How to Protect Your Driveway from Cracking

The concrete around your home plays a major role in enhancing the beauty of your property as a whole and your concrete driveway is also not an exception to that.

It is the first thing that every visitor notices about your home.

So it is quite obvious that a cracked or crumbled driveway build a negative impression of your home even before your guests enter the house.

Moreover it also lowers the value of your house in case you have plans to sell it in future.

As a damaged concrete driveway is a serious concern for every house owner, in this blog we will be sharing some useful ideas to protect your driveway from cracking and other damages.

Before we directly get into the solution of the issue, we need to know about the possible causes of it so that the maintenance becomes easier for you.

How to Protect Your Driveway from Cracking

Why do concrete driveways crack and crumble over times?

Moisture is the biggest enemy of concrete. Excessive water can even wash away the supporting soil.

It can also cause the soil to shrink when there is too little and in extremely low temperatures when it freezes, it can simply cause cracks in your concrete driveway.

As concrete is an extremely porous construction material, water gets absorbed from the surface very easily due to rain or melting snow.

So when temperature drops down, the water transforms into ice, it expands and breaks the walls of those tiny pores.

Such damages go unnoticed at their initial stage but it worsens with every freeze or thaw cycle until the pitting becomes prominent to the naked eyes.

Additionally, due to its porous nature it becomes vulnerable to staining from chemicals, dirt and other materials which is another thing that ruins your house’s appearance.

1. Applying sealant to safeguard your concrete driveway

The best way to protect your driveway for a long stretch is to apply sealant. Not many house owners pay much attention to it and regret their decision later when it becomes necessary to replace the whole thing.

There is no rocket science behind sealing a driveway but you must know that not all sealants are the same before buying them from your local big box store.

There are multiple options available in a retail store and some of them are messy and have to be reapplied on regular intervals which can be costly.

Good commercial sealers are also available at concrete material shops but if you are too much confused then you can always take your home concrete driveway contractor’s help for sealant recommendation.

If you are into a DIY project then make sure that you apply it following the manufacturer’s guide.

2. Clean your driveway

Apart from applying sealant on your concrete driveway, cleaning the space regularly is also an important step to keep your concrete driveway safe for long time.

The frequency of cleaning the area completely depends on the weather conditions the concrete is exposed to and the amount of traffic it receives everyday.

3. Removing stains immediately

Although a sealer is extremely helpful in protecting concrete from stain absorption, it is still good to remove oil, gasoline, grease and other spills as soon as possible.

These are the measures that you can take to protect your driveway from any kind of damage and keep it healthy in long run.

However if your concrete is already damaged then sealant can only protect it against additional damage.

Homeowners often go for a complete replacement when the surface of the concrete gets damaged but an alternate option to this is resurfacing.

Get in touch with efficient driveway contractors Alexandria, VA to get your work done.