Concrete Floor Cracks From Sinking/Settling Slabs

AquaGuard Foundation Solutions repairs cracked floors with warranted solutions

Illustration of a restored foundation floor using our deep driven concrete slab piers to help stabilize the floor permanently.

The problem:

Your concrete slab floor is showing signs of sinking, sagging, or settlement. Your floor may be cracking, or the walls may be separating from the floor below or ceiling above.

Telltale signs:

• Cracks in the concrete floor
• Interior wall cracks, commonly off the corners of interior doors
• Interior walls separating from the ceiling, forming a gap between the wall and ceiling
• Walls pulling away from adjacent walls
• Floors dropping and separating from the walls, forming a gap between the floor and wall

The solution:

Our company can permanently stabilize your failing slab foundation by installing our warranted slab pier system. Our slab pier system is especially effective when local soil conditions are unknown because the piers are driven deep, to strong supporting soils, ensuring long-term support.

AquaGuard Foundation Solutions is your local foundation repair contractor capable of fixing each and every foundation issue your home may be experiencing. Don't let your cracked foundation floor get worse, call us for a free floor slab repair quote today!

Our service area is within Northern Georgia, including: Marietta, Atlanta, Decatur, Alpharetta, Lawrenceville, Norcross, Stone Mountain, Gainesville, Roswell, Athens and areas nearby!

Signs of slab settlement

Foundation settlement is an issue that can start off as a small problem and eventually spread into several larger problems around the home. 

When a home experiences settlement there are signs both inside and outside the home that will emerge and can soon manifest itself in many ways. Signs of foundation settlement in Georgia are cracks in your concrete floor, dropping floors and separating walls, gaps between floors and walls, walls pulling down and separating from the adjacent surfaces.

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What causes a concrete floor slab to settle?

The soil underneath and surrounding your home is one of the main causes for foundation settlement in Georgia. Where foundation settlement is basically the movement a home experiences when the soil below can no longer support the weight the home - causing interior and exterior structural damage.

When a concrete floor settles, the heavy weight a home exerts becomes unevenly distributed, potentially causing serious damage to your home. Foundation problems accompanied with foundation settlement may initially seem minor at first but may develop into larger, more devastating repairs.

The three most common causes of settling concrete floor slabs are as follows:

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Drying/shrinking of soils under the slab

Washout of soil underneath the slab

Poor compaction of foundation fill soils

You shouldn't be concerned with the foundation of your home collapsing, with a simple call to AquaGuard Foundation Solutions, we can quickly identify the cause of your home foundation issues and the necessary solutions to permanently stabilize your home!

If you would like contact us for a free foundation slab stabilization quote to identify and address your foundation problem, call or e-mail us today!

We install Foundation Supportworks™ Slab Pier System for permanent stabilization

Foundation Supportworks™ Slab Pier System has the best ability to provide an opportunity to lift your concrete slab back to its original positioning - re-leveling the floor and often times closing cracks and eliminating trip hazards around the home.

To install our patented slab pier system, our contractors will take these six steps:

Preparing for installation

Before the installation day of our slab pier system, a representative from our company will have already visited your property and inspected your foundation issue. At that time, a foundation repair proposal was put in writing along with a map of where the slab pier locations will be installed.

At the beginning of each slab pier installation, a small hole is cored specifically at each mapped position through your concrete slab floor. This hole will create an access point for the slab piers that are about to be installed.

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Positioning the slab bracket

The Foundation Supportworks™ Slab Pier System utilizes a unique three-piece slab bracket that is assembled underneath your concrete floor, allowing for a much smaller and concealed hole to be cored in your concrete slab. Additionally, the larger the bracket - the more surface area it covers, allowing for an equal distribution or spread of the load.

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Steel tube installation

Steel tubes are then hydraulically driven or advanced deep into the ground, past any troubled soil that may have been causing your foundation issues beforehand. This way, once installed, your slab will be supported down to strong, competent soils - to stabilize the home.

To ensure the quality and long-lasting strength of your slab pier system these steel tubes are designed with galvanized steel to resist corrosion. These tubes are the real strength of the foundation pier system -- and are responsible for transferring the home weight to strong supporting soils.

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Transfer slab weight to soil

With the brackets and tubes installed and in place, the weight of the concrete slab is transferred through the piers down to the load-bearing strata far beneath your home.

As the system lifts your concrete slab floor upwards, the sinking movement of your floor will be permanently halted along with the best possibility to re-level the slab.

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Inject grout fill

Once the concrete slab has been lifted, a void will be present underneath the floor.

Additionally, if your floor had been sinking because of compacted soil or washout, a gap existed even before the installation.

To address this, we carefully pump grout under the slab to fill in all empty spaces.

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The cleanup

At AquaGuard Foundation Solutions, we take pride in leaving your home looking clean and neat. Once the installation is completed, we repair all cored holes neatly with concrete - making your final installation virtually invisible.

Any debris generated during the installation is cleaned up and removed by us. And once we're done, you can rest easy, knowing that that you have a 25-year warranty on manufacturer's defects, as well as a performance warranty from us.

Not all foundation solutions are effective

Foundation damage is a problem to take seriously, some methods are extremely expensive and others are disruptive to your property and some don't even tackle the actual cause of the problem! That's why it's important to have one of our in-house foundation repair specialists fully inspect and analyze your foundation before any repairs are made.

Here are two "repairs" that we do NOT recommend:

This photograph shows a concrete slab being jack-hammered and removed during a floor replacement in Carrollton. A typical replacement can take several weeks to complete.

Concrete slab replacement:

In order to conduct a concrete slab replacement in your home - all home furnishings, floor coverings and interior partition walls must first be removed out of the home. Then a jack-hammer crew breaks the existing floor slab into small pieces and removes each piece from the home by hand.

Then a new floor is poured and allowed to cure for at least two weeks. Then interior partition walls can be re-built, floor coverings re-installed, and home furnishings brought back in.

While this situation is obviously disruptive and expensive to both your wallet and your property, the real problem isn't even addressed! The floor isn't the problem; the soil beneath the 'new foundation slab' is the problem. A concrete slab replacement is ineffective because it's basically a brand new concrete foundation over the same troublesome soil - so you can expect that your new floor will "break" just like the old one did!

A contractor smoothing out a surface and re-leveling grout during a concrete slab repair. The previous concrete floor had shown cracks during settlement.

Re-leveling grout on top of the slab:

To begin this process, all floor coverings that were placed on the slab must be removed. The floor is then prepared so that grout will be able to bond with the slab surface.

A self-leveling grout is poured along the slab surface, where it begins to fill in the low portion of the floor and create a level surface. After the grout is allowed to cure for several days, the floor coverings can be replaced.

However, if the floor wasn't prepared properly, the grout may not bond well to the surface of the slab and it may break off in chunks. Additionally, the grout will add weight to the slab, potentially making the situation worse by causing further settlement. Similarly to the concrete slab replacement method the real problem of soil settlement is not addressed - leading to potentially more costly repairs down the road.

AquaGuard Foundation Solutions is Georgia's responsible foundation repair company

At AquaGuard Foundation Solutions, we bring structural integrity back to buildings and residential foundations throughout Northern Georgia. Our in-house foundation repair contractors can repair your settling foundations as well as your bowing, cracked, and damaged residential foundation.

Don't let your foundation get any worse - contact us today for a free slab repair quote. Where one of our in-house foundation repair specialists will visit your property and correctly identify the cause of your failing slab foundation and the recommended solution for your home. To schedule your appointment, call or e-mail us today!

Our service area includes Atlanta, Marietta, Decatur, Alpharetta, Lawrenceville, Norcross, Stone Mountain, Gainesville, Roswell, Athens, and cities throughout Northern Georgia.

Related Pages

• The Foundation Supportworks™ Slab Pier System
• Causes Of Uneven Floors

Drying & Shrinking of the Soil Under the Slab

HVAC (Heating, Venting, and Air Conditioning) systems may be installed beneath the floor slab. Over time, the ductwork can leak air, which can dry out the soil.

As the soil dries and shrinks, gaps form under the floor slab, creating voids. Because the soil no longer supports the floor slab, the floor begins to crack and sink into the voids.

Washout of Soil Under the Slab

This is usually caused by plumbing leaks. If the plumbing leak is severe and there is a path for the water to flow through, it can wash soil out from under the slab.

With a void underneath the floor, there's nothing supporting the concrete slab anymore. In time, it begins to crack and sink downwards.

Poor Compaction of Fill Soil

During construction of a new home, layers of soil are commonly moved around or spread out to get to the desired grade level. When the home is built, footings may be deepened to extend below weak fill soils and avoid a foundation settlement issue.

The slab, however, remains on the fill soils. If the fill was poorly compacted, the fill soil compresses and settles, and a void is formed under the slab. In time, the slab cracks, breaks, and settles into the void.

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