PolyLevel vs. Mudjacking: Which Solution is Right for You?

 

If you have an uneven driveway or sidewalk and have looked into concrete leveling, you’ve probably heard of mudjacking as well as “Poly” something, but you may not know what the difference is. If you’ve Googled some iteration of “sinking concrete,” you know that there are multiple companies who offer multiple solutions and everyone claims theirs is the best. One of the oldest and most often advertised is mudjacking. It’s not an attractive word, and it’s an even worse process that, at the end of the day, doesn’t work.

 

Mudjacking is a longstanding, and at one point the only, method of raising concrete slabs that experience sinking due to soil washout and other void causing situations. The mudjacking process involves mixing soil with concrete or other material and creating a “mud” (hence the name) that is injected into the void to raise the concrete slab to its original placement. Some companies still use mudjacking, but obviously there’s another solution if there’s a “vs” in this post title.

 

Our “poly something” is called PolyLevel, and you may see other similar terms in the vernacular, but it refers to a system that uses a two part polyurethane polymer to fill voids and lift concrete slabs to their original position.

 

So what’s the difference? We can talk all day about applications and methods but, for your purposes, it comes down to two things: How long will it take, and how long will it last.

 

How long will it take?

 

Mudjacking: After injection, mudjacking can take 24 to 72 hours to cure and allow the lifted concrete to be weight bearing again.

 

PolyLevel: Curing can take as little as 10 minutes, but we generally say to give it an hour.

 

Why this matters: It’s important to be able to park in your driveway, or walk on your sidewalk, or use your porch steps. PolyLevel gives that back to you in an hour instead of causing days of inconvenience.

 

How long will it last (under normal conditions)?

 

Reports on mudjacking vary, so a comprehensive range can be considered 5-10 years, depending on conditions. This is because, at the end of the day, the slurry being used to lift the slab is still partly made of dirt (“mud”). Since the initial problem occurred because of soil shift and erosion, it’s only logical that, eventually, the replacement substance will erode or wash away in a similar fashion.

 

PolyLevel can last indefinitely. It’s inorganic, it’s not sensitive to water so it won’t wash away. Once the PolyLevel foam is injected, it’s there to stay. Unlike the material used in mudjacking, the PolyLevel polymer won’t break down or disintegrate, avoiding all of the problems of wash our and erosion.

 

The one thing that mudjacking has in common with our PoyLevel concrete lifting process is that it involves injecting material under the slab. But that’s where the similarities end. Mudjacking uses a slurry that’s a combination of concrete and, well, mud. Sounds great, right? Not quite.

Concrete settles when soil washes out and leaves the slab(s) unsupported. If soil washes out once, there’s nothing to stop it from washing out again. Mud is just wet soil. You can probably see what I’m getting at, here; if the soil washed out once, it will wash out again. Mixing some concrete into it won’t be enough to resist the force of water, and you’ll be right back where you started - with sunken concrete.

With a less disruptive, quicker process, and longer lasting results, it’s clear that PolyLevel is the winning choice. Call us today and stop worrying about your sinking and sloping concrete. For good.