Home Maintenance Tips: How To Avoid and Repair Cracks In Your Driveway

We often overlook how common concrete is. It makes up virtually all roads in the United States. Most city streets are lined with sidewalks made of concrete. Residential driveways, garage floors, and industrial-purpose floors are made of concrete as well. There being so much concrete across modern society, the likelihood of some concrete being cracked in any given location is reasonably high.

You most likely don't know that cracks are caused by a myriad of factors. They're not all simply cracks, as different originating factors of cracks are most effectively treated in different ways. Let's brush over the most common types of cracks that sidewalks, driveways, and other concrete structures endure.

When the Ground Settles, Bad Things Can Happen

This goes without saying, but concrete sits on dirt, rock, or a combination of the two. When the ground beneath the concrete wasn't settled before the concrete was poured or installed, large cracks can and often will split driveways, sidewalks, and slabs in halves, quarters, and potentially many more pieces. Cracks formed as a result of settling can also rear their ugly head if trees or major plants have recently been pulled.

Have You Heard of Heaving? It's a Phenomenon, That's for Sure

Tree roots can reach out from trees for hundreds of feet. They can also grow to be quite thick, displacing things like sidewalks if they were once poured near growing trees. Cracks that are caused by heaving involve concrete - it's almost always sidewalks that are affected - slabs breaking clean in two and one of them rising several inches over the other. Over time, the gap grows. The only way to fix heaved concrete is to remove trees or pour new concrete.

Plastic Shrinkage

Plastic shrinkage refers to the process by which moisture leaves recently-poured concrete, causes the slabs to crack, and slide towards or away one another. These types of cracks are by far the most common in concrete.

Concrete is everywhere. Most people don't think of concrete repair, however. Knowing what type of concrete crack you're dealing with can make concrete resurfacing in Charlotte, NC infinitely easier.