Concrete Repair & Leveling in Binghamton, NY

Concrete repair and leveling can bring a sunken walk, driveway panel or set of steps back to grade for a fraction of the cost of replacing it. HomeGuide's leveling guide lists concrete leveling at $3 to $12 a square foot overall, against $6 to $15 for replacement. In Binghamton, where the City Code requires owners to restore a public sidewalk that has heaved or settled more than one inch, lifting a sound panel can be the quickest way to fix a trip edge. The catch is that repair only works on concrete that is still in one piece and still solid.

Repair or replace?

Good candidates for repair:

• A panel that sank as one piece but is not broken up
• Steps or a stoop that settled evenly
• A surface with light, shallow scaling on otherwise solid concrete
• Hairline cracks that have not shifted

Better to replace:

• Slabs broken into many pieces
• Deep scaling across most of the surface, with loose stone showing
• Crumbling edges and spalling
• Cracks wider than a quarter inch, which HomeGuide notes can point to deeper problems
• A slab that keeps sinking because the soil or drainage under it is failing

At the estimate we tell you which group your concrete falls in. If both work, you get both prices.

Lifting sunken concrete

There are two common ways to raise a slab. Mudjacking pumps a cement-based slurry through holes drilled in the slab to fill the void and float it back up. Polyjacking, or foam lifting, uses expanding polyurethane foam through smaller holes; it is lighter and cures quickly. HomeGuide lists mudjacking at $4 to $9 a square foot and polyjacking at $8 to $25, with minimum job charges of $300 to $700. It also says leveled concrete generally lasts 5 to 10 years or more, with mudjacking typically lasting 5 to 7 years when drainage is kept in check.

Lifting does not fix the reason the slab sank. If a downspout is emptying beside the walk or water runs under the driveway, we point that out, because the same washout will happen again.

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Resurfacing worn tops

A lot of older concrete around Binghamton is structurally fine but ugly, with a scaled, pitted surface from decades of salt and freezing. If the slab underneath is sound and level, a resurfacing layer can give it a new face. HomeGuide's resurfacing guide lists $3 to $5 a square foot for a basic driveway resurfacing and $3 to $7 for patios and walkways, and says resurfacing lasts 8 to 15 years. It also notes that if the new layer would need to be more than 2 inches thick, replacement is the better route.

Crack sealing

Sealing cracks keeps water out, and in a freeze-thaw climate that matters: water that gets into a crack freezes, expands and pries it wider every winter. HomeGuide lists crack filling at $0.50 to $3 a linear foot. It is a maintenance step, not a cure for a slab that is moving.

Replacing single panels

Sometimes the right answer is in between: cut out the one or two failed panels and pour new ones, leaving the rest of the driveway or walk alone. New concrete will not match old concrete in color right away, but a clean panel replacement fixes the problem area without the cost of a full tear-out. On public sidewalks, panel replacement falls under the same Street Work Permit and assistance program as a full rebuild.

Keeping repaired concrete going

Keep downspouts and sump lines discharging away from slabs, reseal surfaces every few years, fill new cracks early and avoid ammonium-based de-icers. Those habits stretch the life of a repair the same way they stretch the life of new concrete.