How to Move a Concrete Pad That Has Settled

The two most common causes for a settled concrete pad are the bottom fill being too soft or poor drainage. Before you begin this project, determine why the pad has sunk and plan to solve the problem. Otherwise, the pad will settle again in a few months. An average concrete sidewalk pad weighs about 200 pounds, so you will need some assistance with this project. Plan to spend at least one day moving the sunken pad.

Shovel
Wheelbarrow
Bricks
5-foot pry bars
Pea gravel
Hand tamper

Instructions

- 1
  Dig a hole next to the pad's two sunken corners with a shovel. Make the holes slightly wider than the shovel blade and 6 inches deeper than the pad's depth. Save the soil you dig out in a wheelbarrow. Set a brick next to each hole, on the side furthest from the pad.
- 2
  Work a 5-foot-long pry bar underneath the pad in each corner and rest the pry bar's handle on the bricks. Ask a friend to push down on the pry bar at one corner to lift the sunken end while you push down on the pry bar at the other corner.
- 3
  Insert bricks underneath the pad and adjust them to hold the pad at the appropriate height. Shovel pea gravel underneath the pad, around the bricks. Walk across the concrete pad to help settle it and add or remove pea gravel as necessary.
- 4
  Fill the holes you dug with the soil you saved in Step 1. Tamp the soil down with a hand tamper and add more soil as necessary.

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