Sacramento concrete resurfacing
Cracks are routed out and filled with a material suited to whether they still move, control and expansion joints are cleaned and re-caulked, and the surface is cleaned and sealed. For a slab that is sound but tired, this is often enough on its own, and it is always the first stage of any overlay.
The single most important question about a crack is whether it is still moving, because that decides what goes into it. A dormant crack, such as a shrinkage crack from when the slab first cured, can be filled with a rigid material. A crack that opens and closes with the seasons will break a rigid filler and needs a flexible one. The usual test is time: a pencil mark at each end of the crack and a measurement across it, checked again after a season, or an inexpensive plastic crack monitor glued across it. Across the region, clay soils swell in wet winters and shrink through dry summers, so many cracks move at least a little.
Pouring filler over a hairline crack does not work; it sits on top and peels. Cracks are opened with a crack-chasing blade into a clean, square-sided channel, vacuumed, and filled from the bottom up. For dormant cracks inside a garage, a semi-rigid epoxy or polyurea is common, and it can be ground flush and coated over (see garage floor coatings). Outdoors and on moving cracks, a flexible polyurethane or silicone sealant is used over a foam backer rod. The backer rod controls depth so the sealant is roughly twice as wide as it is deep, and it stops the sealant sticking to the bottom of the channel, so it can stretch freely between the two sides.
Control joints and expansion joints are where the slab is meant to move. Old caulk in them dries out, splits, and lets water and weed seeds in. Re-caulking means cutting out the old material, cleaning the joint walls and refilling with a flexible sealant, using the same backer-rod depth rule. On the very high shrink-swell clays mapped in West Sacramento, with linear extensibility above 12% in several soils, keeping those joints working is often worth more than any surface treatment.
Penetrating silane and siloxane sealers soak into the concrete and make it repel water without changing its look or its grip, and they let water vapor escape. Acrylic film sealers sit on top, give a darker “wet look” and need recoating more often in full sun. Reactive penetrating sealers are allowed up to 350 g/L of VOC under the local air-district rules, compared with 100 g/L for general concrete and masonry sealers, the category most acrylics fall into.
Who repairs a cracked public sidewalk depends on where you live. In Sacramento the owner does, even for street-tree damage, while in unincorporated Carmichael a lift of more than 3/4 inch can go on the County’s repair list. Driveways, patios and garage floors are always the owner’s, and a sound one may only need this work before a resurfacing.
How long does it take? Most crack repair and sealing jobs are a day. Sealer needs to dry before foot traffic and longer before cars.
These often come up on the same property or the same visit:
A bonded overlay over a cracked, stained or spalled driveway - new surface, same slab.
Read more →Patios, front walks and side yards brought back to one even, slip-resistant surface.
Read more →Epoxy and polyaspartic flake systems that resist hot-tire pickup, oil and stains.
Read more →Written quote
A quick description is enough to start.
We will call to set up a time to look at the slab. To talk sooner, call (916) 908-0547
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