Repair · Hutto, TX
Concrete repair companies and the cracks Hutto clay leaves behind
Joints, cracks, spalled edges and broken panels on driveways, walks, patios and steps. Some are worth fixing, some aren't, and the crack itself usually tells you which.
Diagnosis
Concrete repair specialists read the crack first
Different cracks, different causes, different fixes. Move the loupe over the slab and read each one.
Inspect a slab with the loupe
Move the loupe over the slab. Keyboard: focus the drawing, then use the arrow keys or Next spot.
Map cracking (crazing). Cosmetic A web of hairlines in the top skin, usually from fast surface drying or over-finishing. It doesn't go deep and doesn't need repair; a sealer can make it less visible.
- Map cracking (crazing)Cosmetic
- A web of hairlines in the top skin, usually from fast surface drying or over-finishing. It doesn't go deep and doesn't need repair; a sealer can make it less visible.
- Parallel shallow cracksSeal if open
- Plastic shrinkage: short cracks 1 to 3 ft apart that formed in the first hours on a hot, windy pour. Shallow; seal the wider ones to keep water out.
- Crack with one side higherSoil movement
- The clay under one side moved. If it's still moving season to season, patching won't hold; the panel gets saw-cut and replaced, with the water source fixed.
- Spalled joint edgeRepairable
- Chipped concrete along a joint, often from a joint that filled with debris or took a hard edge load. Saw, chip back to sound concrete and patch with a repair mortar.
- Open joint, no sealantEasy fix
- Water goes straight down into the clay here every storm. Clean it out, add backer rod and a flexible sealant.
- Broken cornerPanel or partial
- Corners crack off when the soil under them washes out or a wheel rides the edge. Small ones get a partial-depth repair; big ones mean replacing that panel.
First opinion
Concrete repair services near me: five photos to send
Most repairs can be sorted from a phone before anyone drives out.
Email five photos and your address to info@eliteconcretehutto.com. From those we can usually tell you whether it's a repair, a replacement, or not our kind of job, and roughly what drives the cost. That saves you a visit from us, or from anyone else, that ends in "it's a foundation problem."
The coin matters. A crack you can slip a quarter into reads very differently from a hairline, and a photo without scale can't tell them apart.
Frame the five shots
Press the shutter to frame each shot in turn.
Shot 1 of 5: The whole area. Step back far enough to get the whole slab and the house or curb next to it. We need to see what the damage is attached to.
- The whole area. Step back far enough to get the whole slab and the house or curb next to it. We need to see what the damage is attached to.
- The worst crack, with a coin. Shoot straight down with a quarter beside the crack. The coin tells us width; an angle shot also shows any step between the sides.
- A joint and an edge. One close shot along a joint line and one of a slab edge. Spalls, gaps and missing sealant show up here.
- Where the water goes. The downspout nearest the damage and the path water takes off the slab. Half of all repair questions are drainage questions.
- How we'd get equipment in. The driveway, the gate width and anything overhead. It decides saw, breaker and concrete delivery.
Field notes: methods
Fixes concrete repair contractors use, from sealant to new panels
Five repairs cover most of what Hutto flatwork needs.
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Joint and crack sealing
Clean, rout if needed, backer rod, flexible sealant. Cheap, fast, and the best thing you can do for a slab on clay because it keeps storm water out of the soil under it. -
Partial-depth spall repair
Saw around the damage, chip to sound concrete, bond and patch with a repair mortar. For chipped joints and edges where the slab underneath is fine. -
Step and edge rebuilds
Broken nosings and stoop edges are formed and rebuilt, or the step is replaced when the base under it has gone. -
Panel replacement
Saw-cut at the joints, remove the panel, fix the soil and water problem, re-pour with dowels into the neighbors (Hutto's code dowels driveway and sidewalk joints). The repair that lasts on moving clay. -
Grinding trip edges
For small, stable lips on walks. Fast and cheap, as long as the panel has stopped moving.
Honest answers
Concrete repair companies near me that will say "replace"
A repair you'll redo in two summers is not a saving.
Some damage is a symptom. If a panel keeps dropping because a downspout empties under it, or a slab cracks across because the clay under it dried unevenly, patching the crack treats the wrong thing. When the base has failed, the honest call is replacement of the affected panels, joint to joint.
Sunken but unbroken panels are the in-between case. Mudjacking (a cement grout pumped under the slab) and foam lifting (an expanding polyurethane) both fill the void and raise the panel. Neither is our work; both are worth a call to a lifting company when the panel is whole and the water problem is fixed. A panel that is cracked through as well as sunken is usually better replaced.
The other side of that: plenty of slabs are tired on top but sound underneath. Those don't need tear-out. An overlay or resurfacing gives them a new surface for less. And when the whole thing has to go, the driveway replacement page covers what a new one involves.
We are a concrete contractor in Hutto, and some of our best calls end with "you don't need us yet."
Scan under a sunken walk
Drag the scan bar sideways, or focus it and use the arrow keys.
- A downspout emptying at the slab edge. Every storm sends roof water under the first panel. On clay it either washes fines out or keeps one strip swollen while the rest dries. Extend or redirect it before any repair.
- A void under the sunken panel. Soil washed out or shrank away, and the panel followed it down. Whole panel: a lifting company can fill and raise it. Cracked through: replace it and fix the water first.
- A tree root under the raised edge. Roots follow moisture under the nearest slab and lift it from below. Grinding the lip or replacing the panel lasts only as long as the root problem stays solved.
- An old utility trench. Backfill in a plumbing or utility trench that wasn't compacted in lifts keeps settling for years. The dip follows the trench line, and the fix includes recompacting it.
Section drawing, not to scale. The usual causes under Hutto flatwork; a test hole or a lifted panel shows which one you have.
Cost
Concrete repair cost factors
Repairs are mostly setup and labor; the concrete itself is a small line.
Sealing vs. panel replacement
Sealing is the cheapest per foot; panel replacement involves saw, breaker, haul-off and a pour.
Feet of crack or joint
Ten feet of joint and two hundred feet cost very differently per foot, because setup is fixed.
Fixing the water or soil cause
Redirecting a downspout or regrading is part of a lasting repair and part of the price.
Matching aggregate, color or stamp
Exposed aggregate, color or stamped surfaces take more to blend.
Access for saw and breaker
Backyard patios and steps behind gates mean hand tools and wheelbarrows.
Questions
Repair questions we hear most
Can you fill cracks so they don't come back?
No, not if the slab is still moving. A filled crack in moving concrete reopens; the filler keeps water out in the meantime, which is still worth doing. Stable cracks can be routed and sealed and stay closed.
Do you lift sunken slabs with foam?
No. Foam lifting and mudjacking are specialist work with their own equipment. If your slab is sound and just settled, we'll tell you to call a lifting company; if it's broken as well as sunken, replacing the panel is usually better value.
Will a patch match the color of the old concrete?
No, not exactly. New concrete and repair mortar start lighter and weather toward the old color over time. Replacing whole panels joint to joint looks more deliberate than a patch in the middle of one.
Did the February 2021 freeze damage my concrete?
Rarely. Hutto's weathering rating is "Negligible," and most cracks people noticed after Uri were already there. Water lines and irrigation that burst under or beside slabs did more harm than the cold itself; check for washed-out soil.
Do you repair foundations?
No. Cracks in a house foundation, or doors that stick, are a job for a structural engineer and a foundation repair company. We repair flatwork: driveways, walks, patios, steps and pads.
Start a quote
Send photos of the concrete damage
Use the five-shot list above. Add your address and how long the damage has been there. If it's getting worse season to season, say so; that's the most useful thing we can know.
- Call or text: (737) 201-1843
- Photos and plans: info@eliteconcretehutto.com