Clean Up Cracks. Concrete is nice smooth and hard, until water gets to it. Even the smallest amount of water can seeps into its capillary spaces, freeze and expand.
If you have temperate climate, winter weather would always bring hard times for your concrete steps, foundation walls and every other surface. But if you have tropic climate, you are in the rainy season at the moment and if flooding is common place in your environment… yes, your guess is as good as mine.
Cracks basically happen due to internal stress of the concrete itself or due to the shrinkage of concrete during initial stage of concreting.
External factors, like overloading, movements (like earthquake), sudden impacts, and the like also cause cracks. So cracks in the concrete are sort of inevitable.
If the cracks are very big and look like structural deformation, then you should get a professional contractor to repair it.
But if it is just a minor crack, which is marring the beauty of your house, then you can fill it up yourself.
The basic method of filling up cracks is by using resin and the hardener.
First, clean the affected area of the floor.
Next, hack out a little bit along the crack line, and remove all the dust and sand from there. Mix your resin and hardener at ratio that is recommended by the supplier (read labels… and everything).
Make sure you follow the safety precaution statement as outlined by your raw material supplier.
The resin is usually neutral in color so you can add in some color to it to match the colour of your floor.
Apply it to the cracked area. Make sure the resin penetrates through the crack openings, and also level it to the existing floor surface level.
Once this is done, clean up everything and make sure nobody steps on your repaired surface for at least an hour and that’s it.
But cracks can be prevented. Here is how.
Protecting Concrete Floors and Steps
Use a concrete sealer which helps by reducing the water absorbed into the concrete. However, it must be re-applied periodically. There are a number of sealers available, and they usually contain the chemicals silane or siloxane.
One effective product that protects concrete from cracks is Sikagard 701W. It comes in 1-gal. and 5-gal. containers. To locate a distributor, contact Sika Corp., 201 Polito Ave., Lyndhurst, NJ 07071; 800-933-7452.
On the Web, go to www.sikausa.com. Contractor Kevin Runge of Oceanside, Calif., says his favorite sealer is UGL drvlok. Seek out a dealer in your vicinity.
By: Naomi Moremi Lucas 01/9/10
Post a Comment
More
Clean Up Cracks. >> Concrete is nice smooth and hard, until water gets to it. By: Naomi Moremi Lucas 01/9/10 Read more... Comments(0)
Choosing An Estate Agent >> A good estate agent would not only save you a lot of short run and long run trouble but she would make a big difference.... By: Naomi Moremi Lucas 20/07/2010 Read more... Comments(0)
