Tulsa, OK & the Tulsa Metro
Mudjacking vs. Polyjacking: Which One Should You Choose?
Straight answer first: polyjacking costs more per square foot but lifts with far less weight, cures within hours, and lasts longer in Tulsa's clay soil. Mudjacking costs less and remains a legitimate choice for large exterior lifts. Call (918) 321-4446 for a free estimate and an honest recommendation for your specific slab.
If you've been quoted for concrete leveling, you've probably noticed that every contractor swears by whichever method they happen to sell. Mudjacking outfits will tell you foam is overpriced. Foam crews will tell you mudjacking is obsolete. Here's the comparison with the sales pitch removed.
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What's Actually Different Between Them?
Both methods do the same job the same basic way: drill holes through the sunken slab, pump material into the void underneath, and raise the concrete back to level. The difference is the material.
Mudjacking (also called slab jacking) pumps a slurry of cement, soil, and water under the slab. It's the older method — contractors have been doing it for decades — and the material is cheap and dense.
Polyjacking (also called polyurethane foam leveling, foam jacking, or polyleveling) injects a two-part polymer that expands into rigid structural foam within seconds, filling the void and lifting the slab.
The Side-by-Side
| Mudjacking | Polyjacking | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per sq ft | $3–$6 | $5–$15 |
| Typical job cost | $500–$1,300 | $600–$2,000 |
| Injection holes | ~1⅝" (quarter-sized or larger) | ~⅝" (dime-sized) |
| Material weight | ~100+ lbs per cubic foot | ~2–4 lbs per cubic foot |
| Cure time | 24–72 hours before vehicle load | 15 minutes–a few hours |
| Water resistance | Can erode with water movement | Waterproof, doesn't wash out |
| Typical lifespan | 5–10 years | 10+ years, often slab lifetime |
| Best fit | Large exterior voids on a budget | Interior slabs, garages, unstable clay |
When Mudjacking Wins
Price, mainly — and it's not a small difference on big jobs. If you have a long driveway with substantial voids, slurry fills that space at a fraction of foam's material cost. The dense slurry also provides solid, heavy support under large exterior slabs where added soil load matters less. If the slab is concrete you expect to replace within a decade anyway, paying the foam premium for a 15-year material can be money wasted. A 5–10 year mudjacking lift on a 30-year-old driveway is a perfectly rational purchase.
When Polyjacking Wins
Three situations make foam the clear call:
- Tulsa's clay soil. Our expansive clay is the reason your slab sank in the first place. Pumping a hundred pounds per cubic foot of slurry onto soil that's already moving adds load to the problem. Foam lifts at a fortieth of the weight.
- Anywhere cure time matters. A garage floor you need to park on tonight, a front walkway, an interior slab — foam takes vehicle weight within hours. See our garage floor leveling page for how this plays out on the most common indoor job.
- Water-prone areas. If the void formed because water moves under that slab, cement slurry can eventually erode along the same path. Foam doesn't wash out.
The Question That Matters More Than the Method
Whichever material goes under the slab, the lift fails if the water problem that created the void keeps running. A good contractor will point at the downspout, the grading, or the drainage issue and tell you to fix it — even though that advice doesn't earn them a dime. That's exactly the kind of honesty an estimate should include, and it's what we look for in the local pro we refer Tulsa homeowners to.
For real numbers on what your specific surfaces are likely to cost, see our concrete leveling cost guide. Or skip ahead: call (918) 321-4446 or send the form on this page, and we'll connect you with one local, insured concrete leveling contractor — one pro, not a call list — who works with both methods and will recommend the one your slab actually needs. The estimate is free, and there's no obligation.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Is polyjacking better than mudjacking?
Neither method is better across the board — they win in different situations. Polyjacking (polyurethane foam injection) cures in minutes to hours, adds very little weight to the soil, and injects through dime-sized holes, which makes it the stronger choice for interior slabs, garage floors, and soil that's already struggling to carry weight. Mudjacking costs less per square foot and uses a denser slurry that fills large voids economically, which makes it competitive for big exterior lifts like long driveways. The honest answer is that the right method depends on your slab, your soil, and your budget — and a contractor who only offers one method will always tell you that method is the right one.
How much cheaper is mudjacking than polyjacking?
Mudjacking typically runs $3 to $6 per square foot, while polyjacking usually runs $5 to $15 per square foot. On a typical residential job that works out to roughly $500 to $1,300 for mudjacking versus $600 to $2,000 for foam, though the gap narrows on small jobs where the contractor's minimum charge dominates the price. Both are a fraction of slab replacement, which commonly starts around $8 to $15 per square foot before demolition and haul-off.
How long does each method last?
Polyurethane foam is waterproof and chemically inert, so once it's in place it doesn't wash out or break down — lifts commonly hold 10 years or more, and often for the remaining life of the slab. Mudjacking slurry is a cement-based material that can erode or re-settle if water keeps moving through the soil beneath the slab, so lifts typically hold 5 to 10 years. In Tulsa's expansive clay, the bigger factor for either method is whether the underlying water problem — a downspout, grading, a leak — gets corrected. If water keeps saturating the clay, no lifting material fixes that.
Does mudjacking or polyjacking work in clay soil like Tulsa's?
Both methods work in expansive clay, but the soil changes the calculus. Oklahoma clay swells and shrinks with moisture, and heavy mudjacking slurry — roughly 100 pounds or more per cubic foot — adds real load to soil that's already unstable, which can contribute to re-settlement. Polyurethane foam weighs around 2 to 4 pounds per cubic foot, so it lifts the slab without meaningfully increasing the burden on the clay. That's a genuine advantage here, and it's part of why foam has become the default recommendation for Tulsa slabs sitting on troubled soil. It's not the whole story, though — for large voids under exterior concrete, slurry's density and price still make mudjacking a legitimate option.
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