Cracked Garage Floor? Quickly Fix Chipped Concrete

Is your concrete flooring damaged or cracked? It could be the result of your home’s age, your geographic location, or even the dense soil (like clay) your home is built on. Surprisingly, minor cracks can show up as early as right after your garage flooring is poured.

It’s important to uncover the cause of the cracking to determine if your home has structural issues that need to be addressed. Structural problems should be tackled promptly to avoid additional damage.

Here’s a closer look at the origin of cracks in your garage floor and some possible solutions.

What Causes Cracks in Concrete Flooring?

Concrete flooring in your garage or inside your home can become cracked for a variety of reasons:

Changing temperatures

When weather fluctuates, the freeze and thaw cycle can significantly damage concrete flooring. Unfortunately, concrete typically deteriorates over time due to the harsh changes in temperatures throughout the year.

When water freezes, it expands by approximately 9% and produces a pressure in its pores. If the pressure goes beyond the tensile strength of the concrete (its capacity to resist cracking under tension), its pores dilate and rupture. The resulting damage can range from minor random cracking, surface scaling and minor joint deterioration to pitted concrete, broken joints, and large, deep cavities.

Shrinking

Concrete flooring can shrink during the curing process, causing cracks from the beginning.

Settlement

When the soil your house is sitting on moves and sinks over the years (settlement), it puts a great deal of pressure on concrete floors, causing surface cracks. The weight of your vehicle also creates pressure on your garage floor, and can contribute to concrete cracking.

Over time, these cracks can grow and widen. If left unattended, they can collect water, which creates the possibility of flooding. And if one side of your garage is lower than the other, your home may have a serious structural problem.

Contact a professional to have the source of the problem identified and dealt with. The sooner a settlement crack is spotted and addressed, the better.

Poor installation

When concrete isn’t installed properly, its surface can be more vulnerable to cracking. If a thin slab of concrete is laid and isn’t reinforced by steel bars or a mesh of steel wires, but rather a gravel base, it can result in subpar performance, and a host of cracks.

 

Poor drainage

If your garage flooring doesn’t drain properly, flooding can result and contribute to cracking. If the soil under your garage floor is dense and contains heavy clay, it can cling to moisture and freeze in the winter. When soil freezes, your concrete will crack as a result.

Click to learn more about epoxy vs. Lifetime Green Coatings

How to Fix Cracks in Concrete Flooring

If your garage floor is cracked, you have options when it comes to repairing or replacing it.

DIY repair

• Take a circular saw and cut both sides of the cracks with ½-inch grooves.
• Using a maul or a cold chisel, slowly and carefully chip out the cracked portion of concrete and remove it.
• With a power washer, clean the concrete thoroughly so the cement compound can easily bond to its surface.
• Use a polymer-modified cement to fill the crack. Add the latex modifier into the concrete mix, and pack it into the channel. Fill it up to ½ inch of its original height.
• Allow it to sit for the next 3 days before filling it in.
• Pour a solid base resurfacing mixture into the concrete slab. Use a rubber floor squeegee to smooth it out. Feather the slab’s edges.

Lifetime Green Coating

When you choose our durable floor coating, your garage will be fixed once and for all. And if it gets damaged by extreme impact, that situation can easily be resolved. Our unique material bonds to itself even decades after it’s installed. It self-levels—a claim no other coating can make!

• Simply contact us, and we’ll cover your damaged concrete flooring with our garage floor coating.
• Our coating has 100% adhesion and 10% elongation. If the surface moves under our treatment, it will flex with the movement and won’t release.
• Our eco-friendly floor coating and concrete sealing provides an extended warranty. It’s made so well, we’re confident it will go the distance.
• The garage floor coating we install won’t break down due to hot tires, exposure to oil or automotive fluids, acids, or other chemicals.
• Take confidence with our coating’s proven performance (including parking garages with 20,000 cars a day exposed to harsh winter road salt and sand).
• Avoid the toxic smells of epoxy or polyurea finishes by choosing our durable floor coating. This patented combination of natural materials emits only a pleasant, wholesome scent because it’s 100% non-toxic.
• Our coating’s flame-resistant “Class A” fire rating ensures your safety by lowering the chances of dangerous house fires.
• Avoid the slippery when wet floors epoxy delivers. Due to a natural aggregate in our coating’s makeup, you get a slip-resistant, secure floor.

Save Time and Money on Your Flooring’s Maintenance and Repairs

We understand how frustrating it can be to have an unattractive, worn-out, cracked garage floor. You may have considered repainting it or covering it with epoxy to make it last a little longer. Epoxy is time-consuming to apply and easily peels. Paint looks lackluster and wears down quickly.

At Lifetime Green Coatings, our safe, affordable, long-lasting flooring offers quick-drying that leaves you with beautiful, shiny concrete floors that stand up to wear and tear. It won’t require the tedious, time-consuming repairs garage floors usually need due to cracking. Homeowners love the results they get for their garage with our high-performing residential floor coating.

Your concrete floor can look gorgeous again! Take a look at our gallery for inspiration.