Truth About Cement Leveling

The most important aspect of cement leveling is making sure that no hollow areas are left under the concrete slab. If you have a driveway block that measures 10′ X 10′ you want it resting on 10′ X 10′ of ground beneath it. It doesn’t matter if you are pumping clay–based grout, foam or peanut butter. You want the weight distributed over the most significant area possible. That is what will keep the concrete from sinking.

Experienced Cement Leveling

Another critical thing to remember when selecting your cement leveling contractor is that regardless of the material used you need to hire someone that knows cement leveling – that understands how concrete moves and how it settles. This is not something that is learned overnight, this is something that is acquired through years of leveling concrete, and seeing a million different sunken slabs of concrete. Some contractors may be prone to drilling fewer holes or pumping less material than needed because material can be expensive (like foam) or pumping less grout because the contractor doesn’t want to run out of material before the end of the day if they have smaller trucks. These practices will cause air pockets to be left, which will cause the concrete to sink.

Grand Canyon

Don’t be fooled by the argument that foam is better because it lasts hundreds of years and is lightweight. A clay–based grout has been around since the beginning of time. If it were otherwise, our front yards would all look like the Grand Canyon.

Foam or Mud

Foam is indeed much lighter than a clay–based grout. This isn’t really a good selling point. Consider the weight of your home and all of its contents sitting on a minimal footprint (the home footer). If weight were an essential factor, every building in the world would be tilting badly, and skyscrapers would be falling over.

Water and Cement Leveling 

It’s also true that foam will not wash away. Neither will clay–based grout unless you leave a void under the concrete or under the concrete next to the area of concern. The only thing the water will do is make the grout wet. Greene Concrete Leveling does not require the owner to caulk anything (which is a gimmick some contractors use to get out of their warranty), and if you want to put a hose on our work and let it run for six months, that’s OK with us. It just makes the ground wet. It doesn’t make the material disappear.