What Causes an Uneven Driveway?
Any homeowner with a vehicle understands how vital a properly functioning driveway is for their daily routine. Pulling in from a long day at work or setting up an impromptu game of basketball are just some of your driveway’s many uses. However, external forces can lead to an uneven driveway, most of which you can’t control. Thankfully, FSS has concrete lifting solutions that keep your driveway protected from these uncontrollable forces – read on to learn more.
Many different factors cause an uneven driveway, but they all stem from weak soil. Weather is the most common cause of weak soil, but some issues also arise after construction.
Uneven Driveway Explained
Spotting an uneven driveway is easy. Simply, when sections of your driveway seem to rest lower or higher than other sections, your driveway is uneven. These uneven sections will likely be accompanied by cracks, so keep an eye out for cracks in your concrete as well. Unfortunately, an uneven driveway leads to many issues that affect your every day life.
Vehicles that drive over uneven concrete are at risk for damage. You may end up with suspension problems as your car suddenly shifts from level concrete to unlevel concrete. If this process is repeated for a long time, your tires will suffer as well. In the worse case scenario, the bottom of your car may scrape against uneven concrete, which leads to serious damage.
Not to mention, uneven driveways are tripping hazards for anyone living or working on your property. Also, believe it or not, gaps and cracks in an uneven driveway provide a hiding place for pests like snakes or wasps. If this is the case, these animals could also cause injury to anyone visiting your property.
Soil Washout
Soil washout is what happens when large amounts of water makes contact with soil. Homeowners in Austin and San Antonio should identify what kind of soil is in their yard – sandy loam or clay. If you have sandy loam soil, your yard is at higher risk for soil washout. That’s because the lighter soil particles found in sandy loam are easily washed away by water. Rain is the main culprit when it comes to soil washout, but sprinklers and faulty gutters or drainpipes can also be to blame. No matter how water gets into your yard, it has the potential to erode the ground and make it unable to support your heavy concrete driveway.
Drought and Dry Soils
Texas is known for its mostly arid environment, and the areas within Travis County and Bexar County are no exception. During most of the year, the dry heat can be oppressive. Eventually, the dryness removes any kind of moisture from the soil in your yard. When soil is dried out like this, it shrinks in size and becomes brittle – especially the clay soil found in many parts of Austin and San Antonio. This shrinkage forms a gap between your concrete driveway and the soil. Gravity takes over and the affected sections of your driveway sink unevenly into the gaps.
Expansive Soils
Clay soil can also experience another negative side effect when exposed to water. Much like soil washout, expansive soils are triggered by rain, faulty drainage systems, or sprinklers in your yard. When water is absorbed by expansive soils, they grow in size. As they expand, they put pressure on your concrete driveway. Concrete might be strong, but it wasn’t built to be flexible. Inevitably, the concrete cracks while other sections of your driveway jut up into the air. You’re left with an uneven driveway that might trip loved ones or cause damage to vehicles that drive over it.
FAQs
Here’s the thing, levelling a driveway by hand might sound like a sensible solution. You’ll save money because you won’t be hiring a professional repair company, right? Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be the case. Lifting and leveling concrete is hard work and requires expensive tools not available to the average consumer. Moreover, refilling damaged concrete with asphalt or concrete from your local hardware store isn’t going to solve the real problem – weak soil. Eventually, the soil will just damage the newly placed concrete or asphalt again, and you’ll be left paying for repairs a second time. Stay away from DIY solutions when it comes to concrete. Professional services from FSS will keep you safe and save you money in the long run with a permanent solution to the problem.
Stopping your driveway from becoming uneven requires professional tools. FSS uses polyurethane injection, a modern approach to concrete lifting that uses the same idea as mudjacking but gets rid of the mess and the long completion times. Polyurethane is a foam material that essentially starts as a liquid. Using specialized equipment, our team injects the solution below uneven concrete, where it quickly expands and hardens enough to support the weight of your driveway in just 30 minutes. Polyurethane also protects against soil washout, dry conditions, and expansive soils by acting as a barrier between the soil and your driveway.
Polyurethane is better in all facets. Mudjacking was used for years as a concrete lifting solution and is still offered by many companies. However, mudjacking doesn’t provide 100% permanent solution like polyurethane does. Since mudjacking literally relies on injecting mud below your concrete, it runs into the same problems as the original soil. In Texas, the dry environment eventually dries out the mud and causes the same issues that your concrete ran into before. Polyurethane permanently defends against all the causes of concrete problem signs which makes it the better option.
How FSS Fixes an Uneven Driveway
Since an uneven driveway stems from problematic soil, our company uses polyurethane injection to provide a strong, durable barrier that takes soil out of the equation. FSS uses PolyRenewal™, the best polyurethane injection system on the market. When the polyurethane foam is injected below your concrete, it quickly fills any voids in the soil that are causing your driveway to sink or stick out.
As the polyurethane closes these gaps, the material hardens and provides newfound support for your concrete. Even better, polyurethane is waterproof and won’t dry out in intense heat, so the common causes of soil damage won’t affect your driveway in the future.
Explore Solutions
We understand an uneven driveway may seem out of your control, but our concrete lifting solutions put you back into the driver’s seat. Using PolyRenewal™, our innovative polyurethane injection system, your concrete is lifted and supported the same day as installation. Polyurethane dries in just 30 minutes which means you can get back to your regular routine with minimal disruption and feel confident that your concrete won’t become damaged again.
Protect Your Driveway with Help from FSS
Your driveway is arguably the most important concrete structure on your property because you use it nearly every day. Thankfully, our professional team has years of experience working with concrete solutions. We use American-made products that are durable and strong. Clients in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Victoria continue to turn to us for our impeccable customer service and quality solutions. To learn more about our family-owned business, or to schedule a free inspection, contact us today!
