Concrete Crack & Floor Repair in Waterloo, IA

Concrete crack and floor repair is part of almost every coating job we do in Waterloo. Census estimates show about half the city's housing was built before 1960, and many of those garage and basement slabs have spent decades through Iowa winters. Cracks, pitting near the garage door and broken control joints all show through a coating if they are not fixed first. Repair makes the floor solid and smooth so the coating has something sound to hold onto.

Types of damage we see

• Hairline shrinkage cracks: thin cracks from the concrete drying when it was poured. Usually stable.
• Settlement cracks: cracks where part of the slab has dropped, often at a corner or along a garage apron.
• Salt scaling and pitting: flaking surface concrete near the door and under the tires.
• Spalls: chips and broken edges, often along control joints.
• Low spots: places where water pools and freezes.

How we repair cracks

Stable cracks are cut open slightly so the repair material has room to bond, cleaned out, filled with a rigid or semi-rigid filler, and ground flush with the floor. The coating then goes over the repair as one continuous surface. Control joints can be filled for a smooth look or left open so they keep doing their job. We explain the trade-off for your floor.

Cracks that need a different fix

HomeGuide's concrete resurfacing guide notes that cracks wider than a quarter inch typically point to foundation problems that will cause more cracking after resurfacing, and suggests a structural engineer to find the cause. If we see a crack that is wide, uneven from one side to the other, or growing, we tell you. A coating over a moving crack usually cracks along the same line. In some cases, the right first step is leveling or slab work by a concrete or foundation contractor.

Salt-damaged surfaces

Where the top of the slab has flaked away, we grind down to sound concrete and fill the low areas with a patching compound or a thin resurfacing layer. For floors where the damage covers most of the surface, a full resurfacing before coating can be the better choice. HomeGuide puts basic garage floor resurfacing at $3 to $5 per square foot.

Flood history

The Cedar River runs through Waterloo, and the June 2008 flood set the record at the Waterloo streamgage, with a peak discharge of 112,000 cubic feet per second according to Wikipedia. Basements and garages that took water can show staining, efflorescence or softened surface concrete. We look for those signs and grind or treat the slab before coating.

Repair as a stand-alone job

Most repair work is done as prep for a coating, but you can book it on its own if you only want a garage or shop floor patched and leveled.