Repair and replacement
Concrete repair in Henderson, Kentucky
Cracks, scaling, heaved aprons, settled corners, and slabs that are simply done. The first thing you get is a straight read on whether it is a repair or a replacement, and the second thing is a written number for it.
Reading the damage
What the crack is telling you
Concrete cracks for four reasons in Henderson County, and each one has a different fix. The site visit is mostly about telling them apart.
Shrinkage cracks
Hairline, random, no height difference across them. The slab dried and shrank and had nowhere planned to crack, usually because the control joints were cut late or too shallow. Cosmetic. Seal them and stop worrying.
Fix: route and seal, $250 - $900
Surface scaling
Flaking and pitting on top, worst where water sits and where salt gets tracked in off the road. Freeze-thaw got into a surface that was overworked, poured too wet, or never sealed. The slab under it may be fine.
Fix: patch and seal, or resurface, $400 - $1,200 to $4 - $8 per sq ft
Settlement
One section sits lower than the next, often the corner by the garage or the panel by the downspout. The base under it washed out or was never compacted. Water is the cause and the clay is the accomplice.
Fix: lifting on a sound slab, or replace the section
Heave
A section pushed UP, almost always the apron at the street or a panel next to a tree. Frozen water under the slab, or roots. The section has to come out, the cause has to be dealt with, and the section gets re-poured on a proper base.
Fix: remove and re-pour the section
Resurfacing
What a resurfacing coat fixes, and what it will not
A resurfacer is a thin cement overlay, usually under half an inch, bonded to a cleaned and etched slab. On a driveway or patio that is structurally sound but ugly on top, it gives you one even new surface for $$4 - $8 per sq ft, a fraction of a new pour.
It will not fix a slab that is moving. Every crack that opens and closes with the seasons comes right back through an overlay within a year or two. It will not fix drainage; a patio that puddles against the house keeps puddling with a new skin on it. And it will not fix a slab that is too thin to begin with. The crew tests for hollow spots and movement before recommending it, because a resurfacing job that fails is worse than no job.
Removal
Taking out a slab that is past saving
Some concrete just needs to go: the cracked patio nobody uses, the old shed pad in the way of the new garage, the driveway with more patches than original surface. Removal is broken up with a breaker, loaded, and hauled to a crusher where it becomes base for the next job. It runs $$2 - $4 per sq ft and is usually the first line on a replacement quote rather than a job on its own.
When the slab is coming out to be replaced, the base underneath gets rebuilt at the same time. That is the whole reason to do it; a new slab on the old failed base is the old driveway with a fresh coat.
Henderson specifics
Why concrete here fails the way it does
Three local causes come up on nearly every repair visit in Henderson County. Salt-slush tracked in from Highway 41 and the Green Street corridor sits on the driveway and gets into an unsealed surface; that is the scaling. Clay under the slab swells and shrinks with the seasons; that is the settling and the random cracking. And the freeze-thaw cycle here, twenty or thirty nights below freezing with warm afternoons in between, drives water into every crack and then expands it; that is the heave at the apron. None of those are the concrete's fault. They are what the concrete was, or was not, built to handle.
The one preventive that pays every time: a penetrating sealer on any exterior slab before its first winter, and again every few years. It is the cheapest concrete work there is.
Asked and answered
Repair questions from Henderson callers
My driveway is flaking on top. Is that fixable?
Surface scaling, the flaking you see after a few Henderson winters, means the top quarter inch of the slab took on water and froze. If it is a few spots, a patch ($400 - $1,200) and a sealer stop it spreading. If it is across the whole drive, the surface is gone and a resurfacing coat ($4 - $8 per sq ft) or a new pour is the honest answer. What decides it is whether the slab underneath is sound, and that takes a look.
Can a settled section be lifted instead of replaced?
Sometimes. Slab lifting (mudjacking or foam) pumps material under a sunk section to bring it back up, and on a slab that is otherwise sound it can be a fraction of replacement. It is a specialty with its own equipment, and it is not what a flatwork crew does. If lifting is the right answer for your slab, we will say so and you will be talking to a lifting crew, not paying a pour crew to guess.
What does it cost to remove an old driveway?
Breaking up, loading and hauling a slab runs $2 - $4 per sq ft, which puts a typical two-car driveway at $1,200 - $2,800. Thick slabs, rebar, and tight access (a fenced back yard, a driveway between two houses) push it up. When removal is the first step of a new pour, it is one line on the same quote.
Will a crack repair match the rest of the slab?
No. A filled crack is a filled crack, and patch material cures a different gray than thirty-year-old concrete. Repairs are about stopping water and stopping movement, not making it look new. If appearance is the point, resurfacing the whole slab gives one even surface, and a new pour is the only way to get one uniform color.
Free estimate
Get a read on the slab, in writing
Describe what you see: where the crack is, whether one side sits higher, whether the surface is flaking. A crew that fixes concrete in Henderson County looks at it and tells you repair or replace, with the number for each.
Rather talk it through? Call (270) 714-3029. If nobody picks up, leave the address and the job and you get a call back.
- Measured on site before the number is final
- Tear-out, base, finish and haul-off itemized
- Pour dates set by the weather, in writing
Answers
Read before you call
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