driveway concrete overlaying?

[abc]

anyone have a concrete driveway that they repaired? I don't mean fill in the cracks but say the concrete squares are no longer flush with one another so I want to apply a thin layer of fresh concrete over it to smooth everything out again... would you get a dozen bags of readymix concrete for this and do it yourself or call a whole cement truck to spit out what would just be maybe a tub full of concrete?

 

[slag]

readymix is a cement, not a concrete, and will easily crack.

 

[Thegonagle]

A black-top overlay would probably be more successful, but the concrete will continue to settle, resulting in an uneven black-top surface after a year or two.

Completely rebuilding, either with concrete, or black-top, is probably what you should be saving up for, not half-assed repairs that won't last.

 

[abc]

so you saying make it asphalt.. but the best is to chop up the bad concrete and repour.

 

[ElFenix]

if you just pour new concrete over the old it would probably shatter

 

[Zebo]

Use paving stones looks 100X nicer and is relatively cheap. I got 8 palets for $2600 and each palet covers 150 sq ft.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: slag
readymix is a cement, not a concrete, and will easily crack.

Readymix is concrete. Cement is an ingredient in concrete. In a bag of readymix you will find sand, gravel, and portland cement or in other words concrete.


To the OP. If you are not repairing the substrate you are going to get cracks. More so with a thin coat. As suggested asphalt would be great because it is flexible. There are also many self leveling overlays such as Ardex.

<--worked for and still part owner in Decorative Concrete company.

 

[MikeMike]

tear it up and re-do. however, if the concrete is the slab right in front of your garage, and has the wood seperator between it and the rest of the driveway, it will always happen. its just settling.

i dont know much, my uncle owns a concrete company, dad used to work there, i might work there this summer if i cant find a job, but asphalt will chip away from cement, plus you will never get it flush with the cement on the other areas, if you live in the N.E. and get snow, it will be pulled up and off of your driveway by the snow plow.

MIKE

 

[abc]

Originally posted by: fredtam

Originally posted by: slag
readymix is a cement, not a concrete, and will easily crack.

Readymix is concrete. Cement is an ingredient in concrete. In a bag of readymix you will find sand, gravel, and portland cement or in other words concrete.


To the OP. If you are not repairing the substrate you are going to get cracks. More so with a thin coat. As suggested asphalt would be great because it is flexible. There are also many self leveling overlays such as Ardex.

<--worked for and still part owner in Decorative Concrete company.

thanks FT...

Ardex looks good.. so ardex wont crack because it's meant for this kind of refinishing, thin layer job, but concrete, applied in a thin layer will crack because the substrate is the source of the problem?


heard of vinylcrete? i read about that on another thread about a simliar topic about driveways...

 

[jurzdevil]

how about a jackhammer with a broad chisel to shave down the high spots?