Don’t Make These Errors! Sealing Small Concrete Cracks Correctly

how's it going to you guys it's Scott with everyday home repairs now I have a small crack here it's almost a whole semicircle right on the side of my concrete driveway what I want to do is show you how to seal this correctly so it stands up for years and years reducing the amount of water that's getting under your concrete so you can avoid possible future maintenance or replacement that you might have to do now many homeowners might go down to the local Home Depot and just pick up this product by quick create but there is a common mistake that I want to help you avoid let me show you exactly what I'm talking about now many people skip the prep work they might do something like this where they get out just some of the loose chunks of concrete and then once they get that out that's it you know they go right to work they open up the sealant they shake it and then just start to apply that carefully and trying to make it as flush as possible with the top surface of the concrete but there's a challenge here because of our lack of prep we'll look at a 15minute time lapse here and especially closest to you you'll start to see that sealant sucking down into to the crack and then I think where most people go wrong is they then just take the bottle again and go back for a second or third trying to fill in any of the voids the challenge is this product fully cures and hardens over 24 hours so if you're doing that within an hour or two that first layer that's making contact with the concrete is not going to be able to fully cure and that is going to impact the longevity of that seal and then it might start pulling away from the concrete even within that first year so let's not do that let's do it right so that is going to need a little bit more prep work now this will work on hairline or small cracks like this but I've even used the same method on much larger crafts is wide as 2 in many of you were skeptical if that would hold up so I'll actually give you a 2-year update we'll go take a look at that crack and see how the sealant and that end result is holding up 2 years later so let's go ahead and jump into the proper prep work that's needed on something like this and a few more products going to make sure that this lasts for years and years and years and you're not having to continue to maintain these cracks now the first step that I need to do is actually use a diamond saw blade here on my grinder and open up the crack a little bit I want to get the crack a little bit closer to a quar of an inch and I'll show you why I need that here in a second depending on the width of your overall crack you might not have to do this step but for me I just want it consistently opened up so I'm taking my time riding all the way along this crack to get a nice consistent about a quarter inch Gap moving on I'll use a nylon bristle cup wheel and you can reference right below the video you'll see links to all these different tools and parts that we're using for this project but we want to clean up the crack itself and especially down in the crack that's where this sealant is going to be bonding to so it's critical that we get all the dirt and dust off of that so it can adhere properly then you could use a shop back or maybe even a leaf blower like I'm doing here to clean out the crack and the surrounding area to get ready for the next step so now we need to get a back or kind of a foundation for the sealant that will be sealing up this crack specifically we're going to use this Clos cell foam cord which is called backer rod specifically this is made by MD very common brand that you'll find at your home improvement stor this is the small version which is 38 of an inch in diameter and just remember you want your back Rod to be a little bit larger than your crack because when you press it down in there to give that backing you want it to hold tight you don't want it to be loose or when you put the sealant the backer rod can float to the top so make sure you measure your crack and if it changes in terms of the width of the crack you might need to get multiple different pieces of backer rod so that it's tight all the way along and nothing floats up to the top it kind of gets messy if that happens to you so let's go ahead and get the backer rod in place and then we'll talk about the last step which is that sealant now what I'm using is a carpenter pencil that I shave down to the width of the crack that helps me press down that backer rod securing it in plays and specifically I'm trying to get it about a/4 of an inch below the surface all the way through take your time here you don't want to start to applying sealant and find out that your back Rod's right at the surface here you want to take your time and double check that you have it exactly at the dep and you wouldn't want to go much over 38 of an inch or your sealant won't cure properly so here's what it's looking like once the backer rod is in place and ready to start applying the sealant so now we're ready to apply the sealant really this is your last step now I do put up little dams wherever I don't want the seal it to go the seal I'm going to show you is either self-leveling or semi self-leveling so that means it's going to flow to any openings do not leave the end of your crack open or it will flow right out the end of the crack so I just use Gorilla tape double it back so there's not the sticky part right at the crack and then here I just have backer rod that I tape down again just to put dams wherever I don't want that additional sealant to go sealing options you could use the quick re I don't have a ton of experience with this one it's going to be completely self-leveling so you would only want to use it on a horizontal surface but with this type of prep work I am pretty confident that it' work well and you do not need a clock gun so that is a benefit you can look right below the video you'll see links to all these different products now seea makes their self leveler I have used this in the past and again it is held up for years and years and years I'm very confident in this product and it's much easier to get at Home Depot or some other home improvement stores and it comes in the small 9 to 10 ounce tube or you can go larger to the 29 or 30 o tube if you have a much larger crack and then again you're going to have to have that same 9 o gun so you can apply it now the one I've used the most and the one I'm most confident in is tram Co 45 SSL now this is perfect for horizontal but it also can go on a slight slope so I think it's the most flexible and it has really proven to do well over time only drawback is sometimes it's harder to find and all the colors I'm using here are limestone for your reference this is the 30 o tube so you're going to have to have the larger gun to apply that this is the one I'm going to use and let me show you that update on that much much larger crack where I used this exact product years ago we'll show you the results and how it's still holding up now if you haven't already don't forget to subscribe to the channel I'm able to update you on projects like this everything looks great when we first do a project but some of those projects over a year or years might not have exactly the results that I was expecting so I can update you so you guys can make those tweaks to your own project but for this one like we said we had a huge gap here that we filled with the exactly the same method with the tremco 45 SSL I'm so confident in that product because what I see here to be honest I'm even pretty impressed with the results the trco really bonded to the concrete now the concrete has stayed in place it hasn't shifted too much but we had that pool noodle underneath for our monster backer rod trem Co holding up with the sand on top to kind of blend it into the overall concrete surface so this one is still holding strong about 2 years later now let's go ahead and apply the 45 SSL and again that's semi self-leveling so it will relax out a bit but it's not as runny as the self leveler you take your time and you kind of look ahead of you to know how much to adjust if the Gap is getting bigger or smaller and then also you really want to apply this between about 45° F and 80 to 85° F the product says it can go up to 100° fenhe but remember in direct sun that concrete is going to get really hot and then if it's hot while it's curing and drying it can lead to Bubbles and it doesn't give you the Finish you're looking for so here's what the finish product looks like and if you think that Limestone color stands out a little bit too much you can take some dry play sand and kind of sprinkle that lightly onto your sealant you'll want to wait after it sets up for about 10 to 15 minutes so it dries for 10 to 15 minutes then you can sprinkle on that sand and it will help to blend that into your overall concrete and look something a little bit more like this now if you want to see how to avoid one of the most common mistakes in terms of mulching your trees in your yard which can be detrimental to your trees check out the video right here if you want to dive in how a similar method can help to reduce getting weeds and grass on your concrete driveway check out the video down here thanks for joining me on this video and we'll catch you on one of those next ones take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 641,340

Keywords: Tremco 45 SSL, sika self leveling, sealing driveway cracks, sealing sidewalk cracks, sealing patio cracks, do I need to seal cracks in concrete, everyday home repairs, exterior home mainenance

Id: Br5i8nkW5DQ

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2024