Concrete Mud Jacking Service
 

Fellow Villagers, we need to hire a mud jacking service… one concrete slab of our (recently purchased) villa back courtyard has sunk significantly over time on one corner. Any insights on good or bad experiences would be much appreciated. Thank you!

I once had a guy inject foam under a concrete sidewalk (concretejack.com). But, that was in northern Virginia. It worked, but it was not a permanent fix. One reason I did it was because the surface had an expensive pebble finish. Personally, I would hire a concrete contractor to cut out the settled concrete and replace it. If done correctly, you will get a permanent repair.

You might want to consider "polyjacking" instead of mudjacking. Cleaner, faster and more durable.

Depending on the size & location, you might also want to consider removing the slab and replacing it correctly. Just a wild guess, but it's probably only 3000 lb concrete, laid on a lousy base. You wouldn't want to go through so much trouble & expense and have it sink again.

bump to BrainL99

Priority #1- it sank for a reason, locate reason

How old is the house? The typical home warranty for structural damage is 10 years, if your home is newer than this call home warranty.

I've had a lot of concrete poured. Poured 308 CY last week in a single pour. 20 degree temps, not optimal.

There is generally only one reason concrete "sinks" ... poor preparation. Concrete, no matter how carefully you prepare, pour & cut, can always "crack", but it generally doesn't sink unless the prep was poor.

In my opinion, using any sort of "jacking" is putting a band-aid on the problem and it's likely to be only a temporary fix .... the underlying problem will still be there.

For what's it worth, I manage the construction of auto dealerships. We pour very large slabs. The one we poured last week, is a 3 story parking garage. I can't afford to have a "sinking problem".

Here's how we do it in the Commercial Construction world.

All concrete work is spec'd by a Structural Engineer, including the "base". A 3rd party verifies the base and that the reinforcing steel rods are properly installed. The same 3rd party verifies the concrete as it's poured, from each & every truck and usually takes at least 6 sample cores from each truck load. Those cores are then "broken" at 7 day intervals, so we know the strength of the concrete, meets design standards.

If I had a slab sink (we pour to about 1/10" tolerance), I'd immediately do test borings to determine what was going on. Once I figured out the issue, we'd try to remedy the underlying cause. 99.99% of the time, it's going to be improper preparation beneath the pour.

I know, more than most anyone needs to know about concrete slabs.

I just found a stair-step crack on exterior block stucco wall from bottom up 3/4 of wall. Going to call warranty but any recommendations on who to call for 2nd opinion? Home inspector, structural engineer, other. I’ve heard of homes here dealing with sink holes also.

I would go with a structural engineer, however I would first call one or more home inspectors for a recommendation on the structural engineer. Depending on the flooring inside the wall with the crack, you may be able to see if there is a significant crack. There are companies that I have seen advertisements about making repairs to foundations, no idea if these work well, I would definitely look at reviews and complaints.