Concrete Repair and Resurfacing in Pickering

Lakeshore Pickering: frost, clay and salt on older concrete

The south end sits on the old Lake Iroquois shoreline plain, where the soil runs to clay and the water table sits high under the older streets. Clay holds melt and rain against concrete, and a driveway, walk or step poured in the 1960s or 1970s rarely got the base depth we build to now. Once frost gets under a thin slab near the lake, it heaves and the panel cracks. Water sits in the crack, freezes, and opens it wider every winter.

Pickering also gets freeze spray off Lake Ontario near the shore, hard freeze-thaw swings, and road salt that chews exposed concrete every season. Salt is what turns a sound surface into a pitted, scaling one, and sealing slows that damage but cannot reverse it.

Steps, walks and settled slabs on older streets

Settled front steps and walks that tip toward the house can happen where the ground and the base have let go. Depending on how far gone they are, we level and re-support the slab, rebuild the broken edges, or form and re-pour the step on a compacted base.

A repair has to deal with the cause. A crack filled over a slab that is still moving opens again by spring, and a slab lifted while a downspout keeps washing out its base sinks again. So we check the base, the grade and the drainage before we quote.

Seaton and the new surveys: ground that is still moving

Seaton is built on glacial till that heaves when frost reaches under a thin slab, and around a new house it keeps settling after the builder backfills. A builder-poured walk, step or garage pad can crack or sink in its first few winters for that reason. We look at where the settling is coming from before we fix the concrete.

Where the base itself has failed, replacement is the honest call. Our concrete slabs and garage pads page covers replacement.

When the crack is a wall or water question

A crack in a walk or a garage slab is a repair job. A crack in a basement wall that takes on water every spring is a different question, and so is block whose parging has flaked off. In the older lakeshore neighbourhoods, where the homes are older and the water table sits high, it is worth asking.

For those, see our basement waterproofing in Pickering work. We sort out which job your house needs at the free visit.

Booking a Pickering repair

Pickering sits at the far west edge of Durham, a long drive from our home routes, so we book Pickering work into planned trips to the area and give you firm dates, not a same-week promise. Small repairs like a section of walkway or a front step ride along on the same trips and carry the labour warranty like a full driveway. We reply to every request within one business day.