One half of Garage Floor Settling

3252 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by jagans, Dec 9, 2012

SpokerD

Discussion Starter · Dec 6, 2012

I have a 44 year old house with a two car attached garage. The floor of the garage is made up of four square concrete slabs. Two of the slabs have settled a little over the years, the left side only, and I'm wondering what the best way is to jack them up level again. Any suggestions?

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1 - 11 of 11 Posts

joecaption

· #2 · Dec 6, 2012

Google mud jacking.

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Canarywood1

· #3 · Dec 7, 2012

Probably cheaper to replace them than mud jack,anyway try not to choke when you hear the price.

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jagans

· #4 · Dec 7, 2012

Jack?

Hire someone to jackhammer the old floor out and pour a new reinforced concrete floor after properly compacting the substrate.

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firehawkmph

· #5 · Dec 7, 2012

Around here the slabjacking guys are pretty reasonable. I had them do four slabs in front of the garage and also level up 4 or 5 smaller slabs in the walkway going to the front door. It was about 7 years ago, but at that time cost me $350. Worked pretty well too.
Mike Hawkins

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stadry

· #6 · Dec 7, 2012

ours is about the same age w/2 car attached garage, too,,, i'd suspect you have a single slab floor that was diamond sawed twice - once in ea direction thereby making ' 4 slabs ',,, can't imagine the conc sub pouring 4 separate unless your garage is bodacious huge :laughing:

here in atl i'd call the mudjackers,,, we, too, have had good luck,,, heed jagans, tho,,, since you didn't post the amount of settlement over ??? sq ft., the problem may be soft base OR that's where the bldr put his trash pit IF he had 1 on the property

mudjacking / pressure grouting / slab jacking are all similar terms describing what you may need,,, the good guys will tell you IF it will work OR you should consider replacement :thumbsup:

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jagans

· #7 · Dec 7, 2012

Non support

I dont even know what mud jacking is, but I suspect it is using the hydraulic pressure of concrete while it is wet to lift the slab under pressure. Heres what wrong with that. If the original floor lost support from settlement, what makes you think that the unstable substrate will not settle further under considerably more load. In a nutshell, you cant shine s**t. Many of the roads built by the Romans are still in service. Now why do you suppose that is?

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Canarywood1

· #8 · Dec 7, 2012

jagans said:
I dont even know what mud jacking is, but I suspect it is using the hydraulic pressure of concrete while it is wet to lift the slab under pressure. Heres what wrong with that. If the original floor lost support from settlement, what makes you think that the unstable substrate will not settle further under considerably more load. In a nutshell, you cant shine s**t. Many of the roads built by the Romans are still in service. Now why do you suppose that is?

Mud jacking is pumping grout under pressure below the slabs that have settled,to bring them back to level with the rest of your floor.

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jagans

· #9 · Dec 7, 2012

yeah, its what I expected

Yes its what I thought it was. My opinion stands. Thanks Canary

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jomama45

· #10 · Dec 8, 2012

One more vote for mudjacking, and as IRC mentioned, a good mudjacker will tell you if it's worthwhile or not. Of course you could tear it out and repour a reinforced floor, but there's simply no easy way to compact the floor if there's 4'+ of loose fill. If you want to spend several thousand dollars, repour the floor, but if you want to spend a few hundred and squeeze another 10-20 years out of the existing floor, consider mudjacking................

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jagans

· #11 · Dec 9, 2012

jomama

I Think that the first part of your comment is to my point. You cannot support concrete with loose fill, and expect it not to break again. I suppose you are correct if the under-fill has settled sufficiently to carry the intended loads that are applied, but how would you know? I also guess you could mud jack again if it settles again. You can build a self supporting structural floor that will easily carry the weight of an automobile if it is designed correctly, but it would be easier to use the right kind of fill and compact it in lifts of a foot or less with a vibra-plate, but no builder does it, and no local building inspector that I know of demands it. They simply put in a caveat that cracks of up to 1/4 inch are not a reason for rejection. I can tell you right now that they are a reason for rejection, and it is entirely possible to build a slab that will not crack. ever walk around in a Home Depot or Lowes? How many cracked slabs do you find? Its all part of the "Build them fast, not to last" mentality of todays tract housing builders.

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