⬆️ Why Your Driveway Is Sinking (And How We Fix It Without Tearing Up Your Life)
So you're backing out of your driveway this morning, and you notice it. Your car does this little bump-thump thing it didn't used to do. Or maybe you're walking to get the mail and you realize you're doing that automatic step-up thing to avoid the uneven part.
Your driveway is sinking, and you're wondering how the heck this happened to your house.
The Usual Suspects
Most of the time, it's water. I know, I know—we live in a drought. But hear me out. All those gorgeous landscapes around here need irrigation, and sometimes that water takes a detour under your driveway. Once the soil washes away, your concrete has nothing to hold it up.
Sometimes it goes back to when the driveway was first put in. If the crew was in a hurry or cut corners on the base preparation, that chickens come home to roost eventually. Soil that wasn't compacted right will settle, usually at the worst possible time.
Tree roots are another fun one. They don't care about property lines or how much your driveway cost. They follow the water, and if there's moisture under your concrete, that's where they're going.
And let's not forget we live in earthquake country. Even little shifts in the ground can leave your concrete sitting funny.
The Fix That Actually Makes Sense
Here's where I get to be the bearer of good news for once. You probably don't need to tear up your whole driveway. We can usually fix sinking concrete with something called concrete lifting—basically, we drill tiny holes and inject foam underneath to lift everything back where it belongs.
The whole thing usually takes a day. No weeks of construction, no dumpster in your driveway, no explaining to your neighbors why there's a jackhammer running at seven in the morning. We show up, fix it, clean up, and you can drive on it that afternoon.
Plus it costs about half what full replacement would run you. Sometimes less, depending on what we find.
The catch is, sinking concrete doesn't fix itself. That little dip you're driving over every day? It's going to get bigger. The uneven part you step over on the way to your front door? Someone's going to trip on that eventually.
Give us a call. We'll come take a look and tell you exactly what's going on. No charge for the inspection, and I promise we won't try to sell you anything you don't actually need.
