After a number of years, our home will eventually need to be progressively repaired and among many things that we should do is to perform repairs on the driveway. Issues with our driveway tend to happen gradually and it may not be obvious at first. In general, repairing our driveway is among things that can help us to improve the appearance of our house. If problems are relatively minor, we may only need to fix the cracks. We should know that concrete isn’t the most durable material on the planet and it will eventually, and then the crack will only get bigger. Even so, repairing small cracks will be easier and cheaper than repairing large ones, the results will also look better. Repairing driveway is one thing that you may want to do, if you plan to sell the house at some point in the near future. It is often the first thing that the potential buyer sees when they visit our house. If the driveway is in a bad shape, the potential buyer may think that there are many other hidden problems with our house.
Driveway repair is also about ensuring our safety at home. Cracks may eventually become bigger and in more serious cases, they can become potholes. They may only cause a bit of inconveniences when we park the car, but these potholes could cause injuries to small children when they run around and ride their bikes. First signs of driveway damage can be quite easy to see and when we see some parts of it has been discoloured, then it is possible that there’s already some damage underneath. Obviously, it is better to prevent the damage on the driveway in the first place. The easiest thing to do is to apply a good quality sealant when the driveway has been recently constructed. The sealant can be reapplied regularly, depending on the condition of the original layer. Without sealant, the driveway will be directly exposed to engine fluids, car tire frictions and constant exposure to the sun. Another good way to maintain the driveway is to trim the grass at the edges of the driveway. Every two weeks, we may also check the driveway for oil stains and they should be removed.
Cleaning up the oil stains on the driveway is relatively easy, often we are able to do this using only warm soapy water and proper brushes. It is also a good idea to check the driveway for small cracks as soon as possible, because they can be repaired relatively easily. Repairing a small crack may require only a regular caulking gun to apply the sealant solution. There are different crack sealant alternatives that we can use, such as the latex-based one that we can pour into the crack. For ruts and larger cracks, we may need to full in a special asphalt patch mix. We can do this by using the cold patch method, which is filling cracks and holes with a coarse filler compound,.