Concrete Demolition in Wheeler, Indiana: When a Failed Slab

You tap the driveway with your boot and hear a hollow knock. A corner of the slab rocks. Grass sits in a crack that runs from the apron toward the street. When you walk a Wheeler drive, that hollow spot means the slab has failed. Concrete Demolition in Wheeler is what we do when patching won’t hold that slab together anymore.

Temperatures in this part of Indiana drop below freezing and climb back up. So water sits in those cracks. Then it freezes and the crack widens. But salt from the road and the walk makes the surface scale. After a few seasons the top looks pitted. The slab no longer sits flat on the ground. We have pulled up slabs that sounded solid. Then they came out in pieces once the saw cut through.

A rocking section will take a patch for a short time. But the patch cracks where the old slab moves. People have called us when the walk to the door has a lip. Others have called when the pad by the garage holds a puddle after rain. After winter, that wear shows up on drives and on the short walks between the drive and the house.

A lot of the concrete we break out in Wheeler has been there since the house went up. A later widening on the drive can leave a seam where the new concrete met the old pour. Because those joints take the movement, that is where we often find the break. For example, a joint at the garage can open enough to catch a shovel tip.

A clean tear-out with Concrete Demolition in Wheeler

We start Concrete Demolition in Wheeler by marking the section that has to come out. When we look at a lot, a drive and the walk beside it often fail at different times. Because of that, we don’t always tear out every square foot on the lot. We saw-cut a clean line where the bad concrete meets a section that still sits tight. Then we break the failed piece and load it out.

After a patch pops out, people have called us. Others have called after a truck tire dropped into a soft spot. We have seen garage aprons push water up through a crack when a car rolls over them. When the concrete moves like that, more patch work only sits on a slab that is already loose. So the failed piece has to come out before we pour anything new. We haul the broken concrete off the property before we leave the job.

Cracked drives and walks on Wheeler properties can’t be patched forever. Old pads reach that point too. So breaking out the failed concrete is the first step before a new pour. We spell the tear-out and the new pour out line by line on the quote. The breakout is its own line on that quote.

Concrete Demolition in Wheeler before the new pour

After the breakout, we check the base. We dig out soft spots. Then we add stone and compact it so the new slab has something firm under it. For a drive or a service walk, that prep matters as much as the concrete itself. We also handle pour back on the same visit when the schedule allows. So the hole stays open only as long as the work needs.

A lot of this work sits on houses, so it falls under our residential concrete. A garage floor can get the same tear-out and replace treatment. When a patio has failed the same way, it can get that treatment too. We keep our concrete demolition work with the same crew that pours the replacement.

People in Wheeler have asked if they can fill a wide crack and leave it. When the crack is only a hairline and the slab still sits flat, concrete repair can hold. When the section rocks and has broken into loose pieces, Concrete Demolition in Wheeler comes first. Concrete removal on these jobs also covers the haul-off, so the broken pieces don’t sit on the lawn.

We are a family owned and operated company working across North West Indiana, including Wheeler. On a Wheeler lot, Concrete Demolition in Wheeler usually covers the saw cut and the haul-off. Then the base prep happens before the new concrete goes in. The photo gallery shows finished drives after the old slab is gone.

We also replace a short walk from the drive to the door when that concrete has failed too. After the slab is out, we can do the apron and the service walk as exterior flat work. We set the forms after the base is tight.