Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Repairing a Cracking Sidewalk

A damaged sidewalk is one of the most visible parts of the exterior of a property and can easily hurt the curb appeal to your home. Fortunately, sidewalk repair is fairly simple and can be done in short order by our construction team or even by you. To repair a sidewalk you will need to follow these steps:
1. Determine the type of damage that’s on your sidewalk. Some damage is easy to repair but not all damage is. Big sections of sidewalk that have heaved and broken into pieces are not easy to fix and will most likely require a contractor to fix the problem
2. Determine why the damage occurred. It could have happened from  a lack of control joints, tree routes, or even seismic activity.
If your sidewalk is cracking you might want to consider installing a few extra control joints. You can install control joints by using a masonry blade to cut lines in the concrete. Cut about ½ inch into the sidewalk, not the whole way. The control joints allow the concrete to expand and contract in certain weather conditions. If a tree route seems to be the cause of the crack, clear around the tree roots and cut them away with pruning tools. Be very careful though, this can stunt the growth of the tree and sometimes even kill the tree.
The type of material you use to a repair a crack in the sidewalk depends on how large the crack is. For little cracks, you can use concrete grout. Larger cracks can be fixed with caulk and the largest cracks of all will need to be repaired with a concrete patching compound.

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