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Concrete Leveling in McKinney, TX
Sunken driveway sections, a patio pitched toward the house, the sidewalk slab everyone trips on. Lifted back with polyurethane foam in an afternoon, at roughly a third of what replacement costs.
First, this is not foundation repair
Worth being clear about, because the terms get used interchangeably and they shouldn’t be. Concrete leveling raises flatwork — driveways, patios, walkways, pool decks, garage floors, porch slabs. It does not raise a house. Lifting a structural foundation requires piers driven to load-bearing soil, and no amount of injected foam substitutes for that.
Where the two connect is diagnostic. A driveway that has sunk three inches against the garage, or a patio now sloping back toward the house, tells you the soil in that area lost volume. That same soil continues under your slab. Flatwork is often the early warning, which is why we run an elevation survey on the house while we’re out for a leveling quote.
How foam lifting works
We drill penny-sized holes through the slab, usually five-eighths of an inch, in a grid over the sunken area. Two-component polyurethane goes in through a port. It reacts, expands, fills the voids underneath, and then keeps expanding against the resistance of the soil until it starts lifting the slab.
The lift is controlled — small amounts of material, checked continuously with a level, moving port to port. Foam cures within about fifteen minutes. Holes get patched with grout. You can drive on it the same day.
Two properties make this work well in Blackland clay. The foam is light, around four pounds per cubic foot cured, so it adds essentially no load to soil that already couldn’t hold what was on it. And it’s closed-cell and hydrophobic, so it doesn’t absorb groundwater or wash out.
Foam vs. mudjacking
Mudjacking is the older method — a slurry of sand, cement, and water pumped through two-inch holes. It’s cheaper per job and it still has a place, particularly on thick industrial slabs.
For residential work in expansive clay, foam usually wins. The slurry weighs roughly a hundred pounds per cubic foot against foam’s four, which means you’re adding significant weight to soil that already failed to support the slab. Slurry can also wash out over time and doesn’t travel into small voids well. The holes are much larger and more visible, and cure time is longer.
Foam costs more up front. On a driveway you’re going to look at for twenty years, it’s the better spend.
What we level in McKinney
- Driveways — especially the apron at the street and the section meeting the garage, where a lip develops and catches bumpers
- Sidewalks and walkways — trip hazards, and a real liability question if the walk is between the street and your door
- Patios — the ones that have started draining toward the house instead of away from it, which turns a cosmetic problem into a foundation problem
- Pool decks — common where backfill around the shell was never properly compacted
- Garage floors — including where the slab has separated from the foundation wall
- Porch and stoop slabs — settling away from the entry, opening a gap at the threshold
- Void filling under a foundation — after piering, foam can fill gaps left where soil pulled away from the slab underside
When leveling is the wrong answer
Some slabs should be replaced, and we’ll tell you when yours is one of them.
Concrete that’s spiderwebbed with cracks, crumbling at the surface, or broken into more than a few pieces doesn’t lift as a unit — it lifts in fragments and looks worse than when you started. Slabs thinner than about three inches often crack under the lift. And if the section is badly spalled or the aggregate is exposed across the surface, you’re paying to raise concrete that’s at the end of its life anyway.
Good candidates are slabs that are structurally sound but sitting too low: intact, minimal cracking, sunk as a piece.
Concrete leveling cost in McKinney
| Work | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Single sidewalk slab | $300 – $600 |
| Driveway apron or garage transition | $700 – $1,800 |
| Full driveway section | $1,500 – $4,000 |
| Patio | $1,000 – $3,000 |
| Pool deck | $2,000 – $6,000 |
| Void filling beneath a foundation | Quoted by material volume |
Priced by area and by how much material the voids take, which isn’t fully knowable until injection starts. We quote a range with a not-to-exceed rather than a number that changes on you mid-job. Replacement of the same concrete typically runs two to three times these figures.
Back to foundation repair in McKinney, or read about drainage correction — because whatever washed out or dried out under that slab is usually still doing it.
Concrete leveling questions
How long does it take?
Most residential jobs are half a day. A single sidewalk slab can be an hour. Foam cures in about fifteen minutes, so you’re walking on it almost immediately and driving on it the same day — one of the main advantages over replacement, which takes you out of a driveway for a week.
Will you see the holes afterward?
Somewhat. They’re about five-eighths of an inch and we patch them with a grout matched as closely as we can, but on colored, stamped, or exposed-aggregate concrete the patches will be visible up close. On a broom-finished gray driveway they blend well within a few months of weathering. If appearance is critical, say so and we’ll discuss placement.
Will it sink again?
The foam won’t compress or wash out. Whether the slab moves again depends on whether you fixed what caused it. If a downspout is still dumping at the driveway edge or a tree is still drying that soil, expect movement to continue. Handle the water and the lift generally holds.
Can you level a slab that has cracked in half?
Usually yes — a single clean crack often lifts fine, and the two pieces can be brought back nearly flush. What doesn’t work is concrete broken into many pieces, or crumbling at the edges. We’ll look and tell you honestly whether it’s a lift or a replacement.
My driveway sank but the house seems fine. Should I worry?
Not necessarily worry, but do check. Driveways are thinner, lightly reinforced, and sit on less-prepared soil than a house pad, so they show soil movement earlier and more dramatically. That’s often all it means. Since we’re already there with a level, we’ll survey the house at no charge and you’ll know either way.
Lift it instead of replacing it
Free quote, and a free elevation survey of the house while we’re out. Most jobs are done in half a day.