Mudjack vs Replace

[SSChameleon]

I have small patio with concrete steps off my back door. It has sunk in the middle and the steps are pulling away from the house. I have an estimate to mudjack it for $1,300 and a quote to replace the damaged area for $2,800 (the first estimate I received was $5,800 to replace).

If the quotes had been similar I would opt to rip it all out and pour a new patio, but a $1,500 difference is significant. It's a small area, 14 foot by 4 food that needs to be lifted. Has anyone had experience with mudjacking? I've seen a good job done on my neighbors house but online there is a lot of info why it fails.

[Sawin]

subscribed... I'm interested in this group's opinions and experiences too.

[BushMasterBoy]

I have the same problem. The builder poured a small back porch (6X8) and it sank and pulled away from the house and damaged the stucco. I bought some steel roof trusses and I am going to build a much larger deck that is free floating and doesn't actually touch the house. I believe mud jacking in the soil type my house sit on, it will just happen again. The soil here is a bentonite that becomes fluid with excess rain.

[SSChameleon]

I looked into doing a deck. I'm on the edge of town that backs up to the prairie, my wife is worried snakes will take up residence under a patio. She is from TX and had some traumatic experiences with rattle snake dens, so the deck idea has been scrapped.

[newracer]

I had some mud-jacking done at my last house and it worked great. It was just the walk from the driveway up to the front door though.

[Irving]

I looked into doing a deck. I'm on the edge of town that backs up to the prairie, my wife is worried snakes will take up residence under a patio. She is from TX and had some traumatic experiences with rattle snake dens, so the deck idea has been scrapped.

Honestly, I'd talk to her again. There are thousands and thousands of decks in Colorado that don't have any issues with snake dens. Animals do love living under decks though.

[BushMasterBoy]

I think the rattlesnakes are going to be around no matter what. If they build a den, I will poison them. The secret to a stable deck is to set the verticals 48" in the ground. I built my fence out of telephone poles and set them all at 48" with 6 bags of premix each. None of the poles has budged. You can come to my house in Pueblo West and see what I am talking about, if you want. I have enough truss material to build 3 decks. I am planning on using the recycled plastic decking.

[thebolt]

My large concrete porch settled a couple inches and I had it mudjacked. The mudjacking raised and cracked the concrete porch but I was warned of the risk of cracking by the person doing the mudjacking. The front porch settled again a year after the mudjacking so I tore out the concrete and replaced it with reinforced concrete which was attached to the house with rebar drilled into the foundation. I never had another problem with that porch.

My experience was not good with mudjacking and it didn't work for me.

[Irving]

Bushmaster, what is the thickness of that steel (the 90 L portions) on the trusses? Would you be interested in letting any of that go when you're done?

[BushMasterBoy]

L90 is 1/8" longitudinally. Endcap L90 is 1/4" And the round is 1/2". There are two sizes of truss for height 14" and 18". These were 40' and were cut in half. Probably be for sale after I'm done. Can't do much right now as I have cluster headaches and the heat makes it much worse.
The plan is to put the verticals in Sonotubes and mount the trusses on the verticals. Sonotubes are cardboard tubes you fill with concrete. Then screw the decking across the trusses. I figure once done the deck is finished, it will be almost maintenance free.