To really get the urethane sealant into the crack, reverse the direction you move the caulk gun. Rather than drag it away, push the sealant forward into the crack. Same principle of holding it tight to the surface, but allowing it to flow into the crack in front of the tip thus pushing the sealant down and flowing out ahead. This fills the crack fully behind the gun tip with the overflow moving ahead. The crack is always full behind the tip and has no where to go but down and ahead of where you have already filled. It reduces sagging below the surface with less overflow to tool out. Give it a try like that and you will see what I mean. I believe the product instructions say to do it this way also. It works better for me that way, but to each their own. It’s different than caulking your tub or sink top. Good video!
I can totally picture what you mean. I believe this will be how I use it. I'll have to wait on home projects until my pay check catches up with inflation because I KNOW greedy corporate Mongrels are not going to reduce the prices of goods if conditions change back. 😑
Another good trick is when you use a grinder with a crack chasing wheel sweep up the cement powder that you ground out of the crack and save it in a cup. When you put down the self leveling cement caulk like you used sprinkle the cement powder that you saved onto the wet crack filler. It will match much more closely. I’ve done it that way and the way you’re doing it in this video and both work well but the way I explained just matches the cement color better.
It's all in the prep. The more thorough you clean and prepare, the better the repair. I find a pressure washer cleaning makes a huge difference. So you can clean out and patch the whole surface, not just the top. Let's the material penetrate down and gives it a nice clean surface to bond to. Cool video, thanks! 👍
Brilliant! I was thinking about repairing my driveway with nothing but the sealant but I was very hesitant because I knew it would stick out like a sore thumb so I came to RU-vid looking for a better solution and here it is! This looks so much better and it's hardly any more work.
I see this has been brought up before in the comments, how about an update video on this? I have watched a couple crack repair videos and really like the outcome of the method you used but curious on how it held up!
OMG! Thank you! I didn't want to use just the sealant because how it looks. I have a bag of cement and was thinking of using just cement but I knew that was a bad idea. Thank you!!
I picked up sika products at the local road building supply store for repairs. The quickcrete over the caulk is a excellent improvement for adhesion, leveling and looks and I’m sure is more durable. I’ll be using that method for every repair unless the customer wants a trowled look. Because my hand is not as experienced as yours I usually use duct tape on both sides of the cracks. Especially on sidewalk to foundation joints.
Quickcrete sprinkled over horizontal concrete repair is good. Try a small sample first. I recommend sand sprinkled over vertical caulking if you want to blend the caulking color, sand is available in a lot of colors from tan to white, gray and multi color. I tried ouickcrete over tan color sika caulk and it turned very dark gray and spotty and blends in well.
@@kennethmiller5543 Hi. So sprinkling sand over the caulk is better than concrete powder, in your opinion? Just Plain sand, or a special type? After you sprinkle it, how long to wait until you remove it? Minutes or a full day? How best to remove it, use a blower or sweep it off? Thank you vey much.
Hi - You mentioned that you would do a quick follow up video how this repair held up after a year after. I'm not finding it. Did you do one? Thank you!
@@terryhenry8243 Hi. Can I just use plain, ordinary sand? Whats “play sand” and why is the better over plain, ordinary sand? Where can I find the special sand? Also, after sprinkling over it, how long to wait before removing it? How exactly to remove it, use a blower? Thank you very much.
@@mikeike7114 yes, just regular sand works good. Just watch how much you apply. I have found that trying to repair concrete with concrete is very temporary. It always busts up later. Using the sika self leveling sealant has been the best in my experience for cracks. It moves with the concrete under expansion and you don't have to come back later for another repair job. The sand just helps hide the color difference making the repair less obvious. Hope that helps.
I would like to see shots of the prior repair. The crucial thing about concrete repairs is how they hold up. I'm talking years, not days. Let's see this next year.
i have used about 8 or 9 big tubes of that sikaflex it runs in cracks very easy, i used it in a 30 below freezer to fix maybe 200 to 300 feet of cracks, it worked great, it has been down for about 3 months now with no problems, i took a V blade to open the cracks up for the sikaflex, the boss does not care about color matching just fix the cracks, it hardens in about 1 hour to touch and after it cures you are suppose to be able to sand the sikaflex, i did not have to sand it for our purpose, that sikaflex is great stuff
Nice repair. I did cringe though when I saw you using the Portland cement with your bare hand. Portland cement is a super dehydrator. It will suck all of the moisture out of your skin. Therefore, leaving you with deep, painful cracks in your fingers. Especially in the joints. If this didn't happen to you, you are very fortunate. Always wear gloves when handling it.
Although a little time consuming to make the repair even less noticeable is to tape the sides of the crack. Also you could consider using a pressure washer on the excess. I did this same repair on colored concrete using matched hardener and it worked ok.
The only issue I see with your process it the quickrete will crack when the driveway starts to expand and contract with each change in season. The sealant will flex when this happens, the quickrete won’t.
I’m favoriting this video. I think some of our cracks may be a little more at uneven heights though. Either way I like it and it has given me inspiration! Thank you.
I cleaned out the cracks and used the Silka (Which cracked right down the center on the whole 50 foot of my repair) but did not use the Concrete powder. Guess I will have to revisit that step.
I think the best solution is to tape either side of the crack off, then put quick Crete in a bottle and add water... the when it is reasonable runny pour it down the crack! When it's semi dry brush off the excess and then remove the tape.
The last time I filled a driveway crack I took some mortar powder and swept it into the crack and left it there and let the moisture harden it. You could hardly tell. It looked like a vein of some sort after it cured.
Problem with that is the filler material is not flexible and the crack will just reopen with freeze/thaw, this flexible filler with the concrete overlay gives you a flexible joint fill with the appearance of concrete.
@@Cybergrip1 This is called “crack chasing” in the industry. It is an important step so take the time to do it correctly as demonstrated in this video. After blowing out the debris, you are left with a clean crack surface, which will facilitate better adhesion for the joint sealant. Better results and much longer lasting repair. State DOTs require the crack chasing before sealing roadway control joints and random cracking. I really like the idea for the cosmetic repair to make the crack less noticeable. Great video!
Have you tried it with Ardex? Portland isn't good in a topcoat application (VeRy fragile) . Ardex is epoxy reinforced, and you can apply it in very thin applications and it remains durable. Dunno about the color though... I will def try this and potentially add it as an upsell in residential application if it holds up to vehicle traffic for a few months +
@@MULTIPLESHOTSFIRED, how has the repair held up? Any thing you would do different if you did it over? Maybe even make a follow up video. Anyhow, I Appreciate any feedback.
"Using some quikrete cement over the crack sealant makes it look much better" There ya go....question though: IS that quikrete concrete patcher the "powder" you used? I thought that patcher was a premixed 'dough-like' application?
If you search the product name, you'll find there's a powder version, and pre-mixed version. The ingredients might not be the same, despite the same name.
It takes more time but if you mask the crack off with short strips of tape and then work it in with a flat trowl the result will look much cleaner. Epoxy works much better as well .
As I was caulking my crack the gun started leaking on the pad so I started cleaning that and completely forgot to use my jar of concrete dust now it sticks out like a sore thumb. What would be the best way to remove the caulking so I can do it over? 🙈 yes I fucked up I know lol
I just tried this and all went well to the quick Crete phase and it’s a dark brown and color is horrible. Not sure what to do next. Hoping I don’t get sued by homeowner I should of tested it in a small section first
I like the idea, everything looks easy enough that anyone can do it. I just have one question... should I use water rather than air only to clear out the crack of dust and debris? It seems a bit more logical but I'm not a Vulcan so I could be wrong.
That's a good idea, in this case I had used the quikrete to repair a part of the driveway previously and it matched really well, that's what gave me the idea to use it to help blend in the crack repair.
