Cracks not but make your driveway wait unattractive and unkempt, if left unattended, they tin eventually abound and cause the driveway to crumble. Whether you accept an asphalt or concrete driveway, the more proactive you are at communicable and repairing cracks, the longer your driveway will last without the need for expensive resurfacing.

Step 1: Inspect the Driveway

Before you begin, audit your driveway to see what harm exists and what materials you'll demand. Any cracks wider than hairline should be measured with a ruler or tape measure to determine what materials yous will need to make acceptable repairs (See Step iv). Put on old clothes, shoes and protective gloves before starting any work.

Use a weed-removing tool, a lawn edger or a spade to scrape abroad whatsoever grass or weeds that may be in cracks in the driveway'due south surface. For physical driveways, use a hammer and mason's chisel to fleck away at any soft or crumbled concrete in and around the cracks or crumbling areas. Physical cracks must be chiseled so that the cleft is wider below the surface than on the elevation. Make clean with a potent wire brush to dislodge and remove all loose particles from the edges of small holes and any large cracks. Then utilise a potent push broom to remove clay and debris from the driveway. You tin can too blast abroad loose textile with water from a garden hose or with air from an air compressor.

Wear eye protection (safety spectacles) when removing debris to protect your optics confronting debris.

For all-time results, scrub your entire driveway with a diluted driveway cleaner and a stiff brush to remove stubborn clay and oil spots.

Consider wearing kneepads — this chore requires quite a fleck of kneeling.

Step 2: Wash the Driveway

Hose the driveway with every bit much pressure every bit possible. Consider renting a ability washer. Work from the center out to the sides or from 1 side to another. Kickoff uphill, too, so the dirt won't wash back onto the cleaned surface area.

Hose the driveway until it'southward completely wet and and then sprinkle a thin layer of environmentally condom detergent. Utilize a strong brush or button broom to work the detergent into the surface. And then hose the driveway again until the water runoff is articulate. Let it dry completely.

Step 3: Remove Remaining Debris

Use a shop vacuum to remove whatever remaining clay from the cracks to be filled. These must be very make clean and dry before filling. Don't use compressed air for this step or the dirt volition blow out of the fissure and onto your just cleaned driveway.

Stride 4: Make full/Repair Cracks

Fill/Repair Cobblestone Driveway Cracks

For asphalt driveways, choose a water-based acrylic filler/sealer. You tin look to cover 300 to 500 sq. ft. per five gallons of sealer, depending on the general status of the driveway and if it has been sealed previously. For best results, use filler/sealers that make full cracks upward to i/8" wide and look for crack fillers that have rubberized cobblestone emulsion. For cracks less than i/8", use crack filler in pourable squeeze bottles. Squeeze the liquid into the crack filling the fissure completely.

For cracks upward to ½", use crack filler packaged in no-mess cartridges for a caulking gun or in pourable clasp bottles. Squeeze the caulking gun trigger steadily as you lot pull the tip along the crack. If using pourable filler, fill the crack and smoothen away excess with a putty knife. Be certain to keep the filler in the crack, not on the driveway surface.

For cracks ½" to 2" wide, fill the scissure with not-porous foam backer rod material before applying crack filler.

For potholes or cracks wider than 2", you'll need to practise a little more repair. Shovel packaged cold-patch blacktop into the well-cleaned hole, and then use an iron rake to level the patch. Use a cold chisel and a hand-drilling hammer to undercut the edges and so the hole is wider at the bottom than it is at the driveway surface. This volition lock in the patch once it has been compacted.

Clean tools immediately after use with warm soapy water. Y'all don't want the filler to set on your tools for good.

Press down the material every bit best as you tin with a tamper or the finish of a 2 x iv lath, adding more than material as you go, until the hole is slightly overfilled. Then place a piece of scrap plywood over the patch and drive your car dorsum and forth across it to further compact it.

Once the cracks are filled, it'south time to seal the cobblestone. First, exist certain that your patches accept cured for at least one day, if not 2. Before you lot start, mix sealant well and in one case or twice during the process. After masking bordering areas, mist the driveway with water. Then pour a 1'-broad ribbon of sealant across the driveway. Push button and pull the sealant with the squeegee side of a brush applicator to spread it until you've covered an area that's about 3' or 4' wide. Repeat this procedure until you've covered the entire driveway. You lot can besides go over the surface with a paint roller on an extension pole to fifty-fifty out the coverage.

Using the brush side of the applicator, pull the sealant toward yous and use enough pressure to remove all excess sealant. Continue downward the driveway. Two thin coats are improve than one thick coat. Allow the commencement coat to dry between 4 to 12 hours before applying the 2nd. Block the finish of the driveway to keep cars off until information technology is completely dry — at least 24 to 36 hours.

You can apply silica sand condiment to brand coatings less slippery when wet.

Make full/Repair Concrete Driveway Cracks

To make full hairline concrete cracks, you can usually utilize a patching compound to make the repair. Showtime apply a concrete bonding adhesive or primer/condiment to create the best bond possible betwixt the old surface and the patching material. Utilise an old or inexpensive paintbrush to work the liquid into the surface. Wash the brush immediately after employ with lather and water or discard it.

Utilise gloves, goggles and a dust mask when preparing the driveway or treatment cement products.

The primer volition stain and then avert getting it on any next surfaces. Launder it off promptly if it does get on whatsoever other surfaces.

Use a putty pocketknife or trowel to apply a vinyl patching chemical compound in multiple layers equally directed by the manufacturer. Mix only the amount of patching you'll need for each layer. Press it firmly to forcefulness the initial layer into all nooks and crannies and permit drying time between layers.

You can besides patch thin cracks with a cement mixture. In a small bucket, mix one part cement and three parts sand with enough water to make a stiff paste. In a separate container, mix a small amount of cement with more than water — enough to make a cement paint.

If you tin can, pigment the inside of the crack with the thinner cement mixture. This will deed like a primer. Then take the paste mixture and pack it firmly into the fissure with a putty knife or trowel. Level the mixture with a direct-edged physical-finishing trowel. Permit the patch sit down undisturbed for most an hour, then become over the entire surface with a float or trowel in a circular motion, blending it well with the surrounding surface.

When applying the patch, brand sure you cut deeply into the mixture with your trowel to remove any air pockets.

To patch big cracks (more than ane/8'' wide and 1/2'' deep), utilise cream backer rods. Sold in a diversity of lengths and diameters, cream backer rods are peachy for supporting a patch and preventing it from sinking into any cracks as it dries and ages. Use a putty knife to force the flexible rod into the crack, placing information technology about 1/4'' beneath the surface. Now you can patch the area as you would with a pocket-size crevice. Later smoothing the patch with a trowel, allow it set for a couple of hours. And then cover it with a sheet of plastic, weighing the plastic down at the edges with bricks or rocks. Keep the area covered for an unabridged week, making sure to mist it with a little h2o each solar day to go on it slightly moist.

Alright! You're washed! Your driveway is now structurally sound and looking like new.

Project Shopping Listing

Hither's what you lot'll need to complete this project successfully.