My men and I have a running joke that on snowy days when we cannot work, we should give out salt ice melt for free to the general public to put on their driveways.
Obviously, we are kidding, but in case this might have just flown over your head, let me take a moment to explain. SALT EATS CONCRETE! And once you start to lose the cement on the top of your concrete surface and expose the aggregate, you are looking for trouble. That is when concrete begins to crumble beyond the point of no repair!
So, I know what you are wondering. “What can I do when it snows or ices?” My answer is pretty simple. Shovel it, and/or wait for it to melt! Luckily we do not live in Green Bay, or Maine. Honestly, how many days out of 365 is this an issue? If your answer is more than a couple, then you may have a drainage issue of water settling and pooling, then icing during the freezing temperatures. That is something you should have looked at by a professional concrete contractor (like us of course).
If you are getting to this message late, and have already seen damage due to rock salt, or ice melt, let me sincerely express my sympathies to you! Selling that stuff without letting people know not to use it on concrete should be a criminal offense! Unfortunately, there are no band-aids that I would recommend. The only silver lining is that the price of replacing concrete oftentimes surprises home owners. We have perfected this process to a science, and we can often remove the old concrete, take it to a recycling facility, re-compact, back fill, and grade your driveway before pouring a beautiful Baja Concrete driveway like the ones you see on our Website and Facebook page.
Give us a call or send us a message if you have any questions about seasonal concrete maintenance, and/or set up a free quote for any concrete needs that you may have!
Damage to concrete caused by salt ice melt