Concrete Repair & Resurfacing in Madison, WI

Concrete repair and resurfacing in Madison mostly come down to two problems: cracks and flaking. Both are signs of the freeze-thaw cycle at work. Water gets into cracks and the surface, freezes, expands and breaks off a little more each winter. With January lows averaging 11.8 degrees and about 52 inches of snow a year at Dane County Regional Airport, according to Wikipedia, that cycle runs over and over. The sooner a crack is sealed or a flaking surface is protected, the longer the slab lasts.

Repair or replace?

HomeGuide's resurfacing guide gives a simple rule of thumb. Repair or resurface when cracks are narrower than a quarter inch and the flaking is minor. Replace when there are large cracks, crumbling, deep spalling or structural problems, or when the repair would need a new layer thicker than 2 inches. It also notes that cracks wider than a quarter inch can point to a foundation problem worth having checked.

In practice we look at:

• How wide and how deep the cracks are, and whether one side is higher than the other
• Whether the surface is flaking lightly or crumbling down to stone
• Whether the slab has settled, which may mean lifting first
• How old the slab is and how much of it is affected
• Whether water is draining away or pooling

Then we price the repair and, if it is close, the replacement too, so you can see the trade-off.

Crack sealing

Sealing cracks keeps water and salt from getting into the slab and under it. Narrow cracks are cleaned out and filled with a flexible sealant that can move with the concrete through freezing and thawing. HomeGuide lists crack filling at $0.50 to $3 per linear foot. We also reseal the joint between the driveway and garage floor and between walks and foundations, which are common places for water to get under a slab.

Resurfacing scaled and flaking concrete

Scaling is the most common winter damage in Madison: the top layer flakes off and exposes the stone underneath. If the slab below is sound, a polymer-modified resurfacer can be bonded over it after the surface is cleaned and prepared. HomeGuide puts basic resurfacing at $3 to $5 a square foot for driveways and $3 to $7 for patios and walks, with overlays from a thirty-second of an inch up to 2 inches thick, and says resurfacing typically lasts 8 to 15 years before it needs more work. A stamped overlay is also possible on a sound slab; see our stamped concrete page.

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Replacing failed sections

Sometimes only part of a slab has failed: one driveway panel broken into pieces, a section of walk heaved by a root, or a crumbling apron. We saw-cut along joints, remove the failed section, fix the base underneath and pour a new panel doweled into the old concrete where needed. The new concrete will not match the old color exactly at first, but it weathers closer over time.

Preventing the next repair

Shovel early, use salt sparingly and never use ammonium-based de-icers. The City of Madison says a 12-ounce coffee mug of salt is enough for 10 sidewalk squares and that salt does not work well below 15 degrees; sand is the better choice then. Keep downspouts pointed away from slabs, reseal cracks as they appear, and seal driveways every few years.