DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Concret porch leveling question

So my front porch(6' long and about 14' wide) has crack right in the middle going from the house to the other end of the porch (6' in length). My front door is about 2' off the ground and the porch slab is supported by red brick on the sides and front and ties into the house on the backside of the slab. The crack has worsened with time and now one side of the slab is about 2" higher than the other where it meets the house. No doubt that water is getting in. For all I know, its hollow underneath - seems sturdy when I stand on it, but I'll assume there's no gravel, no sand underneath.
My question: Is this something that can be leveled the way that a driveway/sidewalk can be leveled - with foam or some other substance? Or, do I need to get the whole thing ripped out and repoured? Thanks in advance.

Just to be clear, is the part closest to the house lower?

You have to get to the bottom (no pun intended) of what is going on underneath in order to properly remedy the situation.

That's a pretty long stretch of concrete to try to level, but I'm certainly no expert.

The 14’ side (back) butts up against the house (Parallel) The portion of of the slab that is higher is where the front door is. If looking at it from above, think of it as a 6’ x 14’ rectangle with the bottom of the rectangle 14’ connecting to the house while the top of the rectangle 14’ being the end that is in the yard. The sides of the rectangle ar 6’ and the crack is in the middle of the rectangle, also 6’ running from the house side to the yard side.

So it cracked, and one side is higher/lower.

The door side is correct height, and the other side is higher or lower?

Correct. The other side (opposite door side) is lower.

contact a mason.

There are a lot of unknown factors one would have to know in order to answer your question. It would be very odd for there to be no substrate under a porch slab. Possible yes, but quite uncommon. That would be the first question one would have to answer. Now if there is a substrate under your porch slab, differing materials have different amounts of settling involved in them. A washed gravel base per say has very little settling. Where as using sand as a base could result in a lot of settling. This too is a factor. If you say have sand under it, even using foam to raise it, there may be more settling to come in the future.

To know whether the slab can be raised I would recommend calling a company that specializes in doing just that and get their input. At that juncture I would call a concrete contractor to get an estimate as well. If as you have suggested there is no base under that slab, I would imagine the cost of raising it using the foam method would be very costly.

I'm very handy when it comes to home repairs, but I agree w/others that you need to contact professionals to handle this task.

I think you will need to rip up and repour. Something aint right You need a professional.

It can be underpinned at the broken footer post. But it takes some digging up. I agree get a pro. Can you post a pic?

There are a couple of items that I can comment on.

Concrete is normally designed for compression, and does not do well with tension. Normally cracking is either something underneath either causing a lift (tree branch) or having a footing settle. If water gets under the slab and freezes, concrete will crack. The amount of wire mesh (for a simple slab) or rebar that is installed before the slab is poured can make a difference. Mesh or Rebar help prevent cracking and rebar is better than mesh.

The soil has to be compacted before concrete is placed to minimize settling. A six foot span should probably have rebar.

That is about all I know about concrete. If I had to make a guess, there was not a lot of rebar used, or something has settled. I would expected to have seen a couple of intermediate footers on the interior for a suspended or more likely sand filled slab. Chances are they filled the interior with sand and did not compact it properly or put in a intermediate footings.

Thanks for all of the pointers. The house was built in the 50’s and I’m pretty sure everything is original . It looks like the brick foundation under the porch needs some tuck pointing and repair. Things are starting to shift and break apart. I’ll call in a pro but I’m starting to get a little worried as to what they’ll tell me.

Sounds like the front edge away from the door has settled and as it lowered it put stress on the slab, resulting in the crack.

I would agree that, based on the picture I have in my head, that you should be able to underpin that corner and raise it back into place. With that done, the crack should be suitable for standard crack filler.


All that said, I would absolutely get a concrete guy to come out and look at it. If nothing else, if you don't have the right tools for that job, it will NOT be a simple DIY project..... but, the slab should easily be salvageable.
As for what is underneath it, I would expect that they built up a brick perimeter and filled the interior with dirt from their excavation when they built, and then poured the slab on top of that. I would also agree that the degree to which they compacted it may be questionable as they wouldn't want to risk blowing out the bricked sides, but I'm still betting that isn't the cause of the crack and the crack is just a result of the settling.


^^that's a lot of supposition for not having seen it, lol, so take all of this with a grain of salt (or compacted soil).

That's the thing............it's almost impossible to say anything w/any certainty w/out actually seeing what is underneath. Your explanation makes a lot of sense because that was a common practice during that era, but ......

Just throwing this out there, because I don't know .......

But, I see ads from time to time about concrete leveling, where they level (a driveway) by pumping concrete foam in under the pad/broken area. Would that be an option for a small space, or would it be more expensive than other solutions?

Here is one google result I found, from Columbus and Cleveland:

Concrete Porch Repair Cleveland OH - Mr. Level
https://mrlevel.com/services/concrete-leveling-services/concrete-porch-repair-cleveland-oh/

My only issue with those things is that with a driveway, concrete patio, or sidewalk, it's one thing and I wouldn't really hesitate at all, but when it's a load-bearing thing like a foundation, or even just a porch corner, you would likely just be temporarily masking the issue and it would come right back in a few years. Unless you underpin the sagging/settled section, it will just keep going. The stuff they pump in there to raise the corner would just drop back down because what is under that foam they pumped in is the issue... the fix has to happen below the frost line in a manner that is non-compactable.

Heck, depending on the layout of the house and stuff, when you get into it you might find that the entire issue is a busted downspout underground near that corner. Water running out would be eroding soil and creating a small void that sets up the settling. Foam going in there might halt the settling for a bit, but it also might block the busted drain tile (not saying there is one, just taking the hypothetical to completion). Digging to properly underpin will nearly guarantee that you see why it was settling in the first place.

A few questions:

1. Do you have tree roots that could be running under the porch/foundation?

2. Is the area sloped where the natural course of water flows under the porch?

3. Are you in Ohio or a similar climate where freezes and thaws are common?

4. Have you noticed any issues in the interior of the home, especially the side closest to the porch? For example, windows and/or doors not closing properly?

He mentioned the brick need some tuck-pointing, which leads me to believe, water seeped in through the gaps, and caused settling in the support earth below. Add in freeze/thaw cycles and it accelerates.

Dont bring in "A" professional bring in 3 . See if they say the same things