Homeowners often ask if they could just do their own crawl space house leveling, thinking that it should be pretty simple. Craig answers this question and his response may shock you.
Check this one out if you want to hear all the qualifications needed to tackle your pier and beam foundation repairs yourself. You can do it . . . maybe . . .
More Resources to Read
Our Learning Center (select the pier and beam house leveling category for targeted content)
Can I DIY My Crawl Space Repairs Article – this expands on the concepts in the video
Video Transcript:
“Do you have a sunken or settled section of concrete around your home? And that could be a driveway, a sidewalk, a patio, maybe even a pool deck. You’re wondering, what are the steps involved? How do you get that solved or fixed or raised? I’m here to describe how we do that with mud jacking.
Hey, it’s Craig with Anchor Foundation Repair. We’ve been mud jacking concrete surfaces in the Brazos Valley for going on 25, 30 years now. We have a three-step process for raising just about any section of settled concrete, whether it’s a driveway, sidewalk, patio, or pool deck.
Now, hey, I’m on site here. We’ve got some noise in the background as the guys are working on a driveway right behind me. Before we get into the first step, I want to outline that there’s also some prep work that goes into it, and that looks like bringing the dirt on site. We prep that by sifting that dirt to get some of the the larger clay modules out.
So, we’ve got a really fine powdery top soil that we use as the number one ingredient. The second part of our material is Portland cement. That Portland cement does two things. It allows some slipperiness to the slurry, so it travels really well. It also allows the slurry to harden up like a good sandstone consistency and really support the entire surface once we’ve got the proper elevation.
The third ingredient to that is just water. We’re going to use the water that you have on site here at your home or at your property. We add or subtract water to the slurry depending on what we want it to do. So those are all the things that go into prepping any mud jacking job.
First number one step is to drill. We’re going to drill a handful of 2-inch holes through that settled concrete surface. Those are going to go in the lowest parts of your driveway or concrete surface in order to get the most amount of lift.
Once we’ve got those drilled, then step number two is we’re going to pump that cement slurry, top soil cement slurry, underneath your driveway or concrete surface to raise it to the proper elevation. Now, we’re never just going on a series of holes and pumping all at the same time and and getting everything completely done. So in that process, we might drill some extra holes and we might mix some more slurry and we might go from one section of your driveway to another to effectively lift it back to the intended elevation without causing additional damage.
Once we’ve got it at that proper elevation and we’ve monitored everything along the way, our third and final step to patch. Whether you’ve got just a normal gray colored concrete or you’ve got exposed aggregate or pearl, we’re going to patch that surface and make it nice and presentable when we’re done with everything.
Then the final last extra bonus step that we do on all our jobs is — we’re going to clean everything up. We’re going to hose down your driveway. Any leftover piles of dirt we got to get rid of, clean out any other mess that might be around your house and turn your project back over to you so that you can enjoy your outdoor concrete at the proper elevation.
So, that’s really a quick description of our mud jacking process. If you are interested and you want to learn more, we’ve got some resources for you to read. I’ve got those linked above for you to check out and continue that education process as you figure out whether mud jacking is a good candidate for you and your settled concrete surface.”