Why Concrete Cracks & Sinks | TerraFirma Concrete Solutions

WHY DO ConcretE SLABS crack, Sink, & Settle UNDER HOMES, Sidewalks, and PATIOS?

Concrete is strong and versatile. It can be poured, shaped, and made into just about anything–but it’s not indestructible. When you see cracked concrete, broken slabs, or a sunken driveway on your property – there could be several factors at play.
TerraFirma can diagnose and fix your concrete concerns.

tf cheap building crack

Poorly compacted soil – When your home was built, the movement of soil around the building site results in poor compaction. Even when the replaced soil is compacted well, it’s never as stable as the original soil. Over time, this can cause voids to form and slabs to settle.

tf dry soil crack

Dry soil – During dry conditions or even just during periods of warm weather and low precipitation, the soil under your concrete will dry out and shrink, creating voids. The concrete above eventually cracks and sinks into these empty spaces.

tf water cracks crack

Flooding – Wet, soft soil caused by flooding is just too weak to support the concrete above it. In the worst case, the soil erodes and washes away completely, leaving behind large voids that cannot support the weight of the concrete above.

tf rainwater crack

Rainwater or gutter runoff – Runoff from gutters or downspouts can cause soil erosion around the perimeter of your home. As soil erodes, it can create voids beneath concrete surfaces such as driveways, walkways, or patios, causing them to sink or become uneven.

tf rotting crack

Rotting tree roots – Decaying tree roots can create voids or channels in the soil. This can exacerbate existing foundation issues and contribute to soil erosion around concrete surfaces, leading to further settlement or instability.

tf clogged crack

Clogged gutters – Prolonged exposure to water from overflowing or clogged gutters can saturate the soil around your home’s foundation, causing it to expand and exert pressure against the concrete.

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Concrete Repair Estimate

Schedule your free
Concrete Repair Estimate

TERRAFIRMA IN ACTION

We’re big fans of lifting & leveling to repair concrete, rather than replacing.
Did you know it’s typically about half the cost to repair rather than replace?
Read on for our concrete repair pro-tips and galleries of our slab repair work.

Sidewalks & Driveways REPAIRED

Don’t take our word for it – see what our clients have to say.
From Roseburg to Eugene, Portland to Seattle, our Concrete Repair work speaks for itself

Our house is nearly 100 years old, with crumbly concrete and bowing walls in the basement and lots of "do it yourself" work done on it. We love it. But it is a challenge. "Nothing in this house is square and everything is out of round." Terra Firma installed Everbrace steel walls and pillars to stabilize the foundation. Heather, Rocky, John and Anthony were all great workers, from customer relations to brute labor and skillful application. They were on time, polite, informative, and on task. Our house will stand another 100 years thanks to them.Pat S.
The work was done in two days. The problems with the very heavy concrete problems was addressed, and it does look much better which is appreciated. Jeramie was good, worked so hard. Jason did the review before it all started, very easy to work with. It does look much better, it was worth the expensive costs. Thank you!
Highly recommend this company. Needed a concrete pad and they were terrific. Matt and his crew were efficient, professional and did a great job. Plus they...
Superb service! Excellent work. We asked them to lift (if possible), support and seal our driveway to stop some puddling, along with placing a new walkway to our front door. The concrete work was very nice, beyond complaint. The driveway was a question mark to start with, but they did well. Upon leaving, they invited us to call if we needed more adjustment. We did, and found them to be immediately responsive and very pleasant. Upon leaving again, they repeated their invitation to call again. All personel overall were very pleasant and responsive. (I am not financially or personally affiliated with Terra Firma in any way!)
Had Seth Cunningham out this week for an estimate in Thurston County. We appreciated how thorough he was during the inspection and in creating the proposal.Seth was prompt, easy to work with and very professional! Unfortunately, full encapsulation of our crawl space was a little out of our budget as new homeowners, but if you are looking for any foundation or crawl space work done on your house we would definitely recommend having TerraFirma out to look at your place! I got the impression they are a top-of-the-line company that would take care of the homeowners they do business with. I would absolutely recommend them to friends and family... Also plan to call them out if I have any concrete or foundation issues in the future.
I had a narrow but long concrete path that had heaved over the years and was cracked in a couple of places. Terra Firm leveled it perfectly and filled the cracks and gaps beautifully. Now I have a level path that I plan to expand with pavers on both sides. Huge cost savings, as my other option was to rip out the concrete and do a total reboot. Great people and a fair price for the work done. They were all done in one day and came back promptly to redo one gap between pads that wasn't just perfect.I highly recommend the Terra Firma experience. Bryna and Ken were a pleasure to work with.
Our problem was that our front yard had settled, taking parts of our huge concrete front porch and sidewalk down with it. We watched the cracks in the porch get wider every year, and the sidewalk sloped down and away from the house.TerraFirma evaluated our situation and explained what was happening around our house. Then they gave a very detailed explanation of how they would make the repairs - even what they could and could not do - complete with a video demonstration.The young man who showed up to do the work was very courteous and professional. It was fascinating watching portions of our porch and sidewalk being raised up, leveled, and the gaps coming together.We are very pleased with the end result and have recommended TerraFirma to others.
6/25/2024Seeing I did a review 2 months ago.. I am unable to make a new one- here is the update for the work we did!6/21-6/24/2024 Work started and completed by TerraFirma!We do not even know what to say, THANK YOU WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH, You all went Way above and beyond expectations. I added pictures.To the Friday crew, to install a piering system, Jake, Aden, Steven (sorry if I spelled it wrong) what can we say, from start to finish this team was a well oiled machine, worked really really well together, put up with my husband Mark and I and all our questions and chit chat. The time that was taken to ensure EVERYTHING was going right, was explained and to ensure the safety of our home was just awesome. We had a lot of fun with these guys in conversation and jokes. When all the work was done, you could not even tell anyone was at the house working all day. These 3 great guys were some of the most fun and charismatic group we have had at the house in years. 🙂 Last but not least.... Jake you are a wonderful teacher to the crew, you have great leadership and a pretty awesome work ethic.Monday with Robert for the leveling of the driveway, walkway and stairs to front door. Working for TerraFirma for 2.5 years, Robert showed much skill and patience, as he worked alone and took his time to ensure that the proper amounts of polyfill was being pushed into all the tiny little holes he drilled all over the place. A tedious process and Robert defiantly has the patience for this part. I asked lots of questions and was pleased with all the knowledge. Again, a crew member that went above and beyond to ensure that what we expected was completed.Robert's ability to close the gaps, level a drive way that had repairs 2 times prior and failed and seeing the garage door with no gapping really blew our minds! We truly could not be happier with the outcome. Towards the end of the day, Jon, a field Supervisor came by to help with the concrete work to fill in the pier holes in the garage. Jon was just the nicest and in the short amount of time he was at our home helping, he was knowledgeable and we had great conversation while he helped with the perfect concreate work! Looks good Jon, Thank you!My family and I would like to say, the longest part was waiting for permits once the work started, it went quick, it was done RIGHT, we are truly 100% satisfied with the outcome. Hands down will recommend TerraFirma to anyone that we know needs this kind of work done on their home.THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!******************************************************************original post:My family and I are just getting started and can not wait to see what the end results are. For now I am rating what I KNOW with 5 stars and wish I could give more. If the work, the work ethic, the understanding and the compassion towards customers follows through this entire project the way it has just begun, I will tell you, I will brag on this company all day long!!I came across TerraFirma at the Tacoma Trade show March 2024. I spoke with both Samuel and Tulane regarding the issues at our home in South Hill Puyallup. I filled out a form, was contacted later the following week to schedule a FREE Estimate and had Samuel come to our home. Thinking we would just show him a couple things and Sam would be in and out in 30 mins, my husband and I were almost confused and very IMPRESSED with the 2.5 hour inspection, overview, breakdown of cost and mapping per say of the work area for our home. We found out and were educated on the scale of " oh S**t that is going on and that there was more to our project than a sinking driveway. Sam was beyond respectable and patient 😉 especially when listening to my concerns and questions on the what is next... and the cost of the what's next.We have now put down our deposit for work to be completed, due to permits that are needed, work can be up to 4 months out now, so Pierce county, please hurry... ;-)From our family to TerraFirma.... we look forward to working with you all soon.
Very professional organization. It was from the estimate process to completion. If anyone has a concrete leveling project I recommend this company 100%.
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CONCRETE REPAIR Homeowner Questions

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO LIFT CONCRETE WITH FOAM?

Is concrete crack repair long-lasting?

My concrete seems to have moved up during the winter months, is this a problem?

Is concrete repair more cost-effective than concrete replacement?

Can you repair cracked concrete after going through concrete leveling?

My concrete seems to have settled over the winter. What should I do?