When to lift it for hundreds, when to replace it for thousands — and how to tell which one you're looking at before anyone gives you a quote.
If your concrete is settled but intact, lifting wins on cost, speed, and appearance nearly every time. Replacement earns its price only when the slab itself is failing — crumbling, shattered, or structurally compromised. Most sinking concrete in the Salt Lake Valley is a lifting job; contractors who recommend replacement for intact settled slabs are selling you concrete you don't need.
| Project | Lift: mudjacking | Lift: foam | Replace outright* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sidewalk section (~120 sq ft) | $350–$700 | $900–$1,900 | $1,500–$3,000+ |
| Patio (~200 sq ft) | $500–$1,000 | $1,200–$2,400 | $2,500–$5,000+ |
| Driveway section (~220 sq ft) | $650–$1,300 | $1,500–$3,200 | $3,000–$6,000+ |
| Full driveway (~500 sq ft) | $1,500–$2,900 | $3,200–$7,200 | $5,000–$8,000+ |
*Replacement typically runs 2–3× the lift cost for the same area — demolition, disposal, forming, pouring, and finishing. Ranges above are typical; get a written quote for your project.
The per-square-foot price isn't the whole story. Replacement also costs you:
Lifting takes hours; foam is drivable in 15–30 minutes. Replacement means demolition day, forming, the pour, then 3–7 days of cure with no vehicles — plan where the cars live for a week.
Demo equipment is not gentle. Edging, sprinklers, and lawn along the work area often need repair afterward — rarely included in the concrete quote.
New concrete is light gray; your 15-year-old driveway is weathered darker. In Utah's high-UV sun the mismatch stays obvious for years. Lifting keeps your existing slab, so matching is a non-issue.
Here's the kicker: replacement usually goes back onto the same soil and drainage that sank the original slab — unless the quote includes soil prep and drainage work, which most don't. A new $7,000 driveway on bad drainage is a future $7,000 driveway.
A good contractor talks you out of a lift when:
If a contractor recommends replacement, ask them to point to the specific slab failure — "it's just old" isn't a diagnosis. And if they recommend lifting, ask what they'd do about drainage (see why Utah concrete settles).
Contractors often use this quick test: if a lift costs more than half of replacement and the slab is marginal, lean toward replacement. If the slab is sound, lift — even at 50% of replacement cost, you're done in hours with matching concrete. The rule only flips when the slab itself is questionable.
Salt Lake Valley concrete lives a hard life — freeze–thaw, snowmelt, expansive clay in places — so "new concrete lasts decades" assumes proper base prep and drainage, which is exactly what failed the first time. Whatever you choose, the contractor who talks about soil and water — not just the slab — is the one worth hiring. And if you go the lifting route, choosing between mudjacking and foam is your next decision.
Lifting is almost always cheaper — typically one-third to one-half the cost of tearing out and re-pouring. A $2,000 lift often replaces a $5,000–$8,000 replacement job. Full pricing is in the cost guide.
Roughly 2–3 times the cost of lifting the same area. A full driveway that lifts for $1,500–$2,900 (mudjacking) typically costs $5,000–$8,000+ to demolish and re-pour — before landscaping repairs.
When the slab itself is done: crumbling or spalling surfaces, concrete shattered into multiple shifting pieces, deep structural cracking, or an original pour with the wrong slope that guarantees drainage problems. An honest contractor will tell you when you're looking at replacement.
Hairline and shrinkage cracks — yes, lifting works fine. A slab fractured into pieces that move independently — lifting can raise it, but the pieces keep shifting, so replacement is usually the better money.
Perfectly — because it's your existing concrete. That's an underrated advantage: new replacement concrete takes years to weather to the same color as adjacent slabs, and in Utah's intense sun the mismatch is obvious. Lifting has no matching problem at all.
A lift takes hours — foam is drivable in 15–30 minutes, mudjacking needs about 24 hours. Replacement means demolition, forming, pouring, and a 3–7 day cure with no vehicle traffic, plus landscape repair afterward.
A new slab on properly prepared, well-drained soil can last decades — longer than any lift. But "properly prepared" is doing heavy lifting in that sentence: most replacement quotes don't fix the soil and drainage that sank the original. A lift plus drainage correction often outlasts a cheap replacement. More in how long lifting lasts.
Describe what's happening with your concrete — a local specialist will tell you honestly whether it's a lift job or a replacement job.