About Rimrock Concrete Leveling — Billings, Montana
We lift settled concrete in Billings and Yellowstone County. The lifting is the easy part. Working out why the slab went down is the job.
Water first, always
Billings averages 14.3 inches of precipitation a year. In ground that dry, soil under a slab does not get saturated by weather alone. When we find wet soil, something is putting it there: a downspout emptying at a slab edge, a sprinkler head aimed at the concrete instead of the lawn, or a service line that is losing water underground.
That is why our first questions are about water rather than about concrete. A lift that ignores the source is a lift you pay for twice.
Two soils, two different problems
Expansive: it changes volume
Smectitic clay of the Bew series swells as it takes on water and shrinks as it dries. The soil stays where it is; it just gets bigger and smaller. Slabs over it rise in a wet spring and drop again through a dry summer, and they crack where the movement is uneven.
Dispersive: it goes away
Clay derived from marine shale alluvium can deflocculate in moving water and be carried off, which is the behaviour described in NRCS Soil Mechanics Note No. 13. What is left behind is a void. The slab does not cycle — it loses support and drops.
The two need different answers. Volume change is managed by controlling moisture around the slab. Lost support has to be filled, and the water that carried the soil away has to be redirected first, or the void simply reopens.
How we work
1.Find the water
Downspouts, irrigation, grade, service lines. We walk the perimeter before looking at ports.
2.Read the movement
Seasonal rise-and-fall points to swelling clay. A sudden drop that stayed down points to washout and a void.
3.Match the method
Slurry where the ground can carry weight and the slab is thick. Polyurethane foam where the soil is weak, the access is tight, or the surface needs to be back in use the same day.
4.Say when not to lift
Concrete broken into many small pieces, spalling through its depth, or poured at the wrong grade is a replacement conversation. We would rather tell you that up front.
We keep the jurisdiction straight
Montana has no state building permit requirement for a single-family residence unless a local jurisdiction requires one by ordinance. Around here that produces three different answers: Billings has its own right-of-way ordinance, Laurel is a separate incorporated city with its own public works department, and Lockwood and Shepherd are unincorporated, which puts Yellowstone County in charge. We keep those straight so you are not the one finding out afterwards. The permits page lists what each office publishes.