Slab repair is the work of putting a cracked, sunken or heaved concrete slab back in service without tearing out more than it needs. In Alpharetta that usually means garage floors, driveways, patios and walkways poured around the time most homes here went up; the median house in town was built in 1996. A slab that age has carried cars and foot traffic for a long while. Some of it only needs the surface repaired. Some of it has a structural problem underneath, and we find out which before we recommend anything.
We start at the slab and work down. We read the crack pattern, sound for hollow spots, and dig at the edge to see what the concrete is actually sitting on. Fulton County's dominant soil is Rion, which drains well, but it changes across the county, so every site gets tested on its own. The ground here is hilly too, with 241 feet of relief within a few miles, and grade decides where water goes. Only once we know the cause do we choose the repair: patching, leveling, or cutting out a section and pouring it back with new reinforcement.
The repairs that fail usually fail for one reason. Someone fills the crack and leaves the cause alone. Alpharetta gets about 50 inches of rain a year, and water running off a slope or out of a downspout will keep washing out the base under a slab until it is sent somewhere else. A patch over that cracks again, often along the same line. Mismatched materials cause trouble as well: a repair mix that shrinks or moves differently from the old concrete pulls away at the joint. We treat drainage and base conditions as part of the job, not an extra.
Getting it right costs time more than anything. Testing the base, correcting the grade, and letting new concrete cure properly before anyone drives on it all add days that a quick patch skips. On a property in a town where the median home value is $605,700, a garage slab or driveway is part of what a buyer looks at, and a repair that shows or fails twice costs more than one done once. Whether the driveway is in Alpharetta or across the line in Milton, the process is the same. Call for a free estimate.
The price of a slab is set by what sits under it and around it. A flat, open lot with firm ground pours for less than a sloped backyard where we cut, fill and compact before a single form goes in, and ground here changes from one block to the next. Thickness, rebar or wire mesh, the finish, and how close the truck can reach all move the number. Call for a free estimate.
Most driveway failures start before the concrete arrives. Soft spots in the base, missing control joints, or thin edges where tires roll off the side will crack a new driveway in a few seasons. We compact a crushed stone base, set rebar on chairs so it sits mid-slab instead of on the dirt, and cut joints the same day. Steep drives get a broom finish, since the area sees about 60" of rain a year.
Garages, basements, workshops and additions all need a floor that stays flat and dry. We lay a vapor barrier under the slab so ground moisture stays out of the room above it, and slope garage floors toward the door so water runs out. Finishes run from a hard steel trowel to sealed, stained or polished surfaces. Curing matters most: a floor that dries too fast curls at the edges and dusts for years.
Plenty of homes here were built around 1996, and a slab that age tells you what went wrong under it. Hairline shrinkage cracks are mostly cosmetic. Sections that have sunk, lifted or shifted out of line point to the base: a downspout dumping water beside the slab, washed-out fill, or tree roots. We fix that cause first, then seal the crack, lift the section, or cut it out and pour new concrete doweled into the old.
A cracked or settled slab tells you something about what is underneath it, and we treat the repair as a question about the ground first and the concrete second. The median home in Alpharetta was built in 1996, so many driveways, patios and garage floors have carried a generation of cars, tree roots and runoff. Patching the surface without asking why it moved is how the same crack comes back. Fulton County is hilly, with 241 feet of local relief within a few miles, and the ground changes from one block to the next. So we grade and test each site on its own before anything else happens.
The work runs in a fixed order. Drainage comes first, because about 50 inches of rain falls here in a year and water that finds its way under a slab does a lot of the damage. Next is the base. Rion soil, the county's dominant type, is well drained, but it varies across Fulton County, so we test it on your property rather than assume. Only then do we settle on reinforcement, joint spacing and the repair method. We handle the permit where one is needed, and on decorative or stamped surfaces we match the existing finish as closely as the materials allow.
Shortcuts show up later, not on the day the crew packs up. New concrete poured over a soft base settles again. A patch mixed without regard for the old slab cures to a different color and lets go at the edges. Joints cut too far apart let the slab choose its own crack line, and it rarely chooses a good one. None of that is hard to avoid, but it takes time spent on prep that nobody sees once the job is finished. That time is the part of the job we refuse to skip. If a slab at your home has moved or cracked, call for a free estimate.
Slab repair is not one job. A damaged slab can be patched, resurfaced, lifted back to level, or cut out and replaced, and the right choice depends on why it failed in the first place. Scaling, spalling and hairline cracks usually live at the surface, so a bonded patch or a thin overlay takes care of them. A slab that has dropped or tipped is a different problem. The concrete may be perfectly sound while the ground under it has moved, and that calls for lifting or replacement, not a fresh coat over an old fault.
We start below the crack, not at it. Every property gets a close look at how the slab sits, where water runs off it, and what the ground underneath is doing. Fulton County is hilly, with 241 feet of local relief within a few miles, and that changes from one block to the next. Rion soil, which drains well, is the county's dominant type, but it varies too. So we grade and test each site on its own before we settle on a system. The repair follows from what we find, not the other way round.
Repairs that fail early almost always treat the symptom. A patch over a crack that is still moving opens again. An overlay on a slab that has lost its support cracks along the same lines underneath it. Lifting a slab without fixing the water that undermined it only resets the clock. With about 50 inches of rain a year, drainage is often part of the story, so we look at downspouts, grading and joints as carefully as the concrete itself. Fix the cause first. Then the surface.
Getting it right mostly costs time and care up front. Testing the base, correcting drainage, and adding reinforcement where a section comes out all take longer than a quick patch, and they are the reason the repair holds. The median home in Alpharetta was built in 1996, and a slab from that era with sound concrete can often be kept once its support is fixed. When replacement is not needed, we say so. When it is, we say that plainly too. Call for a free estimate.
Slab repair is priced from what we find on your property, not from a chart. The same crack can call for a sealed joint on one driveway and a full tear-out on the next. These are the things that move the number, and most of them you can check yourself before anyone comes out.
| What changes the price | Which way | Why |
|---|---|---|
| What caused the damage underneath | Costs more if the base has washed out | A surface crack can be cut and sealed. A void under the slab means removing the concrete and rebuilding the base before any new pour. |
| Where your downspouts and runoff go | Costs more if water runs toward the slab | With about 50 inches of rain a year, a repair that leaves the water path alone will crack again. Regrading or adding drain line is part of the job. |
| How steep the lot is | Costs more on a grade | Fulton County has 241 feet of local relief in places. Forming and pouring on a slope takes more setup than on flat ground. |
| Whether a mixer truck can reach the pour | Costs more with no access | If a truck cannot back up to the work, concrete moves by pump or wheelbarrow, which adds equipment and labor. |
| What has to come out first | Costs more with more removal | Old concrete, pavers and tree roots all get broken out and hauled away before new work starts. |
| Thickness and reinforcement the slab needs | Costs more for heavier loads | A walkway and a driveway carrying a loaded truck are not built to the same depth or with the same steel. |
| The finish you need to match | Costs more for stamped or colored surfaces | Blending a repair into decorative concrete takes more time than a broom finish. |
When you compare bids, look for whether each one names the cause of the failure, the base preparation, the slab thickness, the reinforcement and the haul-off. A bid that just says "repair slab" leaves those questions for later.