847-336-3400
Concrete Leveling for School Districts and University Campuses
SAVE Concrete raises settled concrete on school and university property across Lake County, the North Shore, northwest Cook County and southeast Wisconsin, working from 470 Keller Dr in Park City, Illinois since 2004. This page is for the facilities director, buildings and grounds manager or business official who has a settled walk, a lifted bus loop panel or a campus path that has to be safe before students come back, and a window that does not move.
Can a campus walkway be leveled inside the summer break?
Yes, and the window is not the hard part. SAVE Concrete lifts a settled slab by pumping a Portland cement slurry through small holes drilled through the concrete, filling the void underneath and raising the panel back to grade. Work on an individual slab is finished in hours, and the surface is normally back in service the same day.
That is the difference that decides the summer. A replacement walkway cannot be demolished, formed, poured, finished and loaded inside two August weeks. Concrete is specified at its 28 day strength (ACI 318), and ACI 308.1 sets a minimum curing period of seven days or until the concrete reaches 70 percent of its specified strength. Lifting has no cure window standing between the work and the first day of term.
A district or campus with a list of panels rather than a single walk is scheduled panel by panel, which means the route reopens in sections instead of being closed for the length of the job.
What a quarter of an inch means on a school or campus route
Under the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, a vertical change in level on an accessible route may be up to 1/4 inch with no treatment (section 303.2). Between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch it must be beveled at a slope no steeper than 1:2 (section 303.3). Over 1/2 inch it is no longer a surface defect at all and has to be corrected under the ramp provisions, sections 405 and 406.
Public school districts and public universities are public entities under Title II of the ADA, and private institutions open to the public are places of public accommodation under Title III. Either way the accessible routes on the property are measured against the same three numbers, and either way the measurement does not depend on anybody's opinion of how the walk looks.
The practical consequence for a facilities office is a survey, not a repair. The question is not "is this walk bad", it is "how many panels on our accessible routes exceed a half inch, and where are they". A written count is what turns an inspection finding into a budget line and a scope a contractor can bid.
Lifting removes the offset by putting the low panel back where it belongs. Grinding removes the lip and leaves the panel low, still collecting water, still settling. On a route that has to pass inspection year after year, that difference is the whole decision.
K-12 school districts: the panels, the calendar and the paperwork
On a K-12 site the settled concrete is almost always in four places: the bus loop and drop-off aprons, the main entrance walks and stoops, the walks between the building and portable classrooms, and the paved routes around playgrounds and athletic fields. Those are the surfaces with the most foot traffic, the most supervision liability and the most freeze and thaw exposure, and they are the ones an insurance inspection finds first.
The calendar, and why July and August exist for this work. Most Illinois school districts run a fiscal year beginning 1 July, and the board adopts the annual budget within or before the first quarter of that year, with the adopted budget filed after 30 September. So the money for summer work is normally decided in the spring and spent in the summer that follows, which puts the useful conversation in February to April and the work in July and August.
The bidding threshold. Under section 10-20.21 of the Illinois School Code, school district contracts for work involving an expenditure above the statutory threshold go to sealed competitive bid and are awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. Public Act 103-0008 raised that threshold from $25,000 to $35,000 effective 1 January 2024, and a district's own board policy may set a lower figure than the statute. Check your own policy before you decide whether a panel count is a quote or a bid.
Prevailing wage and certified payroll. A school district is a public body under the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act, so public works on district property are paid at prevailing rates, and the contractor files certified payroll records monthly, by the fifteenth of the month following the work. Ask every bidder to confirm in writing that they will file before you compare any prices.
What to have ready before the estimate. The panel locations, the accessible routes they sit on, the break dates, any site access rules including background check requirements for contractors on site around students, and the insurance wording your district requires.
Colleges and universities: more windows than a school year has breaks
A campus has the same defect and a different calendar. Where a district has one usable window, a university has several: the summer, the winter break, spring break, and in many cases reading and examination weeks when a residential quad empties out. Work that takes hours per panel fits inside every one of them, which is why campus concrete does not have to wait for June.
The settled panels on a campus cluster around residence hall entrances and service doors, the quad and connector paths that carry the heaviest pedestrian load in the institution, loading docks and service yards behind dining and plant buildings, and the walks and pads around chilled water, steam and utility vaults where backfill settles over the trench.
Deferred maintenance is the reason it is usually a list rather than a job. Campus facilities departments carry a backlog by design, and concrete rarely competes with a roof or a boiler for capital. That is the practical argument for lifting rather than replacement on a campus: at one half to one third the price of full replacement, a fixed sum clears several times the panel count, which is how a backlog actually shrinks rather than being re-prioritised.
Procurement on a campus usually means a purchase order against a written scope rather than a board vote, and often an existing vendor qualification process with insurance minimums, a W-9 on file and sometimes a background check requirement for anyone working near students. Name those requirements at the estimate and the quote comes back already compliant.
What SAVE Concrete lifts on school and campus property
SAVE Concrete raises and stabilizes nearly any concrete slab on grade. On school and university property that is entrance walks and connector paths, stoops and steps, bus loops and drop-off aprons, parking lot walkways and islands, playground and athletic field aprons, loading docks and service yards, plant and maintenance building floors, and interior floors.
Two related services matter on institutional sites. Void filling closes the space under a slab before the slab drops into it, including abandoned ductwork and water and sewer lines set in or below a floor slab. Exterior caulking seals the joints after a lift, which keeps the surface water that washed the base out from starting the process again. Both are relevant on campuses where utility trenches and downspout discharge run under paved routes.
SAVE Concrete also provides foundation crack repair, concrete sealing and power washing. The full service list is on what we do.
What goes under the slab, and why it matters on a route that carries everybody
SAVE Concrete pumps a premium Portland cement based slurry under pressure through small holes drilled through the slab. The slurry displaces trapped air, water and unstable material, fills the void, and hydraulically raises the panel back to level. What is left underneath is a cured cement subgrade that carries load, rather than a soft fill or an expanded cushion.
The independent test figure: 780 psi at 28 days, independently tested by Wisconsin Testing Laboratories.
On a campus that number earns its place, because the routes being lifted are not patios. They carry students, service vehicles, snow equipment and, on a bus loop, loaded buses. The slurry is also engineered to support greater loads than typical native soil while staying lower in density than standard concrete, which allows future excavation if a utility under the route ever has to be reached, and on a campus something under the route usually does.
The full three way comparison of cement slurry, polyurethane foam and traditional mudjacking, with the sources, is published at an honest comparison of concrete leveling methods, and the load question specifically at what holds up your slab after it is raised.
How a summer job is actually run, start to finish
The reason concrete slips out of a summer plan is almost never the work. It is that the scope was never written down in a form anybody could bid, so the decision waited on a site visit that waited on a budget that waited on the scope.
1. Walk and measure (February to April). SAVE Concrete walks the site, measures the offsets against the ADA thresholds, and counts the panels. Free, and no obligation.
2. The written panel schedule (same visit, returned after). Every panel located, the offset measured, the lift required, and whether it lifts or has to be replaced. This is the document that becomes your scope.
3. Budget and procurement (spring). Your quote or your bid, against your own board policy threshold. Prevailing wage and certified payroll confirmed in writing if it is public work.
4. Scheduling (booked in spring for the break). The sequence is built around your window and your access rules, route by route.
5. The work (in the break). Hours per panel. Holes drilled, slurry pumped, panel raised, holes patched, joints caulked where specified.
6. Walkthrough and closeout (the same week). Walk the finished routes with the panel schedule in hand and sign off panel by panel.
The one thing worth doing early even if nothing is bought this year: step 2. A written panel schedule with measured offsets is the document a facilities office needs at budget time, at an insurance inspection and in a board packet, and it exists whether or not SAVE Concrete does the work.
The five documents to require from every bidder, including this one
1. A certificate of insurance, general liability and workers compensation, naming the district, the board or the institution as additional insured where your policy requires it.
2. A completed W-9, which is the single most common reason a first invoice sits unpaid.
3. Written confirmation on prevailing wage and certified payroll, if the project is public work. Monthly filing, by the fifteenth of the month following the work.
4. A written scope, panel by panel, with a count, the location of each, the lift required and what closeout includes. This is what makes three different quotes comparable and what a board packet needs.
5. The written warranty terms, including the threshold. See the next section.
Ask SAVE Concrete for all five at the estimate.
The one warranty question worth asking all three bidders
A warranty here has two dimensions and almost every quote states only one. Everybody publishes the number of years. Almost nobody publishes the threshold, which is how far the concrete has to move again before the warranty does anything for you.
So ask all three the same question, in writing: how far does this panel have to sink before your warranty responds?
On an accessible route that question is not academic. The ADA threshold is a quarter of an inch, so a warranty that only responds to movement larger than that leaves a district covered for the failure it does not have and uncovered for the one it does.
SAVE Concrete's work carries a four year No Questions Asked warranty. Ask us for the threshold in writing alongside the estimate, the same way you should ask everybody else.
When SAVE Concrete will tell a district to replace instead
Lifting puts a panel back where it belongs. It does not repair the panel. SAVE Concrete will tell you replacement is the right answer when a panel is broken into several pieces, when the surface has spalled or crumbled through, when the concrete is too thin or too deteriorated to take pump pressure without breaking further, or when what is moving is the structure under the slab rather than the slab.
On most school and campus sites the panel schedule comes back mixed: most panels lift, a few do not. Knowing which are which before the break starts is worth more than either answer on its own, because it is the difference between one contractor in the window and two.
Book a site walk before the break is planned
SAVE Concrete will walk the site, measure the offsets, count the panels and return a written schedule of what lifts and what does not. The walk is free and there is no obligation, and the schedule is useful at budget time whoever does the work.
Call 847-336-3400, Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:00pm, or request an estimate online. SAVE Concrete, 470 Keller Dr, Park City, IL 60085.
Responsible for association or commercial property as well? Concrete leveling for associations, property managers and facilities.
Common questions from school and campus facilities teams
Can the work be finished inside the summer break?
Yes. Work on an individual panel is finished in hours and the surface is normally back in service the same day, so the schedule is set by the panel count rather than by a cure time. A replacement slab cannot be poured, cured and loaded in the same window.
How long before students can walk on it?
Normally the same day. There is no cure period standing between the lift and the route reopening, which is the property of the method that makes break windows workable.
Does SAVE Concrete work on public projects with prevailing wage?
Illinois school districts, villages, park districts and other public bodies pay prevailing wages on public works, and the contractor files certified payroll records monthly, by the fifteenth of the month following the work. Ask us, and every other bidder, to confirm in writing before you compare prices.
What counts as a trip hazard under the ADA?
On an accessible route, a vertical change in level up to 1/4 inch needs no treatment. Between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch it must be beveled at a slope no steeper than 1:2. Over 1/2 inch it has to be corrected under the ramp provisions rather than smoothed.
Do you have to close the whole walkway?
No. The work is done panel by panel with small equipment, so a route is taken in sections and reopened in sections. Tell us the access rules at the estimate and the sequence is built around them.
What does it cost against replacing the walk?
SAVE Concrete's process typically costs one half to one third the price of full concrete replacement. On a campus with a deferred maintenance list, that is the difference between clearing a few panels and clearing the list.
What documentation do we get?
Ask for a certificate of insurance naming the parties your policy requires, a W-9, a written scope with the panel count and the location of each panel, and the written warranty terms including the threshold. Those four plus a prevailing wage confirmation are what a procurement file needs.
What if some panels cannot be lifted?
The written panel schedule says which lift and which do not before any work starts, so the ones that need replacing are known in time to be handled inside the same window rather than discovered during it.