What do you see when you look at your driveway, patio, garage floor, or other concrete surfaces? Is it a nice smooth surface with no blemishes or damage? Or does it have holes, damage, and large cracks running through it?

Smooth and fresh concrete surfaces can be beautiful. In comparison, cracked concrete can be a bit of an eyesore. But what options do you have?

Concrete can crack and still be perfectly useful. Cracked concrete doesn’t always mean it’s time to replace or resurface your concrete. There are options for crack repair.

Why Repair Concrete Cracks

Generally speaking, there are three categories of concrete crack repair.

  1. Integrity repairs
  2. Sealing/filling
  3. Cosmetic repairs

Common repair objectives include restoring the structural soundness or integrity of concrete, stopping water leaks, sealing out water and other harmful elements, providing crack edge support, and improving the appearance of the crack.

Types of Concrete Cracks

Determining the root cause of the cracking is the key to selecting the best crack repair option. Briefly, the critical items needed to design a proper crack repair are average crack widths (including minimum and maximum widths) and determining if the cracks are active or dormant.

Active cracks are moving and growing. Dormant cracks are stable and future movements are not anticipated. For dormant cracks, use either rigid or flexible repair materials. Active cracks require flexible repair materials and special design considerations to allow for future movements.

Concrete Crack Repair Options

Clean & Fill- The crack is cleaned to remove dirt and debris, and second, filled with a low viscosity repair material.

Rout, Seal, and Fill- is the most common procedure to repair isolated, fine, and large cracks. It is a nonstructural repair that consists of enlarging the crack (routing) and filling it with a suitable sealant or filler.

Epoxy Injection– Epoxy injection bonds or welds cracks together and restores the concrete’s integrity including strength and stiffness.

Polyurethane Injection– Polyurethane resins can be used to seal wet and leaking cracks. This repair option is primarily used to stop water leaks and consists of injecting a reactive resin into cracks that combine with water to form an expanding gel that chokes off the leak and seals the crack

No repair– As we said, concrete is likely to crack at some point. This doesn’t always affect the structural integrity of your concrete and doesn’t always require a repair. Sometimes no repair is a great option, as long as you keep an eye on it.

Concrete Repair in Ohio

When it comes to concrete repair in Ohio, our team of concrete specialists knows what they are doing. From crack repair and resurfacing to new concrete design, we are here to help you with all things concrete.