Maintaining Your Driveway
In this edition of my blog, I will like to talk about how to take care of your driveway.
Maintaining Your Concrete Driveway
We all want our driveway to look the best and need little maintenance. One of the best feature of a decorative concrete driveway is that it needs little maintenance and routine care over its lifetime. Having said that, no driveway paving material is actually maintenance free. Today, in my blog, I will be sharing some tips for preserving the life and appearance of your driveway.
Clean and reapply sealer
Cleaning your concrete driveway regularly and keeping it sealed can help your driveway look the best. Frequency of cleaning and resealing will depend on the weather conditions to which the concrete is exposed to and its overall usage. Generally, concrete driveway should be resealed every two years or so, or when you feel that the finish is giving away. You can get good commercial sealers from concrete material suppliers and hardware stores. You can also ask your contractor for recommendations. If needed, you can always hire a professional.
Remove stains immediately.
Though sealer can help protect concrete, it is always a good idea to remove the stains of oil, gas, grease or any other spills as soon as you notice them on the driveway. If the concrete does discolour, pressure washing and certain cleaning chemicals will remove most stains.
Avoid using deicing chemicals.
Usage of deicers on concrete driveway in the winter season can cause surface damage. It forces the moisture to thaw and then refreeze. Products containing ammonium nitrates and ammonium sulphates are very harmful as they will actually attack the concrete chemically. You can use rock salt or calcium chloride as these do less damage, but they can harm vegetation and corrode metal. Therefore, avoid using any deicers the first winter after driveway placement, since new concrete is more susceptible to the harmful effects of salt. As an alternative, use sand for traction.
Treat it with care.
Typical residential driveways are not engineered to support heavy vehicles like a huge moving van and trucks and large construction equipment. Therefore, when ploughing or shovelling your driveway, use utmost care. Avoid the use of metal blades that might scrape or scratch the surface. Avoid parking car on the edge of the driveway as it can cause damage to the edges and make it weak.