LESLIE: Now we’ve got Tim on the line who’s dealing with a big crack in a driveway, causing some unevenness. Tell us what’s going on.
TIM: Well, I have a concrete driveway. It’s 3 inches thick; I found that out after I saw the crack in the driveway. And they poured this driveway in one – as far as width. And they put it – it’s probably 16-foot wide and they poured it in 16×12-foot sections with – it looks like fracture pieces in it instead of the actual expansion joints? And where it goes over my drop – the ditch over my cupboard – it has a spot about a – 1 foot in a triangle – 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 foot – where it has dropped.
And I’m trying to find some way to bring that piece back up level with the rest. That way, I can see – I’ve already had it sealed but I put a silicone in there along the joints to keep any further erosion from happening.
TOM: How big is the piece that’s dropped? You said – is it cracked 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 foot?
TIM: Yes. It’s a 1-foot triangle piece.
TOM: So can you dig that piece out?
TIM: No, I can’t, because it did not break on a smooth line. It fractured and it dropped down.
TOM: Yeah. Because you know – I tell you what, I’ve broken sidewalks in half before, because I had to run pipes underneath them and then put them back in place kind of right where they were and just sort of filled them up and made it level. So, it would be sweet if you could extract that piece of concrete but I guess you can’t. And so now you’re going to have to pour a new piece.
How thick is the – how far down has it dropped?
TIM: The front – on the back edge of it, it’s still level. On the front, it’s probably dropped about 3 inches.
TOM: OK. Well, not so bad. What you’re going to do is you’re going to mix up an epoxy-based, concrete-repair product that has good adhesion.
TIM: OK.
TOM: And then you’re going to put a second layer on that. And QUIKRETE – Q-U-I-K-R-E-T-E …
TIM: OK.
TOM: Yeah, you want to use the type of concrete mix that’s made to be a patch. And the difference is that it sticks to the old stuff. If you use regular concrete mix, it won’t stick. But if you use the patch mix, then it will stick. And they also have good step-by-step videos on their website to kind of show you how to do this.
TIM: OK. Would I be better off by just knocking that one piece – that piece – out and refilling it, since it’s not that big of a piece?
TOM: Yeah, you might be, because I want to make sure it’s stable underneath. But they – there’s a vinyl concrete patcher product that can be used on top of this. And it’s designed to adhere to what was there before and not crack again. OK?
TIM: I appreciate it.
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