Concrete Driveway Cracks

A concrete driveway cracks. That is just a hard reality of concrete that’s only 4 inches thick and spread across ground that moves and shifts. There are two guarantees when it comes to a concrete driveway or slab. It will get hard and it will crack.

Using reinforcement such as wire mesh, rebar, or fibers will not prevent cracks. It will, however, hold the concrete together when it does crack and prevent separation or vertical displacement.

This is the reason why those grooves (control joints) are cut into a driveway. They intentionally weaken the concrete in that spot to encourage cracking. Getting concrete to crack along the grooves is how contractors control the cracks to make them less visible and relieve stress.

Concrete driveway cracks do not necessarily need to be fixed or filled in. Some people will say that water will get down in the cracks, freeze, and break apart the concrete. Actually, the water usually travels down to the subgrade and flows through the gravel which is one of the purposes for using gravel as the subgrade.

Most of the time, crack repairs end up being more unsightly then the crack itself. They do need to be fixed if the driveway is going to be resurfaced. Fixing the crack consists of grinding out a V shaped groove, filling it with cement, then placing a lath across the wet cement. Then another skim coat of cement is smoothed over the lath. This, however, does not guarantee that the crack will not transfer through the new overlay.

Once a driveway cracks, it is impossible to repair without ripping out a section or the entire driveway and replacing with new concrete. You can't glue or fuse concrete back together. The best you can do is treat the crack with a driveway caulk.

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Concrete Driveway Cracks