Repairing A Neglected Driveway Crack | The Ultimate Solution!

how's it going you guys it's Scott with everyday home repairs and today I want to show you how to repair or more properly said maintain a very common part of having a concrete driveway and that is when we have these large cracks forming now this one specifically is right next to my garage is about five to six feet away from my garage now this crack varies in its width and it also has some loose concrete that I'll need to remove and one side is about a quarter of an inch higher than the other in some of the worst locations now some people might say get some patch or just mix up some Quik Crete patch that up and you'll be good to go I'm not a huge fan of that I think there is a better way so let's jump into it now first up we'll do a little prep work to this crack I'm going through here and I'm just loosening up and removing any small pieces of concrete that are not still securely attached to these pads nothing fancy here I have an old flat head screwdriver that I'm using do not use a new one or you'll probably break off the tip then once that is completed I'm going to go through with my cordless drill and I have a nylon cup brush attachment and you just want to work both sides of that crack this is also going to help get some sticks and some dirt and debris off there but want to clean up both edges of this crack nothing too fancy but just take your time getting all that surface debris off of the crack then once you have that completed you might have to go back through with a tiny little screwdriver like this and some form of shopback or a Dyson like this one and then pull out any of the remaining debris in the crack so let's touch on the Y for a second why do I go for the trouble of filling the center sealing off these cracks as cracks and driveways and sidewalks are kind of a fact of life and not super uncommon for me what I want to do is I want to stop the accumulation of water right now this crack is serving as basically a drain for the entire concrete pad water will flow directly into that crack and will soak the ground underneath in addition there is a chance that tree has a root that's going right along this crack and applying pressure from the bottom so if this is a continuous source of water and moisture that tree is going to continue to promote the growth of that one root because it knows it's an unending supply of moisture as all the water is collecting right there so that is specifically why I am addressing this crack let me know what you think down in the comments but for now let's jump back into the work now be using a sealant to seal off this crack but first you need some type of backing I prefer to use what's called backer rod this is a small backer rod that I'm placing in the crack it's only a quarter of an inch for most cracks that I'm repairing usually I need at least a half inch back rod and sometimes all the way up to a one inch backer rod but you want to press the back hacker rod down into place and make sure it's actually securely held in the concrete if it isn't if it's loose that could cause you some issues when you're applying the sealant now for the cracks that are actually a little bit smaller and I can't get the back rod in would that result to then is just some sand I'll pour sand in and that sand will need to work into all the voids until it's no longer pulling down into the voids and you have a nice backing where you can apply sealant onto and then I'll just finish off here with some additional baccarat at the end and you can see those two pads this is where it has that quarter of an inch Gap where the one side is higher than the other but don't forget at the end you need to block the end because we'll be using some sealant I just use this some Gorilla tape double it back and then just apply that to the end of the concrete now we're ready to really seal this off and specifically I use a tremco product it's the Vulcan 45 SSL and SSL is semi-self leveling so once you apply it it really relaxes down and levels off in that surface and it does have a little forgiveness in terms of slope and that's why it's semi self-leveling some of the self leveler if it's not perfectly level it will start to cool up to one side so this gives you a little forgiveness if you do have slope on your driveway now you'll find the tremco reference along with the other tools over on our Amazon store which you'll find a link in the description you can jump over there and in the exteriors and deck section you'll see the tremco product you'll see a few different sizes of the backer rods remember you want to go about 1 8 larger backer rod than the measurement on your Gap so if you have a half inch Gap get 5 8 or even three quarter backer rods so it will securely hold in your Gap and then even that nylon brush to prep this concrete surface before applying your sealant now since we used quite a bit of sand I did go back through I did a quick brush again with the nylon brush and then I actually used my leaf blower in a very low setting and just blew off all the surface sand resulting in the two edges on the left and right being clean concrete so the tremco sealant can actually bond to that and give us a long lasting hold that will hold up for years and years so let's start laying down the ceiling and I'll also show you how to kind of blend that into your driveway in addition to what to avoid to make sure you get a nice clean professional look now there's a good chance we might encapsulate some of these ants run around here but what I'm using is a 29 ounce tube remember this is not a standard 10 ounce tube which is your smaller more general purpose tube of any sort of caulk or adhesive make sure you have a 29 ounce tube caulk gun so it matches up with this tube and then just take your time I always have a lawn bag or something where I can set that that tube off to the side let it leak on the bag and not get it all over my driveway this is at 8X speed so it's much much slower in real application and you want to take that time kind of looking right ahead of where you're laying down the sealant to adjust how much pressure you're applying to the actual trigger and adjust how much sealant you're actually putting out there which in these type of cracks can vary quite a bit so one tip that's caused me some problems in the past is if you're in summertime conditions which I am right now it actually was sunny now some clouds have moved in but if I would let this crack be in direct sunlight it is actually going to be outside of the temperature range for the specifications on the 45 SSL your temperature range is really 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 110 degrees Fahrenheit well it's only about 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside but don't forget you're actually applying this to concrete so in direct sunlight I saw the concrete as high as about 120 degrees Fahrenheit which pushes it out of the range it will melt more bubbling during the drying process and it just doesn't equal a nice finished product ask me how I know well I did that once and I got a lot of Bubbles and I just wasn't satisfied with the finished product you can see even with clouds overhead if I shoot an infrared gun at the Shaded part before compared to where there was sunlight that concrete is still about 8 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer and as soon as the sun goes out that will probably go 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer now for blending this in you can actually blend it in much more to your driveway compared to just the gray or the Limestone look of the tremco 45 SSL which you can get in different colors but I had the Limestone version all you need to do is use that same sand just play sand or any general purpose sand and just do a light sprinkling of sand about 10 to 15 minutes after you let the sealant settle in what I like to do is I want to see the sealant settle in to make sure I don't need to add any additional sealant want to fill any voids and you really only have about 10 minutes while you can add new sealant without the sealant really separating from the original application and not looking very good so I just wait a few minutes add any sealant that I need to and then come back through and put that sand on top to give me a nice Blended look like I have here with our sealed crack so let me know if you guys have any questions down in the comments or if you do something a little bit different I always appreciate your feedback and I know it's super valuable to me and also very valuable to the audience now if you have a more aggressive crack even something larger than one inch that kind of goes beyond a standard backer rod so check out this video right here I'll walk you through the process of actually sealing that in a very similar style but actually using a pool noodle to customize the shape of your back Rod which works perfectly so thanks for joining me on this video and we'll catch you on that next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 193,315

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Id: xk2lT9D_0wY

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023