Cracks not only make your driveway look unattractive and unkempt, if left unattended, they can eventually grow and crusade the driveway to crumble. Whether yous accept an asphalt or physical driveway, the more than proactive you are at communicable and repairing cracks, the longer your driveway will concluding without the need for expensive resurfacing.

Stride 1: Audit the Driveway

Before you begin, audit your driveway to see what impairment exists and what materials you'll need. Any cracks wider than hairline should be measured with a ruler or record measure to determine what materials you lot will need to make adequate repairs (Come across Pace four). Put on old apparel, 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 exist in cracks in the driveway's surface. For physical driveways, use a hammer and stonemason's chisel to chip abroad at any soft or crumbled concrete in and effectually the cracks or crumbling areas. Concrete cracks must be chiseled so that the crevice is wider beneath the surface than on the top. Clean with a stiff wire brush to dislodge and remove all loose particles from the edges of pocket-sized holes and any large cracks. Then use a stiff push button broom to remove clay and debris from the driveway. You lot can also blast away loose material with water from a garden hose or with air from an air compressor.

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

For best results, scrub your entire driveway with a diluted driveway cleaner and a stiff castor to remove stubborn dirt and oil spots.

Consider wearing kneepads — this task requires quite a chip of kneeling.

Pace 2: Wash the Driveway

Hose the driveway with as much pressure level equally possible. Consider renting a power washer. Piece of work from the center out to the sides or from one side to another. Beginning uphill, too, so the dirt won't launder back onto the cleaned expanse.

Hose the driveway until it's completely wet and and so sprinkle a sparse layer of environmentally safe detergent. Apply a stiff castor or push broom to work the detergent into the surface. So hose the driveway again until the water runoff is clear. Let it dry out completely.

Step 3: Remove Remaining Debris

Utilise a store vacuum to remove whatsoever remaining dirt from the cracks to be filled. These must exist very clean and dry before filling. Don't use compressed air for this step or the dirt will accident out of the scissure and onto your just cleaned driveway.

Footstep 4: Fill/Repair Cracks

Fill/Repair Asphalt Driveway Cracks

For asphalt driveways, cull a water-based acrylic filler/sealer. You tin can wait to cover 300 to 500 sq. ft. per v gallons of sealer, depending on the general condition of the driveway and if it has been sealed previously. For all-time results, apply filler/sealers that fill cracks up to 1/viii" wide and look for crack fillers that have rubberized asphalt emulsion. For cracks less than one/8", use crack filler in pourable clasp bottles. Squeeze the liquid into the crack filling the crack completely.

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

For cracks ½" to two" wide, make full the cleft with non-porous foam backer rod textile before applying crack filler.

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

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

Press down the material every bit best as you can with a tamper or the end of a 2 x 4 lath, adding more cloth as you go, until the hole is slightly overfilled. So place a piece of scrap plywood over the patch and bulldoze your automobile dorsum and forth across it to further compact it.

Once the cracks are filled, it's fourth dimension to seal the cobblestone. Outset, be sure that your patches have cured for at least one twenty-four hour period, if not two. Before you commencement, mix sealant well and once or twice during the process. After masking bordering areas, mist the driveway with h2o. Then cascade a ane'-wide ribbon of sealant across the driveway. Push and pull the sealant with the duster side of a castor applicator to spread it until you've covered an area that'southward well-nigh three' or four' wide. Repeat this process until y'all've covered the entire driveway. You can also get over the surface with a paint roller on an extension pole to even out the coverage.

Using the brush side of the applicator, pull the sealant toward you lot and apply enough pressure to remove all excess sealant. Continue downwards the driveway. Two thin coats are better than i thick coat. Allow the get-go coat to dry between 4 to 12 hours before applying the second. Cake the end of the driveway to keep cars off until it is completely dry — at to the lowest degree 24 to 36 hours.

You can apply silica sand additive to make coatings less glace when wet.

Fill up/Repair Physical Driveway Cracks

To fill hairline concrete cracks, you can unremarkably use a patching compound to make the repair. First utilize a concrete bonding adhesive or primer/additive to create the best bail possible betwixt the former surface and the patching material. Use an old or inexpensive paintbrush to work the liquid into the surface. Wash the brush immediately after use with soap and water or discard it.

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

The primer will stain so avert getting it on any adjacent surfaces. Wash information technology off promptly if it does get on whatever other surfaces.

Use a putty pocketknife or trowel to apply a vinyl patching chemical compound in multiple layers equally directed past the manufacturer. Mix but the amount of patching you'll need for each layer. Press it firmly to force the initial layer into all nooks and crannies and allow drying fourth dimension between layers.

You can as well patch thin cracks with a cement mixture. In a pocket-sized bucket, mix one part cement and three parts sand with enough h2o to brand a potent paste. In a split container, mix a modest amount of cement with more than h2o — enough to make a cement pigment.

If you can, pigment the inside of the crack with the thinner cement mixture. This will act like a primer. And then accept the paste mixture and pack it firmly into the crack with a putty knife or trowel. Level the mixture with a straight-edged concrete-finishing trowel. Allow the patch sit undisturbed for well-nigh an hour, so go over the entire surface with a float or trowel in a circular move, blending it well with the surrounding surface.

When applying the patch, make certain you cutting deeply into the mixture with your trowel to remove any air pockets.

To patch large cracks (more than 1/8'' wide and one/2'' deep), use cream capitalist rods. Sold in a diversity of lengths and diameters, foam capitalist rods are smashing for supporting a patch and preventing information technology from sinking into whatsoever cracks as it dries and ages. Employ a putty knife to force the flexible rod into the crack, placing it about 1/4'' beneath the surface. Now you lot can patch the expanse as y'all would with a pocket-size crack. After smoothing the patch with a trowel, let information technology set for a couple of hours. And so cover it with a sheet of plastic, weighing the plastic downward at the edges with bricks or rocks. Keep the expanse covered for an unabridged week, making certain to mist it with a trivial water each day to continue it slightly moist.

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

Project Shopping List

Here's what you'll need to complete this projection successfully.