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Concrete · From the field
Concrete driveway: repair it, resurface it, or take it out?
Three driveways with identical cracking can need three different answers, because the cracks are the symptom and the ground underneath is the problem. A look at what to check before anybody quotes you, and why a resurfacer over a moving slab is money thrown at a crack.
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Quick answer
Should I repair or replace my concrete driveway?
Repair if the slab is stable, the cracks are tight and the surface damage is shallow. Replace if panels have settled or rocked relative to each other, if cracks run the full depth with offset edges, or if the surface is spalling down to aggregate across large areas. The test is movement, not appearance — a cracked slab that is not moving can last another twenty years.
The slab is not the problem, the subgrade usually is
Concrete is strong in compression and weak in tension, so it is poured over compacted stone precisely so it is supported evenly and never asked to bridge a gap. Everything that goes seriously wrong with a driveway starts with the ground: fill that was never compacted, a utility trench backfilled loose, water running under the edge, or clay that moves with the seasons.
Which means the first question is whether the panels have moved relative to each other. Stand at one joint and look across it in low light. If one side sits higher, if the edges are offset, or if you can feel a panel rock under a car, the support underneath has gone and a new surface over the top will crack in the same place within a couple of winters.
A driveway with a straight crack down the middle, both sides level and tight, is a different animal. Concrete cracks — it is what concrete does as it cures and as it expands and contracts through a Maryland year. A tight crack with no offset is cosmetic, and routing and sealing it to keep water out is the whole job.
Spalling: measure the depth before you decide
Spalling is the surface flaking away in patches, exposing the sand and stone beneath. Its usual causes around here are de-icing salt, a surface that was finished while bleed water was still on it, or concrete that was not air-entrained for a freeze-thaw climate and never had a chance.
What matters is depth. Shallow spalling — a few millimetres, aggregate just showing — can be ground and overlaid with a proper polymer-modified resurfacer, and that buys real years. Once you can see rounded aggregate standing clear of the paste, or once the flaking is into the reinforcement, the slab is deteriorating from the surface down and an overlay is a cosmetic delay.
The seasonal detail that catches people: salt is the accelerant. On a slab that is already spalling, switching to sand or a calcium-magnesium acetate product for the remaining winters is the cheapest thing you can do. Our post on concrete cracking and spalling goes into the chemistry and the air-entrainment question in more detail.
What resurfacing is genuinely good for
A polymer-modified overlay bonded to a sound, ground, clean slab is a legitimate product with a legitimate use: a structurally fine driveway with a tired, pitted or stained surface. Done properly it is a quarter to a third of the cost of replacement and it looks new.
Done improperly it is the commonest waste of money in the trade. The failures all come from the same three causes: bonding to a slab that is still moving, bonding to a surface that was not mechanically prepared, or feathering the edge out to nothing where it inevitably chips. If a quote does not mention grinding or shot-blasting the existing surface, it is a quote for a coating that will peel.
One more honest limit: an overlay cannot fix a drainage fault. If water sits in a low spot, an overlay that follows the existing contour will have water sitting on it too, and freeze-thaw will find the bond line. Changing the fall means replacement, or at minimum a mud-jacking exercise before anything goes on top.
When replacement is the cheaper answer
Replacement is right when any of these are true: panels have settled or rock, cracks are full-depth with offset or stepped edges, the surface is spalling deeply across a large proportion of the area, the drainage runs towards the garage or the house, or the slab was poured too thin for the vehicles using it — four inches is normal residential, five to six where a heavy truck or a trailer parks.
Replacement means removal, regrading, compacted stone base, proper jointing and a mix specified with the right air entrainment and strength for a freeze-thaw climate. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the Portland Cement Association both publish the parameters, and a contractor who can name the mix they are ordering is a contractor who has thought about year fifteen.
The jointing is worth a question of its own. Control joints should be at a spacing roughly 24 to 30 times the slab thickness, tooled or saw-cut to a quarter of the depth, which is what makes the concrete crack where you decided rather than where it chooses. An expansion joint at the garage apron and against anything rigid stops the slab transmitting movement into the structure. Both of these are invisible once poured and both are where a cheap pour saves money.
And the option nobody quotes: pavers instead
If a driveway is coming out anyway, the honest comparison is not just a new slab. Interlocking pavers on a compacted base cost more up front, but individual units can be lifted and reset when the ground moves, which on a problem subgrade is the difference between a repair and another replacement.
They also do not crack, because every joint is already a joint. Where they lose is in snow clearing — a plough blade catches edges that a continuous slab does not — and in cost per square foot. The industry guidance from the Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association sets out the base depths that make the difference between a driveway-grade installation and a patio detail used in the wrong place.
We quote both when a driveway is being replaced, with the figures side by side, because the right answer genuinely depends on the ground and on how long you plan to be in the house. Our paver patio and concrete cost guides give the ranges so you can see the gap before anybody visits.
If you only skim
The short version
- Movement at the joints, not cracking, is what decides repair versus replace.
- A tight crack with level, unoffset edges is cosmetic — seal it and move on.
- Measure spalling depth: shallow can be overlaid, deep cannot.
- An overlay quote that does not mention grinding is a quote for peeling.
- An overlay cannot change the fall, so it cannot fix drainage.
- Control joints at 24 to 30 times the slab thickness; expansion joint at the apron.
The trade behind this post
Concrete
Reading because you have this exact problem? Call and describe it. You’ll get a straight answer on whether it’s something we do and roughly what it runs.
(301) 524-1729See how we do concreteWhat concrete costs in MarylandOn the job
The work this post is about.
Trade photography, stage by stage. Photos of our own recent jobs come out at the walkthrough, on the actual house.
Straight answers
What homeowners ask next
Not covered here? Call and ask — you’ll get a real answer, not a “depends on the job”.
Replacement including removal, base and a four-inch slab runs several dollars per square foot, with thickness, reinforcement, access and how much regrading is needed moving the figure. Resurfacing a sound slab is roughly a quarter to a third of that. Our concrete driveway and patio cost guide breaks the ranges out by scope.
Thirty years and more where the base was compacted, the mix was air-entrained for freeze-thaw and the joints were cut right. Fifteen or less where any one of those was skipped. Almost every driveway that fails early fails for a reason that was decided before the concrete arrived.
Foot traffic after a day or two, cars after about a week, heavy vehicles after four weeks. Concrete keeps gaining strength for a month and the first few days matter most. Driving on it early is how a brand-new slab gets its first crack.
Replacing in the same footprint often does not, but widening, changing the apron, or anything that alters how water leaves the property frequently does, and the rules differ across Frederick, Carroll, Washington, Montgomery and Howard. Work in the right-of-way at the street is a separate approval. We check before we schedule.
Across Frederick County and Maryland within about 90 minutes of Frederick — eight counties from Hagerstown across to Annapolis, including Middletown, Myersville, Thurmont, New Market and Mount Airy. Maryland only; we do not work in Washington, DC. Call (301) 524-1729 for an on-site look.
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