Q&A – My Driveway Has Sunk – Is Slabjacking a Good Solution?

Before you decide on a whether slabjacking your sunken sidewalk, driveway or patio, you first need to figure out the failure mechanism: What caused the sinking? I know that seems like an obvious question – It settled. Of course it did. WHY did it settle….??

Settlement can happen for lots of different reasons – Vibration, ground water, compaction, deep consolidation from new load conditions to name a few. What made your slab settle? You need to figure out what happened, and more-importantly, will it continue to happen (ie, is it not done settling).

Let’s say the sidewalk in front of your house sunk. What settled? Is the sidewalk over a water line or a sewer? Did the trench under the sidewalk settle? Why did it settle? Is there a leak in the pipe that is causing the earth to settle? Is it going to be a continual problem? If so, mud jacking the sidewalk will temporarily fix the condition, but it will be a waste of money if the root problem isn’t solved first, your slab AND the material used to jack it up will both settle – Does that make sense?

Here’s the Action Item – Before you call “A Guy” and have him give you a cost proposal to mud jack whatever it is you have that settled, determine the cause. Determine if it is going to be an on-going issue. If the surrounding conditions are stable, mud or urethane jacking could be the right solution. But if you have a deeper underlying cause, you may need to remove the slab and correct the underlying condition first.

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