The Traverse City station, in numbers
NOAA's engineering weather data for Traverse City, a station at 623 feet of elevation, records a 99% winter design temperature of 2°F and a 1% summer design temperature of 86°F, paired with a mean coincident wet-bulb temperature of 70°F. The same Traverse City record counts about 66 freeze-thaw cycles in an average year, sets the 100-year rainfall rate at 2.5 inches per hour, and puts the 50-year basic wind speed at 90 mph, measured as a 3-second gust at 33 feet.
Reading this checklist
Concrete rarely fails all at once. It wears at the edges, opens at a joint or flakes at the surface, a little each year, and small habits slow that down. The list below runs through the calendar. Skip what does not apply to your slab, and add a line for anything your installer told you about your own pour.
Deep winter: shovels, plows and deicers
- Use a plastic shovel blade or one with a rubber edge on decorative or sealed surfaces; a steel edge can chip the finish.
- Ask whoever plows the driveway to raise the blade slightly or add skid shoes, so it rides over joints instead of catching them.
- Read the label before buying a melt product. Ask your installer which deicers they suggest for a slab of its age, and avoid any product the concrete or sealer maker warns against.
- Spread melt thinly, and shovel the slush off rather than letting brine pool.
- Keep snow piles off the slab edge and away from the house, so the meltwater has somewhere else to go.
Thaw weeks: walk every edge
When the snow has gone and the ground has firmed up, take a slow walk around every slab.
- Look along each edge for crumbling or a gap opening between the concrete and the soil.
- Check each joint: is the filler still in place, and is one side now higher than the other?
- Note any flaking, pitting or a thin top layer peeling away, which contractors call scaling.
- Watch for low spots where water stands for more than a day.
- Photograph anything new, with the date, and compare it with last year's photos.
First warm, dry spell: clean and seal
- Sweep off sand and grit, then wash the surface with a hose and a stiff broom.
- Lift oil and rust spots with a cleaner made for concrete; test it in a corner first.
- Pull weeds from joints and refill them with a flexible joint sealant.
- If the slab is sealed, sprinkle a little water on it. If the water soaks in quickly rather than beading, ask your installer whether it is time for a fresh coat and which product suits the existing one.
- Apply sealer only when the slab and air temperatures fall within the product's label range, and keep foot and car traffic off it for the time the label gives.
High summer: loads and new pours
- Keep heavy equipment, dumpsters and delivery trucks off a driveway that was not built for them, or lay plywood to spread the load.
- Put a board under the kickstand of a motorcycle and under trailer jacks.
- Rinse off fertilizer that lands on the slab; some products stain.
- If you are planning new concrete this year, ask the contractor how they handle a hot or windy pour day, and how the slab will be kept damp while it cures.
Leaf season: getting water off the slab
- Clear leaves from gutters, downspouts and any trench drain across the driveway.
- Check that each downspout empties onto ground that slopes away from the slab, not onto it or under it.
- Fill settled soil along the slab edges so water runs off rather than soaking beneath.
- Seal open joints and cracks before the first hard frost, so water has no easy way in.
- Mark the driveway edges with stakes for whoever plows, so the blade and the wheels stay on the concrete.
After a downpour or a windstorm
- Walk the slabs once the rain stops and look for washed-out soil along the edges and new puddles.
- Check where each downspout extension ended up; a storm can knock them loose.
- Look for limbs or debris that struck the surface, and for chips at steps and corners.
- Note any water that ran toward the house rather than away from it, and where it came from.
Repair or replace?
Some damage is a weekend fix. Other signs call for a contractor's eye:
- a crack wider than a pencil, or one where one side has dropped below the other;
- a section that rocks or sounds hollow underfoot;
- a slab that has settled toward the house;
- scaling across a large part of the surface;
- steps that have pulled away from the house or from each other.
Questions before you hire for a repair
- What do you think caused the damage, and will the repair address that cause?
- Will you patch, raise, resurface or replace this section, and why that method?
- What state license, if any, covers this work, and what is the number?
- Which city permits does the job need, and who pulls them?
- Can you show proof of liability coverage and workers' compensation?
- What written warranty comes with the repair?
A one-page slab record
Keep a single sheet, or a folder on your phone, with the pour date, the installer's name, the mix and sealer used if you know them, each year's photos, and the date and product of every sealing or repair. Whoever works on the slab next, or buys the house, will find it useful.