Does sealing concrete prevent cracks? We’re here to answer!

 

Driveways are one area of the home that really take a beating. Cars drive over them and park on them and generally place a lot of stress and pressure on the driveway over a long period of time. Add to this the fact that driveways are often left to endure the weather without much cleaning, and you have a recipe for damage, wear and cracking. We’re often asked: does concrete sealing prevent cracks?

The truth is that sealing your concrete driveway won’t actually get rid of the cracks that are already there. If your driveway has been pounded over the years by vehicles and the environment, the cracks that are already there won’t be eliminated just because we put a layer of our tough and durable sealant over the top. This is the bare fact, but it is not the entire story.

Protecting your concrete driveway

Whist we sometimes see driveways that are so badly cracked and damaged that they really need total replacement, the majority of our sealing work is on driveways that simply need to be protected. What we can recommend is that on concrete driveways that have seen better days, but are in generally ok condition, that you opt for one of our tinted concrete sealer treatments. Here’s our process in a nutshell:

• Assessment: We’ll come out and evaluate the driveway and talk to you about your needs and what our sealant treatment can do for you and your driveway.
• Cleaning: After the decision has been made, we’ll pressure clean the entire driveway to get rid of any mould, rubbish, build up organic matter, and debris. Rather than rush the sealing process, we prefer to do a total pressure clean on one day and then lay down our premium concrete sealer on the next. This is the difference between us and many of our competitors, and means that we can spend time cleaning the driveway surface as much as possible and making it an ideal surface for the sealant.
• Sealing: After we’re satisfied that the driveway is as clean as it can be, we bring in state of the art professional equipment to start applying our concrete sealant. If you’ve chosen a colour, it will actually penetrate and bond with the concrete underneath to form a permanent and tight integration. This means that it won’t simply chip off or peel away like regular paint.

 

It’s important that the driveway doesn’t get wet for at least 24 hours after we’ve sealed it. The last thing we want is for moisture to get trapped underneath the layer of sealant and cause a milky look and other issues.

The great thing about applying a coloured tint to the sealant on your concrete driveway is that it not only forms a tough and durable layer that protects the driveway for many years, but also disguises any cracks that are already there. In essence, it will look like you’ve got a brand new driveway, expect our treatment is much more affordable!