10 Ways to Repair Your Cracked Concrete Driveway

These are wonderful tips for repairing your cracked driveway, from Russel Ray.

Invariably when I do an inspection in an older neighborhood, my Client will ask me about the cracked concrete in the driveway (and the garage, the patios and porches, and the walkways).

Following are my Top 10 ways to repair your cracked concrete driveway. Number 1 is the least expensive while all the others can be quite involved and can get expensive, but they generally will look better, too.

1.   Patch the cracks with caulk. I can highly recommend Quikrete Concrete Repair 8620-10. It’s an acrylic latex product that includes a little sand, which makes it blend in well with concrete. You can even use it to repair the cracks in your stucco or masonry. Follow the directions because I’m not giving them to you here! However, you can read all about QCR 8620-10 right here.

2.   Rip out the old and put in a new basic concrete driveway. There’s no guarantee that your new driveway won’t crack. Many of us who work around concrete have a little saying that goes like this: “There are two types of concrete, that which has cracked and that which will crack.” Generally, concrete cracks. It’s as simple as that! A new concrete driveway created properly will probably not crack for many years, but creating a driveway properly takes a little work. It’s not as simple as pouring concrete on the ground.

3.   Rip out the old and put in a new stamped concrete driveway. A little more expensive than #1, but stamped concrete either doesn’t crack as much as your basic concrete, or the cracks are less noticeable because of the concrete stamping.

4.   Rip out the old and put in a new basic concrete driveway. There’s no guarantee that your new driveway won’t crack. Many of us who work around concrete have a little saying that goes like this: “There are two types of concrete, that which has cracked and that which will crack.” Generally, concrete cracks. It’s as simple as that! A new concrete driveway created properly will probably not crack for many years, but creating a driveway properly takes a little work. It’s not as simple as pouring concrete on the ground.


5.   Rip out the old and put in a new concrete and brick driveway. This type of driveway simply looks better than an all-concrete driveway, and the bricks are usually put in a location where cracks in the concrete would normally occur, thereby preventing cracked concrete.

 

 

6.   Rip out the old and put an all-brick driveway. This is usually a time-intensive process, meaning that it’s more expensive than your all-concrete driveway. This type of driveway looks great but you do have to do a little more maintenance to keep the weeds from growing between the bricks.

7.   Rip out the old and put in a new stone driveway.This is quite expensive because stone is more expensive than concrete or brick, but it looks awesome.

 

8.   Rip out the old and put in a new green driveway. This driveway uses bricks or small concrete pads surrounded by grass or some other ground cover plant that grows low and will fill in the gaps between the bricks and pads. 

9.   Have a layer of asphalt applied over the concrete. The asphalt will fill in the cracks and you’ll have a new asphalt driveway. This is one of the least expensive methods although it can get expensive in states like California where asphalt is considered a hazardous material. 

10.   Have a concrete professional come out and cut the concrete everywhere there are cracks. Now your driveway simply looks like a stamped concrete driveway. The best of these folks can really do an awesome job with your cracked concrete, whether driveway, pool deck, patio, porch, or walkway. I’ve used this method many times.

Courtesy, Russel Ray, San Diego Home Inspector

 

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