Concrete Repair in Cordova IL: Driveway Reparations

Concrete repair in Cordova, Illinois can save your family a great deal of hidden expenses. There are simple, affordable alternatives to completely replacing damaged driveways that can ultimately save you a great deal more than just money in some cases. This is particularly true if your driveway has one or more large cracks or if the slab has started to sink due to the damage. Uneven driveways can cause families to have unforeseen expenses that a simple, cost effective technique called mudjacking can eliminate before the problems can occur. Here are a few of these expenses that can be avoided…read on!

Tire Wear And Tear

Anytime that your tires encounter uneven, rough surfaces, it causes damage to the walls and tread of your tires. Over time, an uneven, cracked driveway can wear down your tires much faster than usual, causing you to have to replace them sooner. And if you don’t notice the damage right away, you may be risking a blowout, which can be extremely dangerous and even cause a car accident. The damage to your tires can be lessened by having concrete repair services that fix uneven driveways and seal large cracks. In these cases, mudjacking can repair your driveway within a single day without the mess, time and expense of complete replacement.

Wheel Alignment

When your car is driven on uneven surfaces, the alignment of your wheels is affected. Each bump your car hits takes its toll, and over time, this will cause your wheelbase to require an adjustment by a mechanic. The longer your vehicle is out of alignment, the worse the problem becomes. This causes uneven wear patterns on your tires, and particularly affects the walls of your tires. If the damage is not detected for awhile, your tires may weaken and the tread can give way. While cracked driveways are not the only reason for alignment problems, concrete repair services may cut down on how often you need to have this adjustment.

Bikes

If your children ride bicycles, they may be susceptible to accidents on your driveway if it is cracked. Large cracks and uneven surfaces can cause children to lose control of their bicycle and potentially become injured. From cuts and abrasions to contusions and broken bones, bike accidents can be from mild to serious and cause your child a great deal of pain and suffering. Concrete repair services can smooth your driveway for a safe place for your child to play.

For more information about concrete repair in Cordova IL and driveway reparations, call 309-373-2919 or click on the provided link.

Concrete Repair in Cordova IL: Safer Stairways

Concrete repair in Cordova, Illinois can help your family and houseguests stay safer when entering or leaving your home. If you have broken or sunken steps, these create a tripping hazard that can cause a nasty fall and possibly serious injuries. These damages can be avoided with a simple service that repairs your existing stairways for a fraction of the cost, time and mess that it would take to rebuild them from the ground up. A process known as mudjacking can raise sunken concrete to its original height, seal fissures and cracks of any size and reposition shifted steps to ensure that they are safe to use. Here is a little bit of information about what to expect when you call out a specialty service to repair your broken or sunken steps…read on!

Step One

If soil erosion and the ground’s freezing and thawing process has caused your concrete stairs to split and sink, a mudjacking team can begin to repair your existing steps by drilling holes in the stairs to allow access to the ground beneath the step. Using specialized tools, your service technicians will bore out small holes in the corners of your stairway. In contrast to other services that will use tools such as a jackhammer to destroy the damaged steps and remove the pieces to begin a fresh set of stairs, this process is much cleaner and less time consuming.

Step Two

After the pilot holes are drilled in the appropriate places, your mudjacking team will begin to level out your steps. This involves pumping a liquid slurry beneath your existing stairway to fill the gap any erosion or freezing and thawing processes have left underneath. The thick medium that is pumped beneath your stairs raises the level of the existing concrete, so sunken steps begin to realign with their original position, making the concrete repair job much simpler than total replacement.

Step Three

After your steps are expertly guided into position by a mudjacking technician, a sealant is applied to the crack to fuse the steps together into a complete unit once more. This is far superior to totally replacing damaged portions of your stairway because the concrete will match exactly instead of being unevenly cured. It is also less time consuming to use the existing slabs as opposed to creating new steps, in both construction and drying time. For these reasons, concrete repair measures can give you and your family a safer stairway in less time, for considerably less investment.

For more information about concrete repair in Cordova IL, call 309-373-2919 

or click on the provided link.

Concrete Repair in Cordova IL: Ramps and Walkways

Concrete repair in Cordova, Illinois can help you avoid many problems, including legal issues that can arise from trip and fall accidents on your property. If you have wheelchair accessible ramps or other types of walkways that lead to your home or place of business that have large fissures, cracks or sunken portions, someone visiting your home or office may have an accident that you would become responsible for financially. Avoiding these problems and legal headaches can be as easy as having a specialist fix the uneven portions of your walkways or ramps to ensure the safety of your guests or customers. Here are a few problems that can be avoided by calling out a service provider…read on!

Lawsuits

Anyone injured at your home or place of business has the right to sue you for their injury. In the case of damaged walkways and/or service ramps, it is legally the responsibility of the owner of the property to reasonably ensure the safety of guests or customers that are visiting the property. Since large cracks or sunken slabs are not an overnight occurrence, a property owner will most likely be viewed as being negligent in providing safe areas for people to traverse. Concrete repair services can be employed to fix damaged walkways, even before they become a hazard for pedestrians; therefore, the likelihood of winning a legal battle over responsibility for the accident and the damages that are incurred, including medical treatments, pain and suffering awards and even reparations for lost wages. These hefty bills can all become legally your responsibility to pay along with a possible legal mandate to fix the walkways that caused the accident. You can avoid the entire problem and months of legal problems by calling out a specialist to ensure that you have a smooth path for pedestrians.

Insurance Issues

If an accident occurs on your property due to large cracks or uneven walkways, your insurance company may become involved, further convoluting the problems that can arise from such an incident. If your homeowner’s insurance or business insurance has a clause that covers accidents that occur on your property, the payment for the medical expenses and other charges that are resultant from the accident may end up being covered by your insurance company. While this will initially make your financial problems lesser, it can also cause your premiums to skyrocket, depending upon the outcome of the case and the facts presented by both the prosecution and defense teams. This is another problem that having a concrete repair specialist to assess potential tripping hazards and fix the problem before it causes any harm can help you avoid.

For more information about concrete repair in Cordova IL and how damaged walkways or ramps can end up having a negative impact on you, call 309-373-2919  or click on the provided link.

Concrete Repair in Cordova IL: Garden Preparation

Concrete repair in Cordova, Illinois may be one of the last things that come to mind when you think about springtime planting and reviving your garden. Yet, your walkways near your garden may be cracked and uneven, making it harder to use wheelbarrows or to get the overall aesthetic affect you are after. Taking care of your sidewalks and garden pathways helps multiple aspects of the outdoor paradise you can nurture this spring, and getting those areas fixed before you pick up a single seed packet will help you during the planting phase. Here are a few things to think about before you call just any concrete specialty company…read on!

Protect Your Garden

There are two types of concrete service companies. The first of these will use jackhammers and heavy equipment to remove any cracked slabs or portions of them, then pour fresh concrete to create a new walkway. While this may seem like a logical way to approach concrete repair projects, there are several inherent problems with this method. First, if only a portion of a cracked slab is removed, new concrete will never look quite the same as the portion that was left behind, so you will have an uneven appearance that is very noticeable. Secondly, the damage and mess that results from using heavy equipment to remove full or partial walkways can wreak havoc on your entire yard, including ruining the area that you intend to or already have planted as a garden. The restoration after a complete concrete job is executed can be extensive, sometimes even ruining portions of your landscaping.

Mudjacking Alternative

There is an alternative to completely replacing cracked slabs or entire walkways. Mudjacking is a cheaper and considerably less damaging way to fix sidewalks, garden pathways and other slabs of concrete with some added benefits. Since mudjacking involves concrete repair instead of replacement, the original slab is used, so there aren’t mismatched portions of concrete. The process does not involve removing damaged materials, so there is not the hassle or mess that comes with tearing out broken slabs. This also eliminates the damages that can occur from ripping out large chunks of concrete and the use of jackhammers and other large equipment. Instead, the broken piece is merely lifted back into position by drilling holes to pump a slurry beneath existing concrete. This effectively fixes your garden paths and will be done much faster so you can get back to planting in no time.

For more information about concrete repair in Cordova IL and fixing garden pathways for springtime cultivation, call 309-373-2919 or click on the provided link.

Concrete Repair in Cordova IL: Sunken Concrete Steps

Concrete repair in Cordova, Illinois can help homeowners with sunken entryway steps to level their stairs and make their home a safer place to live and visit. Through various natural processes, steps can crack and begin to sink into the ground, causing an uneven surface for you and your guests to have to cross over to enter your home. Not only does this open up you and your family to potential accidents such as tripping or falling, but it also becomes a liability should a person outside your household fall on your property and become injured. Your home value may also be impacted since the appearance and integrity of your home is compromised. Here is some information about sunken concrete steps and what you as a homeowner can do to fix them…read on!

The Cause

When the foundation and steps for your home were first installed, the ground was packed as tightly as possible by the contractors before the slab was poured. Over time and with the help of natural processes, the soil beneath your steps and foundation can erode, causing larger and larger spaces to form beneath these areas. This erosion process is further exacerbated by moisture forming in these spaces and the freezing and thawing of the ground and these moisture pockets. Not only will more soil be moved and larger spaces be formed, but during the freezing portion of the process, an upheaval can further damage your steps, causing fissures to form, the stairs to sink into the spaces beneath them and the creation of even more moisture to seep into the ground beneath your steps, which will continue to worsen the problem. As any concrete repair specialist can tell you, the natural processes behind sunken concrete steps are a degenerative series of events that only worsen over time, causing more and more damage.

The Solution

There are two ways to solve the issues at hand. The first is to have a contractor chisel out the affected slab and steps, repack the ground beneath the spot and pour new concrete steps for your home. The second option you have is to contract a mudjacking company to drill into your current slab and steps to pump a slurry beneath the affected areas, reposition your steps to their original spot, seal the fissures and apply a protective barrier to ward off further deterioration. Most homeowners find the second option less invasive upon their families since not only is it less expensive, but also requires less time to complete the job and without the mess and possible damage associated with total replacements. Because of this, concrete repair is often a more appropriate fix that most families choose.

For more information about concrete repair in Cordova IL and the advantages of mudjacking for solving the problem of sunken concrete steps, call 309-373-2919 or click on the provided link.

Concrete Repair in Cordova IL: Sealing the Weather Out

Concrete repair in Cordova, Illinois can help your sidewalks, driveways and foundations be a little safer to use; however, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Sealing concrete either before or after a mudjacking project or full slab replacement can help prevent the cracks that allow the soil beneath concrete to erode and begin the slow, but inevitable slippage that results in uneven walkways and foundations. Below is a little more information about why sealing concrete is a necessary step, especially with cold weather on the horizon…read on!

The Damage Potential

Porous surfaces are susceptible to infiltration by condensation, rain, sprinkler runoff and other sources of water. In colder weather, this can easily become frost or ice, which makes the trapped water’s volume expand, thereby causing pressure on the surfaces of the slab. Then, during the temperature highs of the daytime, frost and ice shards thaw, allowing the water to drain into the newly enlarged space. Over time, the surface of a slab can become cracked, allowing more moisture to begin the same process beneath the concrete with the added damaging factor of soil erosion to create enough stress on a crack that part of the slab can then give way. At this point, concrete repair work is inevitable, and much more costly than having a preventative treatment applied to nondamaged surfaces and any repaired or replaced slabs.

How Sealants Work

As with most materials’ surfaces, concrete has small flaws and pores caused by microscopic air bubbles that form during the mixing stage and are burst during the drying phase when your slabs are first poured. Ideally, a preventative sealant applied as soon as the surface has cured can lock out the moisture that begins the damage process caused by colder weather and water. However, at any point, a concrete sealant will bond to the imperfections of the surface, taking up the spaces that would be susceptible to moisture and the subsequent freezing process that occurs when temperatures drop. This effectively locks out the damaging factors and keeps your walkways and foundation safe from these natural processes. With one phone call to your local concrete repair service during the early stages of autumn, you can effectively protect your home from the subtle damages that occur every day during the harsh winters in Illinois. These treatments can be reapplied as recommended by a professional mudjacker or concrete supply company.

For more information about concrete repair in Cordova IL and how homeowners can prevent damages to their walkways and foundations by contracting a professional to apply a protective sealant, call 309-373-2919  or click on the provided link.

Concrete Repair in Cordova IL: Why Cracked Concrete Only Gets Worse

Concrete repair in Cordova, Illinois is a necessity to have safe walkways, smooth driveways and a stable foundation. Even though it would be nice if, like a wound, concrete would simply heal over, cracked concrete only worsens over time. Several reasons for this are typically at work to cause more damage to your slabs and, without intervention, these factors can cause full upheavals and present risk factors for the safety of your family and guests, plus put your home in jeopardy if the cracks cause breaches in your foundation. Here are a few of the factors that you may or may not be aware of that will create more problems as time marches on…read on!

Change Of The Season

In Cordova, Illinois, winter can be harsh, causing snow buildup and freezing the ground. It is this freezing point that begins the process of doing more damage to walkways, foundations and driveways that are cracked. Extreme temperatures not only cause all materials, even concrete, to become more brittle, but also freeze groundwater that may be trapped beneath the slabs in question. This freezing process will expand the packed dirt your concrete was poured on, typically in an uneven pattern, causing stress points to form and fracturing to take place. Without concrete repair work at this point, you will have even more of a breach to deal with because of the ground’s expansion and upheaval.

To make matters worse, once spring and summer roll around, the frozen ground thaws, creating more groundwater and once again, shrinking the soil underneath your concrete. This leaves a gap that can easily create the fulcrum for the slab to break apart more, which, in turn, gives a space for rainwater to build up and cause more groundwater to be present. The cycle then continues, with more groundwater to freeze, larger gaps being formed with the thaws and worsening conditions for your walkways.

Erosion

Soil erosion and natural processes can whittle away at the ground beneath your walkways, foundations, and driveways as well. Heavy rains or even overwatering lawns can cause an excess of water to build up beneath the surface of a damaged slab, creating conditions that allow soil to be carried away by moving water. Much like what happens with the seasonal cycles, soil erosion can cause a large gap to form beneath your concrete, allowing more damage to be incurred. If concrete repair services are not put in place, soil erosion can cause some of your slabs to become shifted or unlevel while simultaneously worsening visible fissures in the slabs. A concrete repair specialist can help reverse the damages and stop these harmful cycles from creating more expense down the road.

For more information about concrete repair in Cordova IL and why cracked concrete only worsens over time, call 309-373-2919 or click on the provided link.