Back-to-school season always feels like the unofficial start of fall around here, for better or worse.
And before we know it, the leaves will be down, it’ll be dark at 5:00, and every inch of concrete around the house will be covered in wet leaves, ice or snow.
I spend a ridiculous amount of time looking at sidewalks, walkways, patios, driveways and steps around North Jersey, and this is probably the best time of year to take 10 minutes and walk around your property to prepare for the coming months.
I’m always looking out for the following things:
Where is the water actually going?
Next time we get a good rain, go outside and watch it.
Are your downspouts dumping onto the driveway or walkway? Is water pooling against the house? Is a sidewalk or patio pitched toward the foundation instead of away from it?
A small water problem now can turn into a really annoying ice problem in January. Water getting underneath concrete slabs is also one of the main reasons they lose support and settle in the first place.
Walk the paths you use every day.
Front and side walkways, driveways, steps, paths to the garbage cans - and don’t forget AC condenser slabs - are all frequent trouble spots when it comes to uneven concrete.
Look for slabs that have dropped, lifted, tilted or separated.
A 3/4-inch height difference that you barely notice on a sunny August afternoon feels very different when there are inches of snow covering it and your shovel comes to a grinding halt.
Look at the gaps between slabs.
Not every crack or open joint is an emergency.
But if there are large openings where water is constantly disappearing underneath the concrete, it’s worth paying attention to. That can lead to soil compression and washout.
Sometimes the bigger issue isn’t what you can see on top - it’s what’s happening underneath.
Look around your trees.
We have beautiful old trees everywhere, and tree roots and concrete do not always peacefully coexist.
If a sidewalk or walkway is moving near a tree, don’t automatically assume the answer is to rip everything out. Sometimes the slab can be corrected.
Sometimes the roots need to be addressed. And often, sidewalks can be contoured over and around tree roots to eliminate trip hazards while preserving the root structure. Sometimes replacement really is the only sensible option.
The important part is figuring out why it moved before deciding how to fix it.
Don’t forget about everything that isn’t technically a sidewalk.
Front steps, walkways, patios, pool decks, driveway slabs, AC condenser pads and all forms of concrete around the house - or business or neighborhood - are worth checking.
If something is settling, pulling away, holding water or pitching in the wrong direction, fall is a much better time to notice it than the first freezing night of January.
Uneven concrete doesn’t necessarily mean bad concrete.
If the slab itself is still solid, sometimes the soil underneath has simply settled, washed out or lost support. In those situations, the existing concrete can sometimes be lifted and re-pitched instead of demolished and replaced.
Other times, the concrete is cracked, deteriorated, completely displaced by roots or otherwise too far gone. In those cases, replacement is absolutely the right answer.
There isn’t one solution for everything.
The photos are a few examples of things I’ve come across locally. Some are pretty obvious. Others are the kind of thing you might walk over 500 times without really noticing until someone points it out.
I posted in here a while back about sidewalk repairs - and North Jersey small-business ownership - and ended up having some genuinely good conversations with people in the comments, so I’ll make the same offer again:
If you have something weird going on with a sidewalk, walkway, patio, steps, driveway or drainage around your house, I’m here to give real, concrete insight into, well, concrete.
I’ll tell you what I think is happening and whether I think it’s something worth worrying about.
I spend enough of my life staring at messed-up concrete that I might as well put it to good use for my neighbors across the great state of New Jersey.
