Sidewalks & Driveways

Sidewalks and driveways are some of the most common pieces of concrete to become uneven.  The movement can be caused by any number of reasons, notably subsoil settlement and erosion being the most common, and tree roots being a close third.  The diagrams below illustrate what happens under your settled sidewalk and driveway sections.  In this case, the settlement is caused by a utility trench going under the concrete, but the process is the same for decaying organic debris, animal burrows, erosion from gutters and other similar things such as uncompacted fill material.


After the utility is installed in the bottom of the trench, soil is placed back in the trench but not thoroughly compacted.

Over time, the backfill material in the trench naturally settles, resulting in an air void under the sidewalk.  Settlement can be accentuated by water, which often erodes soil from under the slab after the initial settlement creates a flow path for surface water.


Over time, the sidewalk starts to settle, and may crack if there aren't expansion joints close by.  In this diagram the right side (1) of the affected sidewalk section settled, which caused the opposite side (2) to raise up, in a teeter-totter action.


Concrete Jack's expert leveling technicians access the void under the affected concrete, fill it up and then raise the concrete back up.  Because Concrete Jack's propriety grout mix is flowable and pumped in under pressure, it does an excellent job of filling all the small nooks, crannies and fissures in the soil below the slab to ensure the best possible results!  You can walk on your sidewalk as soon as Concrete Jack is done working on it, too.