Driveway & Sidewalk Leveling in Pflugerville, TX

Driveways and sidewalks tip, sink and heave for different reasons, and in Pflugerville the clay is behind most of them. A driveway slab sits on a thin base of fill over native clay. When the clay under one panel dries and shrinks, or washes out near a joint, the panel drops. A sidewalk panel beside a street tree can rise when roots lift it. Both create a lip at the joint that catches a foot or a mower wheel. Leveling brings sunken panels back to the neighboring panel, usually by injecting foam or slurry through small holes in the slab. Heavy trucks, delivery vans and trailers speed this up, because they flex a weakly supported panel every time they cross it.

Pflugerville's growth shows up in its concrete. Newer subdivisions east of SH 130 and near FM 685 have driveways and sidewalks on freshly placed fill, which can settle for years as it takes on and loses water. Older sections of the city near Pecan Street may have concrete laid on different base conditions and more mature trees. Sidewalk ownership varies. In some areas the city handles repairs to public walkways, while in others the homeowner is responsible, so check with the City of Pflugerville before paying for work on a sidewalk in the right of way. Your HOA may also set rules for appearance. Before work starts, a good estimate lists each panel to be lifted, the target elevation and how the injection holes will be patched.

Leveling a driveway also changes how water flows. A panel that sinks near the garage can send water toward the door, while one that tilts toward the street can leave a low spot at the curb. Ask your contractor to check the slope when finished, and to keep the surface slightly pitched away from the house. Cracks and gaps left by the lift can be sealed so water does not return underneath. If a panel is broken into pieces or has a deep crack across it, replacement may make more sense than lifting. A contractor should say so plainly. Cutting a relief joint or sealing a seam after lifting can keep a panel from catching on its neighbor again.

A driveway is a long chain of concrete panels, each resting on soil that responds to weather. On clay soil around Pflugerville and Manor, the panels do not all move at the same rate. One panel near the downspout sinks. Another near a tree stays high. The joint between them turns into a step. A sidewalk has the same problem on a smaller scale, with one square tipped up an inch and the next square flat. Driveway and sidewalk leveling lifts those panels to match their neighbors. Small holes are drilled in the sunken section, material is injected to fill the void and push the panel up, and the holes are patched. The concrete stays in place. You avoid breaking out slabs, hauling debris, forming and waiting for new concrete to cure.

Foam, or polyurethane, leveling is the most common choice for driveways in our work. The foam is a lightweight material that expands under the slab and hardens quickly. Contractor sources put its weight at roughly 2 to 4 pounds per cubic foot, and describe a cure measured in minutes. Holes run about five eighths of an inch. Mudjacking uses a heavier slurry of cement, soil and water through larger holes, with a longer wait before traffic returns. For a driveway, the cure time matters. If you need to move a car out of the garage the same day, a faster-setting material is helpful. Always ask how long to wait before parking on the repair, since panels that carry vehicles need the material to reach working strength.

Water moves through Pflugerville along a handful of named creeks. Gilleland Creek begins northwest of town and runs about 27 miles to the Colorado River, and it was named for James Gilleland, an early settler. Wilbarger Creek rises north of town and drains east toward Bastrop County. Lake Pflugerville, the city's man-made lake, sits in the larger drainage network, and the city has built trails along the creek corridors. The terrain is gently rolling rather than steep, which sounds harmless until you remember that a few inches of fall across a whole subdivision sends sheet flow across many back yards before it reaches a ditch. Homes on the low side of a street, or backing onto a greenbelt or drainage easement, often receive the water that came off five or six lots uphill. Knowing which way your lot drains, and who is upstream, is the first real step in any fix. A fence line or raised bed can be enough to dam that sheet flow against a back wall.