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.
Concrete lifting in Waxhaw is a job I run mostly on the Marvin Rd luxury sprawl side of town — Marvin Creek, Longview, Firethorne, Providence Downs South — because those neighborhoods were built out on former farmland with a mix of engineered fill and undisturbed Piedmont clay that has behaved unevenly over the last 15 to 20 years. Downtown Waxhaw has less of this work because most of the pre-1900 stock never had concrete flatwork to begin with — original brick walkways, gravel drives, dirt basement floors. The pre-1900 concrete work I do see is usually 1950s-era additions to historic homes where a rear patio or a driveway was poured against an original brick foundation. That stuff sinks differently than tract-neighborhood concrete because the original brick foundation doesn't move but the poured slab does.
Best example from this year is a house I did in Longview off Waxhaw Marvin Rd. 2008 build, 4,500 sq ft custom, standard 3-car garage with a stamped concrete apron and a poured walkway from the driveway up to the front porch. Owner called because the walkway had settled almost 3 inches on the outside edge — you could catch your toe on the raised seam where the walkway met the porch stoop, and it was already a trip hazard. Cause was pretty clear once I looked at the grading: the downspout on the front corner of the garage dumped directly into the flowerbed adjacent to the walkway, and 15 years of that had washed out the sub-base soil under the walkway edge. Fix was HMI TerraThane 24024 polyurethane injection through 5/8-inch ports drilled in a grid across the settled section — 12 ports total, spaced roughly 24 inches on center. Foam expands to fill the void, then lifts the slab back to level. The walkway came back up to level in about 40 minutes of injection time, we let it cure for a couple hours, patched the ports with hydraulic cement, and redirected the downspout with a 6-foot extension. Same-day job.
The other Waxhaw concrete lift I'll always remember was on Cuthbertson Rd, a 2011 build with a driveway that had sunk almost 4 inches at the street edge. That one wasn't a downspout problem — it was straight sub-base settlement from a lot that had been developed on soft fill. We injected 18 ports across the affected section and brought the driveway back to level. That homeowner had gotten a quote from another contractor to demo and re-pour the entire driveway (multi-day job, weeks of no vehicle access, big number). Polyurethane injection: half a day, drive on it the same evening.
On any Waxhaw concrete lift the first step is a cause diagnosis. If I just inject foam under a settled slab without understanding why it settled, it will settle again inside a couple of years. The three causes I see most often in Waxhaw are: downspout drainage washing out sub-base soil (very common on the Marvin Rd 2000s builds because the builders ran short downspout stubs that dumped right at the foundation), inadequate sub-base compaction on the original pour (common in the 2005-2012 builds when the concrete subs were rushing to meet tract deadlines), and clay soil consolidation over time (a slower process that affects the older 1990s stock more than the newer builds). Once the cause is identified, we address it first — extend the downspout, regrade the flowerbed, install a small French drain — before we lift the slab, because otherwise the foam is just buying time.
Injection process itself: drill 5/8-inch ports through the slab in a grid pattern, typically 24 to 30 inches on center. Number of ports depends on slab area and depth of void underneath — a small 4x8 foot walkway section might need 6-8 ports, a full 20x30 foot driveway with major settlement might need 30-40. Inject HMI TerraThane 24024 (a two-part polyurethane) through each port in a controlled sequence, watching the slab elevation with a laser level as we go. Foam expands to about 25 times its liquid volume, fills the void, and provides bearing capacity to hold the lift. Cure time is fast — the foam is load-bearing within 15 minutes and fully cured within a couple hours. After lifting we patch the injection ports with hydraulic cement or a color-matched patch mix, and the slab is ready to drive on the same day. Union County does not require a permit for polyurethane concrete lifting because it's not a structural modification — no permit needed.
The polyurethane I use for all Waxhaw work is HMI TerraThane 24024, a 4-lb density closed-cell foam that's specifically designed for concrete slab lifting. Two-part formulation, mixed at the injection gun, expands rapidly on contact with the sub-base void. I keep both 24024 (standard 4-lb) and TerraThane 24-064 (higher density 6-lb, used under heavy-load applications like garage floors or driveway approaches with truck traffic) on the truck. Injection equipment is an HMI portable proportioner rig — self-contained, generator-powered, tows behind a service truck. Injection ports drilled with a Hilti TE 30 rotary hammer using a 5/8-inch masonry bit. Port patches after injection are Rapid Set Cement All hydraulic cement for standard concrete, or a color-matched Sika patch mix for stamped or decorative concrete (Longview and Firethorne have a lot of stamped driveways and patios where the port patches need to blend visually).
For the Marvin Rd stamped concrete work specifically — Marvin Creek, Longview, Firethorne all have stamped colored driveways and patios that are a signature look for the subdivision — I match the port patches carefully to the original color and pattern. That usually means bringing 3 or 4 Sika ColorFlo tint options to the job and mixing on site to match. For plain-gray flatwork the patches are less critical visually but I still use color-matched cement so the patch doesn't glare white against a 15-year-old weathered slab.
Yes — Waxhaw is a regular concrete lifting route. Free on-site inspection anywhere in Waxhaw, fixed written quote before we touch anything.
Waxhaw concrete lifting is almost entirely a Marvin Rd luxury 2000s subdivision problem — driveways, walkways, and stamped patios on former farmland fill that has settled unevenly. Downtown Waxhaw historic homes rarely need it because they didn't have flatwork originally.
28173. All Union County addresses covered.
Yes, significantly, and it's also faster and less disruptive. A full driveway tear-out and re-pour is a multi-day job with excavation, form work, cure time, and typically two to three weeks before you can drive on the new slab at full load. Polyurethane injection is usually a half-day to a full-day job depending on slab size, and you can drive on it the same evening. As long as the original concrete isn't cracked beyond repair, lifting is the right answer. If the slab has major cracking, spalling, or surface damage in addition to the settlement, then a tear-out might actually be justified — I'll tell you that on the inspection.
No. The injection ports are 5/8-inch holes drilled through the slab in a grid pattern, and after lifting we patch each port with color-matched cement to blend with the stamped pattern. The patches are visible up close if you know where to look, but on a large stamped surface with existing texture and color variation they're hard to spot without knowing what you're looking for. If your driveway is a critical aesthetic element (some Firethorne homes have highly decorative stamped concrete as part of the entry design), we can drill from the edge of the slab or from an inconspicuous location to minimize visible ports.
Permanently, as long as the cause of the original settlement has been addressed. HMI TerraThane 24024 is a closed-cell foam that doesn't degrade, doesn't compress under sustained load, and doesn't wash out with water. It's essentially inert once cured. The reason a lifted slab might settle again is if the underlying cause — downspout drainage, sub-base erosion, clay consolidation — is still active. That's why the first step of any lift is diagnosing and addressing the cause. If the downspout is still dumping in the same spot, the soil under the adjacent slab will still wash out and eventually you'll get new settlement in a new location.
No. Polyurethane concrete lifting is not a structural modification and does not require a Union County permit. We're not modifying the slab, changing the foundation, or altering any load-bearing element — we're filling a void underneath and re-leveling the existing concrete. Same rule applies whether you're in downtown Waxhaw, Marvin Creek, Longview, Firethorne, Providence Downs South, or anywhere in unincorporated Union County adjacent.
Free on-site Waxhaw inspection. Fixed written quote. Call (980) 227-1769 or book below.