For home and building owners everywhere, driveways are vital pieces of a given property. Important for everything from vehicle parking and storage to aesthetic appeal and outdoor safety, driveways need proper maintenance to remain in tip-top shape.
At Lift-Up Concrete, we’re proud to offer residential, commercial and municipal concrete lifting and leveling services, including those designed specifically for driveway spaces. Without these services, sinking, cracked or leaking concrete can lead to major issues, including eventual slanting and pulling of the driveway concrete away from attached concrete inside the garage. What are some of the primary threats to create these issues to begin with? In part one of this two-part blog, here are some general tips on the potential risks facing your concrete driveway, plus how our concrete repair services will help you avoid these risks.
Cracking and Expansion
Some of the primary issues that concrete may face involve cracking or other minor splits – though over time, without the right attention, the word “minor” here will quickly turn into “major.” Cracks in concrete may form for a few different reasons, whether we’re talking moisture that seeps through into the material, tree roots that grow into concrete areas from nearby trees, or even direct impacts that lead to immediate cracks.
Whether moisture is or isn’t a primary cause of the cracks themselves, it often becomes a concern once they’re present. Specifically, this can become an issue when the temperatures outside fluctuate, something Utah residents know is extremely common. When winter hits, cracks in driveways will hold moisture, which will freeze and thaw several times – leading to expansion and contraction that only exacerbates the cracks and damage. If you let this go through the entire winter or even through multiple seasons, you’re just asking for trouble with crack expansion, and leaving yourself with a driveway that’s both unsafe and costlier to repair.
Heavy Loads
In the majority of cases, heavy loads like vehicles and others are not the primary cause of driveway damage. But they can absolutely be a complicating factor – they’ll often push cracks even further open, and they certainly don’t contribute to any solution to the issue.
Rodents and Other Animals
Once again, with a few exceptions, rodents and small animals are not actually creating the cracks in your driveway. Rather, they’re taking advantage of your inattention and burrowing into covered areas of the concrete, areas where they can be protected from the elements and predators. With enough time and lack of attention, rodents and other small animal types may begin to breed and continuously impact the space, once again leaving it unsafe and also potentially unhealthy.
For help understanding how our concrete repair services can prevent all of the above risks, or to learn about any of our concrete lifting and leveling services, speak to the staff at Lift-Up Concrete today.
