Winter is Coming - How's Your Concrete?

As winter approaches, your concrete might be the last thing on your mind, and for good reason - we’re supposed to have an extra snowy winter, so you won’t see it anyway, right? Well, kind of. More precipitation means it’s even more important to be prepared before the temperatures drop. Here are three reasons why.

Shoveling 

Have you ever gotten into a groove shoveling your driveway, only to drive the shovel right into the edge of a raised slab and feel it reverberate up your entire arm? It doesn’t feel great, and depending on how much power you’re putting behind the shovel, you could seriously injure yourself. Even outside of injury, it just isn’t fun to keep ramming the shovel into uneven slabs as you try to finish the job.

Slipping

In addition to being a menace for shovels, those uneven slabs can also form little frozen ponds that create unintended ice skating moments in your driveway. When snow melts down from brief warmer temperatures or even the warmth created by your car, it collects in the divots of sunken slabs and refreezes in pools. Salt doesn’t melt these as well as it does normal surface ice, and if it’s hidden by snow? Hold on tight.

Spring

One of the biggest dangers of uneven winter concrete is what it means for the spring. Sinking slabs leave gaps in the seams between them and allow water to penetrate. This washes out the soil below the concrete and can also degrade the slabs themselves. That means that come spring, gaps and sinking can be even worse than they were before the snow.

Winter can wreak havoc on your concrete and leave you in bad shape at the spring thaw. Call us to get it in shape before the snow falls.