Repair or Replace? How We Decide

Summary:

Cesar addressed this directly during the interview. Homeowners frequently call asking whether damaged concrete can simply be fixed, and his honest position is that replacement is often the better answer. His reasoning is that most failures originate underneath — a base that was never prepared properly, or a slab poured with no reinforcement in it — and patching the surface addresses neither. A repair over a failing base will crack again, leaving the homeowner having paid for the patch and still holding the original problem. When ACR replaces instead, they prepare the entire base and put rebar and fiber into the new slab, which is what makes the work last. He acknowledges this isn't what people want to hear, and notes some jobs genuinely are worth repairing.

Answer:

People call and the first thing they ask is, can you fix it? And a lot of times I have to tell them the truth, which is that I think it's better if you replace the whole thing. I know that's not what they want to hear on the phone. But here's why. Most of the time the reason it's cracked or it's sinking is not the concrete on top, it's what's underneath it. The base wasn't prepared right, or there was nothing in that slab holding it together. If I patch the top of that, I haven't touched the reason it failed. It's going to crack again, and then you've paid for a patch and you still have the same problem. When we replace it, we prepare the whole base, we put rebar in it, we put fiber in the concrete, and like that it's going to hold for longer terms. Now there are things worth repairing, and if I look at it and that's the honest answer, I'll tell you that too. I'd rather tell somebody the truth than sell them the same job twice.