847-336-3400
Concrete Leveling and Raising in Lake Geneva, WI 53147
Can a sunken patio or pool deck in Lake Geneva be raised instead of replaced?
In most cases, yes. SAVE Concrete drills 1 3/4 inch holes through the slab, pumps a calibrated Portland cement slurry into the void beneath it, and lifts the concrete back to level. Most residential jobs around Lake Geneva are finished in a few hours, and the surface is back in use the same day.
The work costs one half to one third of full replacement, and it carries our No Questions Asked 4 year warranty.
Why concrete sinks around Lake Geneva
Walworth County's landscape was built by glaciers. The retreat of the ice left the kettle moraine across the northwest of the county, a hummocky landform of sand and gravel including kames, kettles and eskers, and it left the depressions that hold the county's lakes. Geneva Lake is one of those kettles.
That history matters when you pour concrete on top of it, and it produces a different failure than the clay does in Racine.
Sand and gravel drain well and they do not swell. So far so good. What they do instead is migrate. Water moving through granular material carries the finer fraction with it, and over years that redistributes the ground under a slab without any dramatic event to point at.
And glacial ground is not uniform over short distances. In a kame and kettle landscape the depth and composition of the deposit can change substantially within the length of a patio. One end of the slab is bearing on one thing and the other end is bearing on something else, and the two settle at different rates.
That is differential settlement, and it is why the failure here is usually a slab that has tilted or stepped rather than one that has dropped evenly.
The seasonal property problem
A lot of concrete around Geneva Lake belongs to somebody who is not there most of the year.
That changes the repair, because a slab that moves gradually is easy to live with when you see it every day and adjust your step without thinking. Arrive after nine months away and the same lip is a trip hazard you meet at full walking speed, usually carrying something, usually with guests behind you.
It also means small problems get large before anyone measures them. A joint that opened in April has taken on water all summer by the time anyone looks at it in October.
What SAVE Concrete has raised in Wisconsin, and what we lift around Lake Geneva
266 completed concrete raising projects in Wisconsin. A statewide figure, not a Walworth County one, and we would rather be straight about that than round it into something it is not.
It means the crew arriving at a Geneva Lake property has done this in this state a few hundred times, which is not something a national franchise dispatching from three states away can say.
Around Lake Geneva, that work means:
Pool decks
Patios, porches and large stoops
Lakefront walkways and steps
Driveways and driveway aprons
Front walks, service walks and rear walks
Garage floors, attached and detached
Sun room and interior floors
Void filling under seawalls and loading docks
Commercial walkways
Why raising beats replacing
Save time. Most jobs are finished in hours, not days.
Save money. Generally one third to one half the cost of full replacement.
Minimal disruption. Little mess, no extended downtime, and no re landscaping afterwards.
Keep it out of the landfill. Replacement means breaking up your slab and hauling it away. Raising it does not.
Pool decks and lakefront patios in Lake Geneva
Pool decks settle for a reason that is built into how a pool is installed, and it is worth understanding because it explains why the problem shows up years after everything looked fine.
The backfill placed around a pool excavation is never as dense or as well compacted as the undisturbed ground beside it. It cannot be. Then a heavy concrete deck is poured over that loose material, and the loose material compresses under the weight, unevenly, over years. Sections of the deck sink.
The second cause is the joints. A pool deck is laid in multiple sections. If a seal was not laid properly, or has simply worn away, water gets into the joints and starts eroding the material under the slabs.
Raising a pool deck is one of the most satisfying jobs we do, because the surface goes from a hazard people step around to a flat deck again in a matter of hours, without the excavation, the mess or the re landscaping that replacement means. And with pool decks the alternative is not just expensive, it is a summer with a building site where the pool used to be.
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Common questions from Lake Geneva property owners
How long does the job take?
Most residential jobs are finished in a few hours, and the surface is usually usable the same day. That matters more than usual on a property you only visit at weekends.
Why has one end of my patio dropped and not the other?
That is differential settlement, and it is characteristic of glacial ground. The deposits under a slab can change in depth and composition over a short distance, so different parts of the same slab are supported by different material settling at different rates.
Can you raise a pool deck without damaging the pool?
Raising a pool deck is routine work for SAVE Concrete. We assess the deck on site and tell you what can be lifted and what cannot before any work starts.
We are not there most of the year. Can this be scheduled around us?
Yes. Scheduling is part of the estimate conversation, and concrete raising is short duration work, which makes it far easier to fit into a visit than replacement.
What size are the holes, and what do they look like when the job is done?
One and three quarter inches across. We drill them through the slab to pump the slurry underneath, then patch them when the lift is finished. They stay visible on close inspection and they weather in over time.
It is a real hole and we would rather give you the number than call it small. The size is what the material needs: a calibrated Portland cement slurry is a mineral mix moving under pump pressure, and it does not travel through a smaller opening.
Do you work in Walworth County?
Yes. SAVE Concrete is based at 470 Keller Dr in Park City, Illinois, and works across southeast Wisconsin including Lake Geneva.
Call SAVE Concrete on 847-336-3400, or request an estimate online.