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How to Level a Sloping Concrete Floor

Concrete Leveling

02/23/2024

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A sloping concrete floor is annoying and can become a safety concern if it becomes difficult to walk on. As such, it’s essential to seek a remedy for your sloping floor sooner rather than later. This article will provide you with some information about why concrete floors can slope. We’ll also present two viable solutions that make the issue go away.

What Causes a Concrete Floor to Slope?

Foundation settlement is the primary reason a concrete floor will begin to slope. To understand how foundation settlement works, consider that your foundation rests on the soil below it for support. Since that’s the case, if the soil shifts or sinks, the odds are that your foundation and the rest of your home will move with it.

A small amount of uniform settlement that occurs shortly after construction is typical and does not indicate a structural problem. However, another form of foundation settlement, known as differential settlement, involves significant uneven shifts that compromise the structural integrity of your home.

There are many symptoms of differential settlement that you may notice in your house. Among those signs are jammed windows, foundation cracks, and sloping floors. Since differential settlement can cause significant structural damage, it is vital to recognize these warning signs and seek professional assistance when you notice them.

Fixing a Sloping Concrete Floor

Understand that leveling a concrete floor is something that you should not attempt to do on your own. Instead, it is safest and most effective to contact a professional to resolve this issue for you. When you hire an expert to repair your sloping concrete floor, they will likely employ one of the following methods.

Do you have a concrete floor with a significant slope? If so, read this article to learn why and some of the best ways to fix the problem.

Leveling a Concrete Floor via Polyjacking

One way to level a sloping concrete floor is to use polyjacking. This process is perfect for filling small air pockets below your concrete that have caused it to become unlevel. Below is a quick overview of the steps involved in the polyjacking process:

  1. Identify the location of the air pockets
  2. Drill small holes through the concrete
  3. Inject polyjacking foam through the holes to fill the air pockets
  4. Patch the holes with cement

Polyjacking is typically a solution for unlevel concrete slabs, such as those on a sidewalk or patio. However, if your concrete floor is directly attached to a foundation, polyjacking is not the best option. In those cases, you’ll need to use a method called underpinning instead, which we’ll describe in the next section.

Do you have a concrete floor with a significant slope? If so, read this article to learn why and some of the best ways to fix the problem.

When applicable, polyjacking provides several benefits. For example, the polyjacking process is quick, and the injection material hardens quickly, meaning you can walk on your newly leveled concrete floor almost immediately.

Leveling a Concrete Floor Using Piers

The second method for leveling a concrete floor is to use piers. This process, called underpinning, involves driving piers deep into the ground and attaching them to your foundation.

After forming the connection between your foundation and the embedded piers, your foundation repair team can raise your entire home as much as possible without causing damage. These piers also add a significant amount of stability to your home, which makes future settlement unlikely.

Do you have a concrete floor with a significant slope? If so, read this article to learn why and some of the best ways to fix the problem.

Multiple types of piers can perform this function, but push piers and helical piers are the most common. To install push piers, a contractor will use a hydraulic pump to press them straight down into the earth until they hit firm soil or bedrock. By contrast, helical piers are like giant screws that the contractor will twist into the earth until they are secure.

Both of these methods are more expensive than polyjacking. However, they are incredibly effective even if your concrete floor is attached to a foundation. Piers also adds immense stability to ensure that differential settlement remains an issue of the past.

How Much Floor Slope is Too Much?

At this point, you may be wondering if your sloping floors are genuinely something you need to worry about. After all, a mild amount of floor slope may be nearly indistinguishable. Fortunately, there are some ways to know whether your floor slope is significant enough to warrant professional attention.

Remember that every slope has a vertical rise and a horizontal run. These factors will help you evaluate your floor slope and decide whether to fix it. Generally, if your floor rises more than one inch over a horizontal distance of 10 feet or less, you should schedule an appointment with a professional repair team.

With that said, regardless of the exact slope of your floor, you should seek help whenever it becomes difficult to walk on. Any floor that is challenging or uncomfortable to navigate is worthy of repair to reduce tripping hazards.

Get Advice from a Pro

The average homeowner can’t perform DIY concrete floor leveling in nearly every instance. Instead, if you notice a significant pitch in your concrete floor, you should contact an expert to evaluate it.

For anyone living in the Triad, Triangle, or anywhere in Eastern North Carolina, Regional Foundation & Crawl Space Repair is the ideal team for you to rely on to fix sloping concrete floors and other structural issues.

We’ve been in business since 1984, and since then, we have developed extensive experience with foundation repair, concrete leveling, and basement waterproofing. Contact us today to learn more and take advantage of a free estimate!