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Learning to live
with bad concrete
Hiding cracks can be
cheaper and more
interesting than removing them
BY PETER
O. WHITELEY
My
old gray driveway wasn't what it used to be. Time, a huge
oak tree, and expansive soil had conspired against it, leaving
cracks down its length and across its width. Like so many
homeowners with cracked concrete patios, paths, and driveways,
I thought my choices were few: replace the whole thing or
live with it.
Replacing my old concrete slab would
be a noisy, time consuming, and expensive process. And I'd
have no guarantee that the cracks wouldn't reappear. Cracks
alleviate stress in a broad area of concrete, and in the case
of expansive soil, they mark where the fractured slab will
move with the seasonal swelling and contraction of the earth
below.
A little research turned up less
costly solutions that basically disguise the cracks while
allowing the concrete to continue to move: bonding, staining,
and top coating. I opted for an innovative bonding technique
developed by contractor Neil Stringer of Woodland Hills, California,
that gives an expanse of concrete the look of a flagstone
patio.
BEFORE AND AFTER: New
faux flagstonse hide cracks on an old driveway. |
THREE-DAY MAKE-OVER
Stringer and Santa Cruz contractor Tom
Ralston began by power-washing the driveway. (Sandblasting
also works.) They then removed debris from the cracks and
filled them with sand and a top coat of flexible caulking
that would move with the concrete. A dusting of sand made
the caulk look more like grout.
To create a level surface with no straight
lines to interrupt the planned scheme, Stringer and Ralston
jackhammered out the one major expansion joint and filled
the opening with new concrete. Then, after covering the driveway
with a liquid acrylic bonding agent to hold the new coat to
the old concrete, they formed thin faux flagstones with precolored
concrete mix. To create the illusion of more grout lines,
Stringer carved through the new top coat down to the original
slab.
The cost for the job was about half
what it would have been for a new, custom, stamped and colored
concrete driveway. Expect to pay $4 to $7 per square foot.
My resurfaced driveway has been in use
for almost two years, with no sign of deterioration. The old
cracks are still there, but they're lost in the patterning.
Sunset Magazine
- May 1995
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