Better options than mudjacking

Posted Mar 31, 2021 in Concrete Raising

Injecting Polyurethane below the concrete slab

Mud­jack­ing is the tra­di­tion­al tech­nique of rais­ing con­crete, where­as using polyurethane is com­par­a­tive­ly new and slight­ly more cost­ly. While both meth­ods are sim­i­lar, polyurethane con­crete rais­ing has some dis­tinct advan­tages and ben­e­fits com­pared to mud­jack­ing. How­ev­er, first, it is impor­tant to note why mud­jack­ing has been pre­ferred, and whether its pop­u­lar­i­ty real­ly mea­sures up to its benefits.

What is Mud­jack­ing and Why is it Popular?

Mud­jack­ing is the tra­di­tion­al tech­nique for cor­rect­ing sunken con­crete, by lift­ing the slabs and bring­ing them to the required lev­el. This is done by drilling holes about one to two inch­es in the con­crete slab and pump­ing a slur­ry mix­ture under pres­sure. Once the pump­ing has brought the slab to the desired lev­el, the holes are patched up and the job is done.

Most peo­ple like two things about mud­jack­ing. First­ly, it is typ­i­cal­ly cheap­er to raise con­crete with this method com­pared to using polyurethane. Sec­ond­ly, you have a choice over the ingre­di­ents of the slur­ry mix­ture. For instance, if you want the fill to have more com­pres­sive strength, you could use cement or use a mix­ture of cement, sand, or lime. Such slur­ry mix­tures can pro­vide com­pres­sive strengths of up to 2,400 PSI. Polyurethane, on the oth­er hand, pro­vides a com­pres­sive strength of up 100 PSI. How­ev­er, if you’re using high­er spe­cial­ty mate­ri­als like con­crete or cement, this elim­i­nates cost-ben­e­fit and could be more expen­sive than the polyurethane method.

Major Dis­ad­van­tages of Mudjacking

In most instances, the slur­ry used in mud­jack­ing will not uni­form­ly fill all the voids because of its thick­ness. Sec­ond­ly, and more impor­tant­ly, the slur­ry does not have a sta­bi­liz­ing effect on the under­ly­ing soil. The heavy slur­ry will obvi­ous­ly bur­den under­ly­ing soil and will reset­tle, which means the con­crete will sink again, and the whole process pro­vides only a tem­po­rary fix. Anoth­er dis­ad­van­tage with mud­jack­ing is that the slur­ry mix­ture takes quite long to cure and become sta­ble enough for traf­fic. Last­ly, due to the thick­ness of the slur­ry and its inca­pa­bil­i­ty of spread­ing even­ly, many holes have to be made in the con­crete, which makes the area look unim­pres­sive even after the holes are patched up.

How Polyurethane Con­crete Rais­ing Trumps over Mudjacking

It is impor­tant to under­stand that a con­crete slab sinks because of the insta­bil­i­ty of the under­ly­ing soil. If you then put weight on such soil with heavy slur­ry, it will most like­ly sink again. Polyurethane, on the oth­er hand, pro­vides a much bet­ter alter­na­tive since it is a much lighter mate­r­i­al. Sec­ond­ly, polyurethane spreads even­ly and uni­form­ly in the voids, there­fore there is no need for drilling many holes, and the sur­face will not look as though it has under­gone heavy repair after the job is completed.

The cur­ing time of polyurethane jack­ing is sub­stan­tial­ly less than that of mud­jack­ing. Traf­fic can typ­i­cal­ly resume in 4 hours or less com­pared to mud­jack­ing which could take days to cure. Also, you need not be wor­ried about the low­er com­pres­sive strength of polyurethane, as 100 PSI is enough for most pur­pos­es. Even the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion prefers polyurethane for fix­ing sags and dips in bridges and high­ways, which says quite a lot about its com­pres­sive strength.

Cost-Effec­tive Alternative

Even though polyurethane con­crete lift­ing is slight­ly more expen­sive then mud­jack­ing, it works out cheap­er in the long run. You are not only assured of a neat fin­ish, but also the chances of the con­crete sink­ing again are much less, com­pared to a mud­jack­ing fix. Con­tact us today to learn more about our con­crete rais­ing services.

Fam­i­ly Water­proof­ing Solu­tions can raise, lev­el, and sta­bi­lize your con­crete slabs for an afford­able price. One of the biggest advan­tages of using polyurethane foam is that it fills the voids while also adding sta­bil­i­ty. Call our team at (708) 330‑4466 for more infor­ma­tion on fix­ing that sink­ing or cracked con­crete slab today, or sched­ule an online FREE esti­mate.

What our customers say

  • We con­tract­ed Fam­i­ly Water­proof­ing Solu­tions for exte­ri­or wall seal­ing and foun­da­tion crack repair ser­vices. Ken was very thor­ough in explain­ing the work that would be done, and his crew did a great job. This busi­ness was a plea­sure to work with.

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