Facts About Garage Floor Sinking and Repair

Cracked and sunken garage floors are more than just an eyesore.  They can become a trip hazard and continue to deteriorate over time if not addressed. Many homeowners will simply ignore a sunken or cracked garage floor assuming it’s a cosmetic issue only, and most of the time out of sight and out of mind. However, this condition can be caused by an issue that could ultimately impact the rest of the home and should be addressed.

Water drainage

A cracked garage floor may indicate a water drainage problem between the garage and the house.  Left unchecked, this could impact the foundation of the home itself. If this is the problem, the water issue needs to be fixed and the water redirected from the house to prevent future damage. Mudjacking can lift the floor back to where it’s supposed to be without requiring any kind of demolition.

Soil displacement

If the soil beneath your garage floor has become displaced or was not compacted correctly to begin with, that soil needs to be stabilized and replaced before future repairs can be done. If you don’t fill that void, you will continue to experience sinking of your garage floor, so this needs to be addressed. If you’re unsure how best to stabilize the soil beneath your garage floor, contact a concrete lifting professional for recommendations.

Settling with age

Even with the most well-compacted foundation, there is some settling of floors over time. Typically, this will result in small cosmetic cracks only, and don’t necessarily need to be repaired.  However, if you see the cracks worsening over time, or you start to see sinking or buckling of your garage floor, you may need to contact a mudjacking specialist to come in and do repairs. Mud jacking is helpful in areas that don’t require a lot of load on the surface, in the case of a garage floor where there is the potential to have thousands of pounds resting on the floor, you want to insure it’s done correctly. Also referred to as “slabjacking”, mudjacking is a specialty concrete repair technology. In essence, it attempts to lift a sunken concrete slab by pumping a grout through the concrete, effectively pushing it up from below.  This process is composed of drilling holes through the skewed cement slab in order to raise it. Grout is pumped through the access holes in order to raise the slab. The holes are then patched with a quick setting cement.

A cost effective alternative to concrete replacement

Concrete garage floor settlement will typically happen over time if placed on top of poor or non-compacted base preparation. Erosion and other factors contribute to the garage floor degradation and settlement of concrete’s solid base which is supporting it. However, many times simply repairing the concrete is more cost effective than replacement. Mudjacking is typically an ideal alternative to costly concrete replacement! You can noninvasively repair damage which has occurred over time with this technique, and it is an ideal solution for sunken garage floors.

Thinking of mudjacking to repair your sunken garage floor?  Call an mudjacking expert to get their professional opinion for best results.