Weekly Maintenance for your Home

March – Week 12

Just like preventative maintenance on your car, if you take care of a few small items around the house every week, you can avoid many emergency breakdowns and expensive repairs.

Driveways & Walkways

This time of year, driveways and walkways will be under frost attack. You can't do too much about it right now, but it is a good time to inspect and note any shifting and cracking. With some soils, concrete will go back down after the spring thaw, hiding the problem. Take photos and make notes on the photo. That will help you to define the repair work needed in the Spring.

Remember, any frost shifting is caused by water saturated soil, usually heavy clay soil, and freezing temperatures. We can't do anything about the temperature, but we can remove the water, or the clay, or both. Good landscaping will have water runoff that prevents saturating the soil just before freezing periods. Removing the clay soil and replacing it with sand or gravel, free flowing fill compacted under the driveways or walkways will prevent water from accumulating under the hardscaping, eliminating frost movement as well.

For a lot more information on hardscaping, check out "Driveways" in the SEARCH tab above.