Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Another concrete question. This time cracks.

Is it worth the effort to fill cracks in concrete with one of the various "fix-it" products? Or are the fixes short-lived and a waste of time?

Do you live in a freeze thaw cyclical climate? One of the things that will make a little crack grow bigger real quick is moisture getting down in the crack and then freezing. One good reason to seal the cracks.

Pretty much daily when the snow flies.

Not enough info... inside heated, inside nonheated, outside underroof, outside exposed? Typical winter conditions.

Kent

Outside exposed to elements for many years. Average snowfall is 60"+ and temps are quite variable from sub-zero to well above freezing and of course even on cold days the sun gets the snow melting. I usually get the snow removed the day it falls, but there's still water getting in the cracks I'm sure. My hesitancy with the products is how well they will adhere to the concrete before breaking free and having to do it all again.

Sika flex

There are two things about concrete

1) It’s going to crack

B) nobody is going to steal it

Seal the cracks, if it works cool, if not you will know

Go in a Walmart with concrete floors you will never see a crack. The reason is because the concrete is poured in the perfect environment. Walls up roof on and heat or air units running! I have yet been in one that has cracked floors that was built this way.

I sealed some concrete that's more than 100 feet underwater with Sika 1a and not a drop has come through. I sealed about 400 feet of joint.

It's good stuff.

Cousin that ran a concrete business, would answer a question like that all the time, with the response of : if you don't want concrete to crack... leave it on the truck.

They allways crack seal highways because it extends the service.life same on sidewalks only with a silicone based caulk.

Also a possibility of being super thick with double layers of bar plus saw cuts and/or expansion joints dividing the slabs in perfect squares, no rectangle shapes.

"Cracks" or sawcuts ?
If it's cracks, I wouldn't waste my time. It just makes a mistake look that much worse.
If it's sawcuts you're talking about, epoxy filler is used in the commercial applications to fill the sawcut joints.

Cracks. Not the joints from when it was poured.

I don't think I'd do anything to try to seal those up.
What we don't want to have happened, has happened and crack filler just accentuates it.
But that may not matter to some folks.

If they were nasty cracks and really open, I might cut out those sections and re-pour.

All concrete cracks.
It's up to the guy pouring the slab to "tell" the concrete where it's going to crack (aka sawcuts, done properly).

You can fill it with epoxy but know that water is one of the most powerful forces in the world and patient, will eventually work its way again.

Kent

Have you asked Phil?

He knows lots about the subject.

Mr. McKraken is an expert when it comes to that sort of thing!

Don't bother with concrete cracks, they're a different nature than asphalt cracks.

I personally wouldn't bother with cracks not underroof in my living space. If it can still be drove on or walked on its functional enough.

Kent

I didn't realize that this was outside exposed to freeze-thaw cycles.
We use an epoxy product in the sawcuts.
The sawcuts are cleaned/vacuumed and then the epoxy is poured in.
When the epoxy is about 3/4 cured, the overage is sliced off with razor-scrapers for a nice flush finish.

Sika makes good, commercial-grade products and it would be more flexible than the epoxy.

For cracks, there is a diamond cutting wheel for a 4-1/2" peanut grinder. We call it a Crack-Chaser
It cuts a V-groove above the crack so your filler product has somewhere to go as opposed to trying to fill a narrow crack.