A cheap technique to lift and fix sunken concrete slabs using a car jack and few dollars of concrete mix. Bottle Jacks are $12-$18 on Amazon: www.amazon.com/...
Great video of method. Had rabbits under back porch and slab and stairs were sinking. This was how I went after it. I appreciate the confidence your video gave me to do it myself.
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I did that to my driveway myself. You should mix your Portland Cement mix high slump. Then don’t put any serious weight on it for a week. Both sides were sunken. I used pressure treated culls and lost 5 cheap bottle jacks. The lowest estimate was $1, 300.00. I spent less than $300.00 and did a better job. Those small bottle jacks at Harbor Freight are imported from China. Make the pours high slump.
my entire walk up to my porch including two steps dropped 2 inches on one side due to rain water drainage,,i lifted one slab at a time with a pry bar and jammed gravel in as tight as i could,,looks brand new again,,company wanted 2 grand to tear it all out,,lololol,,it cost me a couple bags of rock,,been several years hasnt moved at all,,also took care of drainage issue that caused it,,goodluck to all
That's great! But realize companies have to pay tons of money for insurance, licensing, permits, gas to get to your sight, employees, workers' compensation...the list goes on. If you can do it yourself you should, but you can't compare apples to oranges.
I did this to a pool slab once. Had no issues with the repair. Recently had a polyurethane expanding foam company give an estimate for lifting a 20 by 2 section a half inch & it was $4,000. They tie their rates to 60% the cost of replacement, which seems absurd.
This video was the inspiration for me to fix my precast kitchen door cement steps that were pulling away from the house by several inches. Just like this video I dug under the bottom step, inserted a $18 bottle jack. Then the bottle jack raised the steps level again. Simply filled underneath the steps with concrete encasing the bottle jack. The next day backfilled dirt. It worked great!
First, for a diy video it was good. Second, the cost to repair by a professional of $350.00 with the labor and material was reasonable. Overall, good job.
I do always get confused by people who compare cost of materials and materials and labor of a professional company. Good DIY job but it was hardly an attempt at extortion, in fact the price was almost concerningly low
The bottle jack routine is a technique we have used for years on driveways to prep the area for grouting. The only challenge I see here is the remaining voids under the concrete that were not filled. The entire area may need to be pressure grouted. Also, the underlying issue of bad soil may still remain. Without installing a deep foundation and/or conducting soil improvements this repair will only last up to 5 years at the most.
That's what I was thinking. He fixed the symptom but not necessarily the cause. There is probably a leaking sprinkler that is eroding the soil under the cement away.
@@wyomins But, not knowing the condition underneath...sealing the top is a quick and cheap fix. I sealed all the joints in my 3-wide driveway the first year after construction. It's now 25+ yrs and only two hairline surface cracks have appeared.
About to do the same to mine. However, in my experience with concrete I'd definitely "over-raise" the slab by about a half an inch. The concrete may shrink a bit, and also likely settle some with vehicle weight and presence of water. I'd certainly finish up by caulking that crack that remains...water is the death of pavements.
My original driveway didnt have rock under it, and it sunk. Replaced driveway with one foot of rock under it, and 10 years later it is as bad as when it was replaced. Sucks.....
This can work on a small section as shown. BAD idea on a large slab, you'll snap the corner right off. Most drives either have no rebar or light mesh that gets trampled to the bottom as the concrete gets poured. Large slabs need to be drilled and lifted using a foam or slurry that supports the bottom of the slab.
I liked your grass. I wonder if there was a way to "pump" in concrete instead of shoveling it in and hope for the best that it goes to the back or using that 'aircrete' stuff. Thanks for the video.
Thanks. I could successfully do exactly the same thing as shown in this video. Now I have a sunken area in the middle of my stamped concrete. Any idea how to lift that up?
I use a piece of scrap steel (from a fab shop) on the jack head because wood is too soft for very heavy loads and the ram will punch through the wood. Then with cement underneath I can sacrifice the metal.
My thought too. @Starlight Engram I liked this (and the music), but the project went a little pear-shaped with the jacking. I also saw that little board and my first thought was plate (or at least two, or three layers of wood!) . @Expressions-LTD I'm getting ready to nudge and level a section of my old concrete pool apron and there's stuff here that'll help. Thanks.
Not completely level there fella so the crack is not only lifted but unlevel still. C- would have been C+ but the whole bottle jack being left in place 👎 don't know what to call that 🤔 it's not ghetto, I know lazy 😔😔😔
Do you rember the concrete cube Hitler let Speer build in Berlin? It was to heavy and it sunk couple of decimeters each year. Its cooler to have a Atv or a 4 wheel drive when you dont need the plates perfect.
The section you raised is only about 2 feet wide....not a lot of weight, my driveway slabs are each about 10ft x 8 ft. I don't think they would budge with a bottle jack
I haul concrete, I have seen flowable mortar use in this application by contractors inspected by engineering firms. High strength of the concrete is not as important as filling the void.
oh, by the way used cinder block to support. filled with part way with gravel and topped off with cement when I made a footer.Of course not done by professional (which I couldn't afford but I figure it will out last me.
This is a great video. Is there much difference if you were raising one of the bigger pavement stones, the ones the vehicle sits on? Can it be raised from the edge similarly?
It's ABSOLUTE STUPIDITY for someone who sells concrete molds to say that. The stuff that should be mentioned but isn't by someone in the concrete business is ridiculous. You actually COULD HAVE covered the jack in plastic bags and put vaseline on the bottom and left it there then pulled it out a day later without any concrete sticking to the jack.
good diy job. to prevent future erosion of soil under the driveway, fill all the cracks. I used about 3 large caulk-gun tubes of sikaflex self leveling concrete sealant and backer rods to fill large gaps (total about $50USD). I did not use sikaflex on the expansion joints. Although the sealant seems to soften a bit under the summer sun, I don't think the sealant would allow the expansion joints to do their job. I'd use a silicone or acrylic caulk for expansion joints (IF I ever get around to it). 6 years later and all the sikaflex is holding up perfectly.
There's a good reason why slabs sink in some areas. Water run-off. Get that landscaping fixed first to divert water away or this will eventually happen again.
just wonder about the concrete, pouring this way will create bubbles and gap, it wont hold the slab, it will sink immediately, and make extra job to repair it again
Thanks for this! I asked my mom's neighbor who is a custom home builder and he acted like this couldn't be done??? Well here it is and I'm gonna do it!!!
Great video!!! Someone did mention that the issue was water washing away the support. This is probably true. It wasn't shown but I would have put down filler stone lateral to the 2x6 he used as a concrete form. or maybe even a formal french drain. Note that I saying "maybe do this slightly differently" rather than "this video sucks, should have done blah, blah, blah"
any footage will piss people off, I came to see all the "nice jobs but" or "next time use" or "your video did not receive approval from me" or "you should make your video how I see fit" or.
Dude 350 dollars to do that job is VERY REASONABLE, company truck, company employee 15 to 20 an hour, truck insurance, workers comp insurance, gas for the company truck, paid vacation for employee, health insurance for employee, tools to do said job, taxes, city,state and fed. Materials for job. I can go on all day. 350 dollars is VERY REASONABLE sir.
I'm sorry but I can still tell it's not level and is still down. Needs at least 1/4" if not more lifted. Just saying. Good idea with the concrete except I would have added gravel underneath.
Pretty good video. I do this for a living and this would be a great way to get you through the season. The issue is the soil underneath. When adding the jack and concrete to one spot you end up putting more weight in one area and this will cause it to sink over time. This was posted several years ago. Probably didn't hold up, but again good idea to get you through a season until you can get the $$ to do it right. Cheers!
We sold the place years ago, but did a drive-by last summer and I paid attention on just this area looking at the fix... and the area lifted with this jack still looked nice and flat
It’s not just about a couple bucks in material & a simple fix. It’s the time it takes hourly, Experience, tools, etc. It took more than a few minutes to do it. Most folks will just pay the pro if it’s just $350, to spend more time doing something with family, etc.
$350 is not bad to have it professionally done. This video is a nice little bandaid on the problem, professionals do a much more thorough job and have invested thousands in the equipment to have it properly fixed.
I mean man those are some swingin tunes there daddy-oh! I mean like man yer a real hip cat Jack. I mean like swingin groovy like cool on the beat daddy-oh...
I need to do the same with some of my pavement. I'm going to weld a jig with my everlast welder to help with jacking the slabs and keeping them level until everything is completed.
I have worked for a multinational formwork manufacturer and tge IDEA that you would leave a jack IN THE GROUND astounded me coming from a guy who is supposed to be selling molds and concrete stuff. Why would you not suggest putting oil or vaseline on the bottom and wrapping the jack in plastic bags? I mean we sold props that would hold over 10 ton but AT NO POINT would the engineers suggest POURING CONCRETE OVER a prop. So you're trying to SAVE MONEY but not using tradesmen but then WASTE MONEY by concreteing a perfect jack into the ground???
They make a special product for performing this task. Instead of concrete. And it's simple to use. It's just kinda hard to find. What it is is a special foam product made just for performing this task. It's just like that expandable foam that is used to fill gaps around doors and windows. And the best thing about this expandable foam is you can use it to lift low spots in the center of slabs. It's fairly simple to perform that task. Anyway the person in the video did ( what we call ) a temporary fix. After a few heavy rains it will sink again. But he saved himself $300.00. But 8 hours of his time at $40.00 a hour = $320.00 for a temporary fix. So did he really save any money?
