Sunken driveways, tripping sidewalks, tilted patios, and settled garage slabs — lifted back to level with high-density polyurethane foam or traditional mudjacking. Cures in 15 minutes. Drive on it the same day.
A licensed local crew — usually out in 24 to 72 hours. Written scope, fixed price, no pressure.
Marvin concrete-lifting calls come from three specific places and I can predict which one before I even pull up to the house. First and most common: a 2005-through-2012 custom in Firethorne or Longview with a stamped concrete pool deck that has settled a half-inch to two inches away from the pool coping along one section, usually the south-facing side that gets the most solar cycling. Second: a Marvin Rd or New Town Rd estate lot where the long entry driveway — sometimes 300 feet from the road to the porte-cochere — has developed a series of low spots at the joints because the sub-base was under-compacted when the house was built. Third: garage floor slab settlement adjacent to the foundation on 2008-through-2015 customs where the builder dumped fill against a fresh foundation wall and never let it settle before pouring the garage slab. All three problems have the same fix — polyurethane foam injection through 5/8-inch ports drilled into the slab — but the diagnostic and the sequencing are different for each one, and getting the diagnostic wrong wastes the homeowner's money.
Two Aprils ago I got a call from a 2010 Firethorne custom off Firethorne Country Club Dr with the classic pool deck problem. Owner had spent 12 grand on the original stamped deck in 2010 — Brickform pattern with an integral color, professional install — and by 2024 the section adjacent to the deep end had dropped almost two inches. Cracks had started running through the stamped pattern parallel to the pool coping. A pool contractor had quoted her a full tear-out and re-pour for around 28 grand and told her polyfoam would not work on a stamped deck because it would crack the surface. That is not true. Foam injection through 5/8-inch ports done correctly leaves a pattern of small circular patches that we tint to match the base color of the stamp — invisible from three feet away. What actually caused the deck settlement was not the deck: it was the pool builder using unwashed native fill for the sub-base under the deck section, which consolidated over 14 years of freeze-thaw and heavy irrigation cycling. We lifted the deck section back to level in a four-hour visit, patched the joint separation at the coping, and she never had to touch the stamp pattern. That is the pattern under half the Marvin custom pool decks in this town.
Every Marvin concrete-lifting job starts with a diagnostic walk and a probe of the affected slab. On a stamped pool deck, I walk the entire perimeter with a laser level referenced off a fixed point on the house or the pool coping, mark elevations every three feet along the deck edges, and identify the low spot and its extent. I probe the joints between adjacent slabs for separation, note any cracks running through the stamped pattern, and check the pool coping for tile or grout separation where the deck has pulled away. On a driveway, same laser-level walk, marking elevations every 10 feet along the wheel paths from the road to the garage, and noting where the low spots concentrate. Most Firethorne and Longview driveways settle in the transition zone between the road apron and the property line, where the sub-base transitions from municipal-grade compacted base to whatever the site contractor threw in.
Second step is figuring out what is under the slab. On a pool deck in Firethorne or Longview, the sub-base is almost always native red clay fill that the pool contractor scraped up and pushed into place when the pool was excavated. On the driveways along Marvin Rd, New Town Rd, and Marvin Meadows Rd, the sub-base story is similar — the excavator dug a shallow bedding, dumped native fill, ran a plate compactor over it a couple of passes, and poured concrete. Fourteen or 20 years of freeze-thaw and heavy irrigation and infiltration consolidate the fill, and the slab drops. On the garage slab problem, the fill is what was pushed against the foundation wall after backfill, which was often placed in one lift without proper compaction because the builder was on a tight schedule.
Third step is the HOA and permit conversation before we drill any ports. Firethorne wants a courtesy notification for exterior work visible from the golf course or from a neighboring lot — a pool deck lift on a fifth-fairway-adjacent lot goes through the ARC as a one-page submission with a description of the work and confirmation that the injection ports will be finished to match the existing surface. Longview is stricter and wants the same submission plus a plant list if any landscape needs to be disturbed for equipment access. Marvin Creek and The Vineyards are lighter — a courtesy email is enough. Union County does not require a permit for slab lifting; it is not a permitted trade.
The lift itself runs a half day to a full day depending on the slab area and the extent of settlement. Crew of two, one trailer-mounted foam rig, one 5/8-inch masonry drill, and a laser level. Ports are drilled on a grid pattern — typically 4-foot centers on a pool deck, 5-to-6-foot centers on a driveway — through the slab into the sub-base. Foam injected in controlled shots, monitoring the lift with the laser level continuously. When the slab reaches the target elevation the injection stops for that port, we cap it, and move to the next. Full lift on a 400 SF pool deck section runs three to four hours from setup to cleanup. Ports capped with color-matched patch that hardens flush with the surface, joints between adjacent slabs re-caulked with polyurethane sealant color-matched to the joint.
Sequencing with other crawl work matters. If we are also doing crawlspace encapsulation or repair on the same house — which happens on maybe 40 percent of concrete-lifting calls in Marvin, because the homeowner discovers multiple issues on a walk-through — the concrete lifting goes first if it is exterior and does not affect the crawl access, or last if the lift involves the garage slab and we need to preserve access through the garage for the crawl work. On Longview lots that back to Six Mile Creek and have chronic drainage issues, exterior drainage improvements go before the concrete lift because otherwise the fill under the newly lifted slab will re-consolidate as soon as the next wet season hits.
Standard injection foam for Marvin residential slab work is HMI TerraThane 24024 or Prime Resins Precision Lift PR40. Both are two-component polyurethane, hydrophobic (water-resistant), expand to about 25 times injection volume, and reach 90 percent of full compressive strength in 15 minutes. Density delivered is 4 to 6 pounds per cubic foot, compressive strength around 60 psi — plenty for a residential pool deck or driveway. Injection ports are 5/8-inch diameter, drilled through the slab into the sub-base at 4-to-6-foot centers depending on slab thickness and settlement extent. Pump pressure runs 100 to 200 psi at the nozzle, controlled by rig operator with continuous laser level monitoring of the lift.
Port patching material after the lift is a color-matched cementitious repair mortar — for standard gray concrete driveways, Sika MonoTop-R or equivalent. For stamped and colored pool decks, we mix a custom patch using the base color of the stamp (Brickform integral color code where available) tinted into the cement mortar to match. Joint re-caulking after the lift uses SikaFlex-1a self-leveling polyurethane in matching color. On stamped decks with a decorative sealer, we recommend the homeowner have the sealer re-applied by their original pool contractor within a couple of weeks of the lift to blend everything visually.
Equipment access on Marvin lots is usually easy — driveways are wide, gates are typically standard 4-foot residential, and there is space to park the foam trailer within a reasonable hose reach of the lift zone. On the estate lots along Marvin Rd and New Town Rd with 300-foot driveways, we usually stage the trailer at a midpoint and reach either direction with a hose extension. Longview and Firethorne HOAs are comfortable with the equipment on driveways as long as we do not block roadways and clean up thoroughly at the end of the day.
Yes — Marvin is a regular concrete lifting route. Free on-site inspection anywhere in Marvin, fixed written quote before we touch anything.
Marvin concrete-lifting is dominated by high-end stamped pool decks and long estate driveways over under-compacted native fill — a completely different work profile from the utilitarian slab-lifting we do on 1970s ranches in Cotswold or 1990s tract homes in Ballantyne where cost, not aesthetics, is the driving concern.
28173. All Union County addresses covered.
No, and I hear this from pool builders in Marvin all the time because they would rather sell you a full tear-out and re-pour. Polyurethane foam injection uses 5/8-inch ports drilled through the slab on a 4-foot grid. The ports leave a pattern of small circular patches which we color-match to the base of the stamp using a custom-tinted cementitious mortar — invisible from three feet away. The lift itself is done in small controlled shots monitored with a laser level, so the slab comes up evenly without cracking the surface. Cracks that were already running through the stamp before we started are still there after, but we do not create new ones. On a typical 300-to-500 SF stamped pool deck section, we can restore level in a half-day visit for a fraction of what a tear-out and re-pour costs, and you keep the original stamp pattern and color.
It will hold if we address what caused the settlement in the first place. The road apron transition on Marvin Rd, New Town Rd, and Marvin Meadows Rd driveways settles because the sub-base under that section was native fill that consolidated over 15 or 20 years of traffic loading and freeze-thaw. Polyurethane foam injected into the void locks the slab in place at the corrected elevation because the foam does not compress under load and does not degrade with water exposure — it is hydrophobic. If the underlying issue was ongoing water infiltration from a broken downspout or a landscape irrigation leak, we address that as part of the scope, otherwise the same water that consolidated the fill the first time will do it again. On a normal drainage situation, expect the lift to hold for the life of the slab.
Longview requires a one-page ARC submission for any exterior work on lots visible from a fairway, a street, or a neighboring lot. The submission is straightforward: description of the work, extent of the affected area, confirmation that ports will be color-matched to the existing surface, plant list if any landscape needs to be temporarily moved for equipment access. Turnaround is typically 48 to 72 hours. I have submitted probably a dozen Longview concrete-lifting scopes over the years and none have been denied. Firethorne is similar but easier — a courtesy notification satisfies them. Marvin Creek and The Vineyards want a courtesy email but do not require formal ARC submission for this kind of work.
Almost certainly a fill compaction problem, not a foundation problem, but I need to see it to be sure. On 2008-through-2015 Marvin custom construction, the garage slab was typically poured over fill that had been pushed against a fresh foundation wall in one lift without proper compaction. The builder was on a tight schedule, the finish contractor was breathing down his neck, and nobody wanted to spend the two days it takes to do the fill in 6-inch lifts with a plate compactor between each. So the fill consolidated over 10 to 15 years and the slab is dropping — usually a half-inch to an inch of separation at the wall. Fix is polyfoam injection through the garage slab into the void, lifted back to the foundation elevation, joint re-caulked with polyurethane sealant. Half-day job for a typical two or three-car garage. If we probe and find the settlement is more than 2 inches or that the fill has run entirely out into the crawlspace, the diagnostic changes and we might have a real foundation issue — but 90 percent of the time it is fill, not foundation.
Free on-site Marvin inspection. Fixed written quote. Call (980) 227-1769 or book below.