Concrete Repair & Replacement in Kenosha, WI

Concrete repair and replacement starts with one question: why did the concrete fail? A crack, a sunken slab and a flaking surface each have a different cause and a different fix. We look at the concrete, the soil and the drainage around it, then tell you whether a repair will last or whether the section needs to come out.

The usual problems in Kenosha

• Scaling and spalling: the top layer flakes off, often after salt and freeze-thaw cycles. Slabs most at risk are those poured without air entrainment, troweled while bleed water was still up, or salted their first winter.
• Settling: a slab sinks because the soil under it washed out or was never compacted. Downspouts that dump next to a slab are a frequent cause.
• Heaving: water under a slab freezes and lifts it. Tree roots can lift walks and driveways too.
• Cracking: some shrinkage cracking is normal. A crack that is wide, offset in height, or longer every spring usually means trouble in the base.

Repair options

Crack and joint sealing. We clean out narrow cracks and gaping joints and fill them with a flexible sealant, cutting off the water's path under the slab. This is the cheapest way to slow freeze-thaw damage.

Leveling. If a dropped slab is still in one sound piece, pumping material beneath it can raise it back to grade. HomeGuide's leveling guide gives $4 to $9 per square foot for mudjacking and $8 to $25 for polyjacking, and expects lifted concrete to hold 5 to 10 years or longer. If poor drainage caused the settling and it is not fixed, the guide warns that the slab will likely settle again.

Patching and resurfacing. Broken step nosings and small damaged areas can be patched. A thin resurfacing layer can renew a surface with light scaling, though in our climate it only lasts on a slab that is structurally sound.

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When replacement is the better choice

The same HomeGuide guide favors replacement once cracks pass 1/4 inch wide, the surface is heavily spalled, or the slab is badly deteriorated. We would add a few more:

• the slab has broken into several loose pieces
• it has been patched so many times that the patches are failing
• the base underneath is soft or washed out
• the slab drains toward the house and cannot be lifted enough to fix it

Often only part of a driveway or walk needs to come out. We saw-cut along a joint, remove the damaged sections and pour new concrete doweled to what stays.

Fixing the cause

Patch the symptom and leave the cause, and the damage comes back. We look at downspouts, gutters, grading, tree roots and how the slab drains. Sometimes the most useful part of a repair is a downspout extension or regraded soil along the edge.

Older concrete in Kenosha

A summary of Census data puts Kenosha's median year built at 1970, with about 40 percent of homes built before 1960. Concrete from those decades may have been poured without air entrainment, on thin base, or without joints. It can still be worth keeping if it is sound, and we will tell you if it is.