the better call

HomeGuide's concrete leveling guide points to replacement when a slab has extensive cracking wider than about a quarter inch, significant surface damage or severe deterioration. We would add a few more: a slab broken into many small pieces, a base that has washed out or is full of roots, a driveway or walk that is too thin for its load, and slabs that have been leveled before and sunk again. In those cases, repair money tends to be spent twice.

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Older housing, older slabs

Point2Homes' summary of Census data puts Bloomington's median year built at 1985, with more than half of homes built before 1990 and 12.2% before 1940. Many of those homes still have their original driveways, walks and steps. Some are worth saving with leveling or crack repair; many have reached the end. We will tell you which is which, and if only part of a driveway or walk has failed, we can replace just those sections.

How replacement works

We saw-cut along joints so the removal line is clean, break out the failed concrete and haul it away. Then we fix the reason it failed: dig out soft soil, compact new stone, cut roots, and correct the grade or redirect downspouts. New concrete is air-entrained for outdoor use, reinforced and finished to match the old as closely as possible. New concrete will be lighter in color than weathered concrete at first; the difference fades over time.

Signs you need repair or replacement

• A driveway, walk or patio that has dropped at one end or at the joints
• Steps that have pulled away from the house
• Cracks that keep growing or that you can fit a coin in
• A flaking, pitted surface with stone showing
• Water pooling on the slab or running toward the foundation
• Gaps under the edge of a slab where soil has washed out

Preventing the next failure

Keep downspouts and sump discharge away from slabs. Seal cracks and joints so water stays out of the base. Reseal outdoor concrete every few years and avoid rock salt. Watch for small settlement and deal with it early, while leveling is still an option.