The Lifting Process
Lifting Process
When it comes to homes, having a visually appealing property is important to many people. Anything from obvious cracks around the base of the home, to even more menial things like stained concrete, can often be frustrating, especially to those who like to preserve a good image of where they live. One important aspect of the exterior of a house, or any facility to be entirely honest, is the concrete that leads up to the building. You may not put too much thought into it, but the concrete slabs in these walkways pose a hazard if they are damaged, and even more so if they are uneven.
Unless you walk and look at the ground at the same time, noticing a settled or elevated concrete slab is not common. In many cases where these slabs are extremely out of place, people passing over them could potentially catch on one, and lose their footing, which is just one safety hazard. Falling onto concrete can cause serious physical damage, and if the property owner does not tend to the issue with the slab and a passerby is injured as a result, the owner could be looking at serious legal consequences.
Of course, it isn’t necessarily light on the wallet to completely replace a giant chunk of sidewalk, so many foundation repair businesses offer an alternative solution: Concrete lifting and the lifting process.
What is the concrete lifting?
Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Simply put, concrete is lifted into a position that aligns it with the rest of the slabs in the path or walkway. The process is a bit more complex, as we can’t magically lift the slab with powers or anything, but with the right tools and equipment, we can get the job done without having to pay the higher price of a full blown replacement slab!
Rhino Foundation Systems has years of experience working on concrete leveling and lifting projects. As time has passed, we have tackled a variety of unique and abnormal jobs, and our team almost always finds the best possible solution. If you want all the details and even some informative video clips that show off the methods we use, visit our Lifting Process page here. In case you are looking for something a bit more simple however, here is a brief rundown of the lifting process we’ve used time and time again:
- We start by drilling a hole into the slab that needs repairs. The gap is almost never larger than the diameter of a dime, and yet we still get plenty of access to the area beneath the slab.
- Once the opening is drilled and the remnants of the concrete from the entrance are brushed away, we use a gun to pump polyurethane foam down beneath the slab. We do this process in increments to ensure that the foam has expanded as much as possible, which will help get the results that we’re looking for, because too much foam can often make damage worse by causing excessive lifting.
- The foam will expand, and create pressure beneath the slab, pushing it up into alignment with the other slabs, and voila! The concrete issue has been mended with less expenditures than a replacement!
If you’re having problems with uneven concrete, don’t hesitate to contact Rhino Foundation Systems!
