Concrete
When does a sidewalk need replacing?
A sidewalk is due once a panel has lifted, dropped or broken enough to catch a foot, and how much is too much is set by your city or county.
The numbers
- The signs: a lip between two panels, a panel that rocks underfoot, a panel broken into pieces that move.
- The lip is what people trip on, and it is what gets reported.
- How much of a lip is allowed, and who owns the repair, are set by the city or county the walk sits in.
- Federal accessibility standards govern changes in level on an accessible route, and local codes can be stricter.
- A panel that has lifted usually has a tree root or frost under it, and the cause comes out with the panel.
What decides it
Two things, and neither of them is on a contractor's website. The first is the condition: whether a panel has lifted or dropped against the one beside it, whether it rocks under your weight, and whether the concrete has broken into pieces that move on their own.
The second is the code where the property sits. How much of a lip is allowed, whether grinding it flat counts as a fix, and who owns the repair are set by the city or county, and they differ between neighboring towns. The inspector for that jurisdiction is the one whose answer counts.
Where the federal standards come into it
The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design set out how much of a change in level is allowed on an accessible route. That is a federal floor for accessible routes rather than a general rule about every sidewalk in the country, and local codes can be stricter than it.
So the useful order is to read the walk, then call the municipality with what you found. Measuring against a threshold off a website is how an owner ends up confident about the wrong standard.
Why one panel moved and the others did not
Almost always a tree root growing under it, or frost getting under one panel because water collects there. Both keep working after the panel is put back, which is why grinding a lip flat is a fix with a clock on it while the root is still there.
Taking the panel out shows you which one it is. The root gets cut back and a root barrier goes in, or the base gets rebuilt so it drains, and then the new panel sits where it was poured.
Repair, or replace the panel
Where the concrete is sound and only the height is wrong, grinding or lifting the panel can be the answer and it is less work. Where a panel is cracked through, badly scaled, or has broken into pieces that move independently, it comes out and a new one goes in.
Whether a public walk in front of a property is the owner's to repair or the city's is set locally, so that is a call to the municipality before it is a call to a contractor. Send us a photo of the panel and we will tell you what we are looking at and what to ask the city.
Where these numbers come from
- 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, section 303, Changes in Level, which governs accessible routes. State and local codes can be stricter.