How To Repair Cracked Driveway Concrete

Over the years, most concrete driveways and patios can bit, spall or look worn.

Deicing salts, along with winter's freeze-thaw cycles, are typical causes of surface failures.

That's when it's time to take action — but first, you lot should know your options.

Cracked concrete driveway — *It'due south tempting to replace an unsightly driveway like this one, simply information technology's oftentimes unnecessary.*

Replacing vs. Resurfacing

Y'all could suspension up the concrete slab and pour a new 1 when cracks form, but that would have a lot of time, go out a large mess, and toll a lot of money.

After all, you'd have to remove the existing driveaway, clean up the pieces and booty them away, and so you lot'd accept to prep the ground and pour a new slab — complete with steel reinforcement and control joints.

A concrete driveway's typical installation costs range between $ane,500 and $6,000, with the boilerplate cost being $3,000, or $6 per foursquare pes, co-ordinate to HomeAdvisor.

It makes sense to pay that much for a new driveway, but not if you have an existing driveway in good shape except for a few cracks.

Fortunately, there's another option: repairing your old worn, spalled physical driveway with Quikrete Re-Cap Concrete Resurfacer. You get to keep your existing driveway, and simply encompass the part that's causing problems!

Resurfacing concrete requires less fourth dimension, less mess and — you guessed it! — less cost than the culling. The typical driveway resurfacing ranges from $300 to $500, co-ordinate to HomeAdvisor.

The process is straightforward and any do-information technology-yourselfer can tackle this projection in a day.

Tudor style home, seen in Mobile, Alabama, with a new driveway — A resurfaced concrete driveway looks every bit skilful equally new — at a fraction of the cost.

How to Resurface a Concrete Driveway

If you lot're gear up to resurface your concrete driveway, just follow these steps:

Remove debris. If a cleft is less than a quarter-inch, information technology's a prime candidate for simple resurfacing. And so catch a screwdriver and scratch away at any debris y'all see. Then use a wire brush to clean the area. And and so utilize a whisk broom or a leaf blower to clear the surface area.

Launder the driveway. Wet down the driveway with a pressure washer. Then add together Quikrete Etcher, Cleaner and Degreaser to the motorcar's reservoir and spray it on the surface. After that, attach a high-pressure nozzle to the washer and thoroughly clean the surface.

Mix concrete and water. Mix Quikrete Re-Cap Physical Resurfacer with h2o in a 5-gallon bucket. Chuck a mixing paddle in a ½-inch drill to speedily set up the patching material, which should have a thick consistency.

Fill the cracks. Pour the mixture on the cracks and use a flat-edged trowel to forcefulness it deep inside them. Then smooth out the surface.

Let dry. Allow the material to dry out overnight, and and so mix a much thinner batch of resurfacer. Before applying it, wet the concrete downwards to preclude it from drying out also quickly.

Resurface. Spread the resurfacer on the slab using a rubber squeegee. Endeavor to apply an fifty-fifty coat without a lap mark.

broom-finish-from-behind — *Give the resurfaced concrete driveway a "broom finish" to prevent slips.*

Prevent slips. When the resurfacer starts to set up, use a broom with an extended handle to give the fresh physical surface some texture and foreclose it from becoming glace when wet. This is often called a "broom finish."

Resurfaced concrete tin can handle pes traffic subsequently it has gear up for about six hours, and cars can drive on information technology once it has cured for 24 hours.

Best of all, your physical driveway will look new over again with minimal work — and expense — compared to pouring a new slab.

Watch the video above to acquire more!