Save Your Concrete Slab
PolyLift Concrete Leveling
When a concrete slab sinks, replacing it is the expensive, disruptive option: break it out, haul it off, pour new concrete, wait for it to cure. Lifting it is the other path. For a sunken driveway, an uneven sidewalk, a patio that drains the wrong way, or settled steps, lifting the existing slab back into place is usually faster and costs less than tearing it out.
That’s what concrete leveling does, and at KC Waterproofing and Foundation Repair we do it with PolyLift. It’s a polyurethane foam injected through small holes in the slab; it expands underneath, fills the empty space the soil left behind, and raises the concrete back to level. We’ve served Kansas City area homeowners, Lee’s Summit among them, since 1985.
Why Concrete Sinks in Lee’s Summit
Lee’s Summit is built on deep clay, the kind that holds water and changes volume with the weather. A wet spring leaves the soil swollen and full; a dry summer shrinks it back down. The concrete on top can’t follow those swings. When the clay contracts and drops away, the ground that used to press against the bottom of the slab is no longer there to hold it, and the slab settles into the empty space. A driveway sinks at the garage, a sidewalk square drops below the one next to it, steps pull loose from the porch.
A few local conditions speed that up:
- Backfilled lots that never settled. Much of Lee’s Summit went up fast, on ground that was dug out and filled back in during construction. When that fill wasn’t packed down tight, it keeps compressing for years afterward, and newer driveways and garage floors can start sinking within the first decade.
- Slabs that have aged out. The concrete poured across Lee’s Summit during the 1980s and 1990s boom has had thirty and forty years for the soil under it to wash away and pack down, leaving older patios and walkways unsupported.
- Runoff on sloped ground. The rolling terrain here keeps water moving. Where it funnels against a driveway edge or pools under a set of steps, it carries soil out from underneath, and the slab loses its footing on that side first.
In most cases the concrete itself is fine. What gave out is the ground it was resting on.
What PolyLift Is and How It Lifts Concrete
PolyLift is the polyurethane foam we inject under a settled slab to raise it. If you’ve come across mudjacking while looking into this, PolyLift is the newer alternative. Mudjacking pumps a heavy cement slurry under the concrete to force it up, and because that material is heavy, the slab often sinks again over time. It’s also messy: it takes large holes, and the slurry can spill and stain your concrete and the area around it. PolyLift is light, so it holds the lift instead of settling again. It goes in through a small hole, and the foam doesn’t break down once it’s cured.
Here’s how the process works. We drill a series of small holes through the concrete where it has dropped, then inject the foam through them. It expands underneath, fills the voids the soil left, and pushes the slab back up until the surface sits level with everything around it. The foam sets fast, so the lift holds almost right away. We patch the holes, and in most cases you can use the driveway, walkway, or patio the same day. PolyLift works on slabs that have settled but aren’t badly cracked or broken up, so the concrete is sound enough to lift in one piece.
Concrete We Level Around Your Home
PolyLift lifts the concrete that takes the most weight and weather around a house. Driveways are the usual call, and the slab nearest the garage tends to go first, sinking into a ridge you notice on every drive in and steering runoff back at the foundation. Front walks and patios settle the same way: a sidewalk square that drops below its neighbor becomes a trip hazard on the path to your door, and a patio that has tilted toward the house sends rainwater at the foundation instead of out into the yard.
Steps and stoops separate from the porch as they settle, leaving a gap and an uneven first stair. Garage floors are the interior surface we lift most, since a slab that has dropped in one corner knocks level whatever you keep on it and lets water pool in the low spot. Whatever has sunk, lifting the slab back into place is almost always faster and cheaper than tearing it out and pouring new.
Get a Free Concrete Leveling Estimate in Lee’s Summit
If a driveway, sidewalk, patio, set of steps, or garage floor has settled at your Lee’s Summit home, we’ll come out, look at what’s going on under the slab, and tell you whether PolyLift can lift it back to level. The estimate is free, and you’ll get a straight answer either way.
KC Waterproofing and Foundation Repair has leveled concrete across the Kansas City area since 1985, and the work is backed by a lifetime transferable warranty. Schedule your free estimate online.
