LESLIE: Alright. We’ve got Norm who’s dealing with some concrete issues. Tell us what’s going on.
NORM: Hi, guys. Yeah, I’ve got a circular driveway in the front of my house and we’ve developed some cracks. Unfortunately, when the weather gets cold here, we get water in those cracks. Of course, the ice forms and makes the cracks wider and I’d like some advice on what I should do to seal those cracks so they don’t get worse.
TOM: Hmm. Now, these are cracks in what kind of a surface, again?
NORM: It’s concrete. It’s a concrete driveway. I guess it’s 6 inches deep and it’s a circular driveway.
TOM: OK.
NORM: And we have expansion joints in the driveway but I’ve got cracks ….
TOM: Mm-hmm. What you want to use is an – there’s an epoxy patching compound that you can use. And you’ll essentially be filling these in. You have to clean them out really well first but the epoxy is strong enough to bind to both sides of the crack.
LESLIE: And stay there.
TOM: And stay there, yeah. Exactly.
NORM: Should I power-wash them out first?
TOM: Well, now, if you power-wash them, you’re going to have to wait days and I do mean days for them to get really dry again.
NORM: OK.
TOM: Because you’ve got to remember, concrete’s very, very absorbent.
NORM: Sure.
TOM: So it’ll stay very saturated.
NORM: Alright.
TOM: That’s the kind of project that if you’re doing like on a spring or summer day where you can really let it bake in the sun for a while, you’d have a chance of getting it dry enough.
I don’t think you have to go that route, as long as you can just make it reasonably broom-clean; there’s no dirt. You can run a wet/dry vacuum over it, kind of suck out what’s there and try to get it real clean. You should be good enough to be able to apply the compound.
NORM: Any specific epoxy that you might recommend?
TOM: There’s a site called Abatron – A-b-a-t-r-o-n – that makes a whole bunch of concrete-repair products.
LESLIE: Yeah, pretty much a ton of right products for the job.
TOM: And you could find it there.
NORM: Good deal. Love your show. Thank you so much.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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