Maintain Your Driveway and Sidewalks
It’s not hard to maintain your driveway and sidewalks, if you just have a little know-how.
Trees and decorative shrubs can be enemies to cement or blacktop surfaces. If either are planted too close to your driveway or sidewalks, their roots can easily spread out and end up coming right up through the cement or blacktop. If their trunks grow too big, they can grow into the material as well. The end results will be that you find your cement or blacktop cracking or crumbling off into chunks.
Before this happens, relocate small trees or bushes that are planted too close to your driveways or sidewalks. If the greens are too big to be relocated, it would be a wise idea just to remove them altogether.
While you’re checking for trees and shrubs that can pose a hazard to your driveway, be sure to check your gutters and downspouts too. If the rain water and melted snow that comes out of your
gutters and downspouts runs out onto your cement or blacktop driveway, this could also spell
t-r-o-u-b-l-e for you. Not to mention added expenses. If water runs underneath your driveway or sidewalk during the cold, winter months, it can freeze. This freezing action can actually cause the ground to expand and raise up underneath your driveway or sidewalks. The results are cracks and damages in your cement or blacktop.
Along the same lines to maintain your driveways and sidewalks, is the need to “edge” them periodically. As the term implies, edging is performed along the edges of the cement or blacktop. The process involves using a hoe or a spade to remove any sod that’s located within two to three inches of the cement or blacktop. By removing the sod, no grass, weeds, and other plants will be able to grow up underneath your driveway or sidewalk. Rain water and melted snow, for two examples, will be able to drain off better too.
To maintain your driveway and sidewalks, the experts recommend that you seal and waterproof the cement and the blacktop materials by using a good – quality product. By choosing a better grade product, the protection will last longer. You should only have to repeat the process every two or three years. By sealing and waterproofing your cement or blacktop driveways and sidewalks, it will help protect them from the blazing heat of the sun, subzero temperatures, destructive chemicals, and other harmful things. In order to achieve the best results, be sure to read the manufacturer’s directions on the container.
And finally, the last way to maintain your driveway and sidewalks is to simply keep it clean. If you spill gasoline, oil, anti-freeze, or other types of chemicals on your cement or blacktop, clean it up as soon as possible before they damage the surface.
An electric or a gas-powered leaf blower works well in removing leaves, tree branches, and other loose debris. Then, to completely clean the surface of your cement or blacktop driveway or sidewalks, a low-pressure spray washer will do the trick just fine.
