LESLIE: Dennis in Michigan is on the line and needs some help fixing driveway cracks. Now, tell us about it. You want to repair it but not replace it?
DENNIS: Well, I’ve got a driveway that’s approximately 27 years old and it’s still in fairly good shape. But I have two places, just in recent years, where it started to crack in two different slab sections. And the cracks are all the way down through the slab and it’s starting to raise up on one side and not the other.
TOM: RIGHT.
DENNIS: And I know that if I don’t fill those cracks with something and get them so they’re waterproof, it’s going to get worse. One side or both going to shift toward it. There’s a higher side where you’re going to trip over it very easily, so …
TOM: Has the gap expanded where the crack is or is it still pretty tight?
DENNIS: It’s opening up now. It’s probably a ¼-inch on one and about an 1/8-inch on the other.
TOM: OK. So it’s still caulkable. Alright. So QUIKRETE makes a product that’s designed for fixing driveway cracks: for filling cracks in concrete driveways. It’s waterproof, it’s flowable and you can basically sweep out that crack as best you can and apply this caulk-like product and seal those cracks. Because you’re right: the reason one side is lifting up is because water is getting in there. And in the winter, it’s probably freezing and lifting the slab or it’s making the soil somewhat unstable underneath. And just the action of driving over it with cars is causing one side to drop more than the other.
So, pretty simple, straightforward repair. Just get the right product for fixing driveway cracks and you should be good to go.
DENNIS: OK. And then the other question I had is – the surface, it’s still in pretty good shape. But as you know better than I do, over the years, with concrete – it’s made from cement and sand and water and sometimes other ingredients, depending on the mix. But when it gets to the point where you’re dealing with a slab that’s 27 to 30 years old, the cement in the mixture starts to wear away and you start to see the aggregate on the surface.
TOM: Right.
DENNIS: And I’m getting that now in recent years. Is there any thin coating of anything I can put on it just to get to the point where I’ll be able to replace it in the future when I have the money? But in the meantime …
TOM: Yeah, what you need for that is just simply called a “resurfacer” and again, QUIKRETE makes that same product.
DENNIS: OK.
TOM: And it’s designed for just that purpose. It goes on very thin. But the reason it’s a specialized product is because it adheres to that old surface and that’s the issue. When you try to use anything that’s not designed for that particular purpose, it doesn’t adhere. So if you use a resurfacer, it’s going to adhere to that old surface and be able to take the weather that’s going to follow, without flaking off.
DENNIS: OK. The only other question I have and I’ll let you go is: it’ll adhere and it’ll take the weather but will it take a vehicle driving over it without cracking and breaking away?
TOM: Yeah, exactly. It’s designed for fixing driveway cracks.
DENNIS: Glad you said that, because I would have got probably the wrong product.
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