How Homeowners Can Prepare To Weather The Elements On Their Concrete Surfaces

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We have all heard about the typical winterizing steps to take with your home maintenance; they usually entail cleaning out gutters of extra debris, leaves and junk plus things like reinstalling glass window panes to replace screens. There’s a lot more to winterizing and one item that is often overlooked is taking care of the home’s driveway and concrete surfaces.

Believe it or not, your driveway and/or concrete could also use winterization. The main reason being that the surface is actually quite porous. When you combine that porous nature of the material with the elements of winter including salt, ice and other environmental abuses – it’s almost imperative that you do some preventive maintenance. Here are some guidelines to follow:

The most important thing to know is that your driveway will need its control joints, expansion joints and cracks sealed properly using a quality polyurethane sealant. It is preferable to use one that meets the Concrete Institute standards of ASTMC309 (look on the package).

Using a standard 10-ounce caulking gun, simply work the sealant into the driveway’s joints and seams. The main benefit of doing this will be to prevent salt and brine from penetrating the surface of your driveway and thereby beginning to deteriorate the surface. By doing this twice per year, once around this time of year before the really cold weather sets in, and the second time around is in April after the freeze is over.

Another key area to concentrate on are the expansion joints both at the foot of your driveway at the street’s curb as well as at the entrance of your garage. Both of these expansion joints are designed to absorb any change when the street expands, leaving your home standing unaffected by the imminent movement.

By grinding these joints down with a pressure washer and then caulking the areas, you will effectively be providing as much protection as possible against the elements, avoiding cracking and unsettling of the concrete. You can apply sealant by rolling it on with a paint roller for even application.

There is one more tip that will help you prolong the life of your driveway this year – and for years to come. As soon as you can, when snowfall has taken place, take the time to remove the snow as quickly as possible. This will help to reduce deterioration of your concrete from salt and compacted snow (which results from vehicle traffic over snow), less moisture is trapped underneath the surface, therefore reducing the otherwise rapid acceleration of damage to your driveway.

For more information on this important maintenance tip, watch our video above.

An Inspiring Interview With the Newest Homeowners of Our Custom Accessible Home

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A home should be the most comforting place of all – and at Charleston Homes we realize that sometimes people have specific needs in order to be able to enjoy that comfortable lifestyle. That’s why when Mr. and Mrs. Hoell approached us to help them build a custom home with unique and very specialized features dedicated to making their lives easier – we jumped at the opportunity.

We talked to them about what made them choose us in the first place, how they would rate their experiences with us and to share with us some of their favorite aspects of their new home.

The video says it all.

You can see that they are very happy with the results – as are we! They needed an open kitchen so we removed the center island, made some adjustments to the cabinetry and installed a side desk for convenience. They required a washer and dryer system that was simple to operate while convenient for both occupants of the home. Mrs. Hoell’s love of the outdoors was also not overlooked, with complete level access to a gorgeous back patio, allowing them the freedom to entertain openly without hindering them in any way.

In their own words, “Charleston Homes were the only ones that were interested [in giving us what we needed] and were not going to put any restrictions on what we wanted.”

When you think about it – comfort and security in one’s own home is one of the single most important aspects of having a good quality of life. Unless you are able to move freely, access things openly and easily – how can that comfort and security be possible?

We feel privileged to have had the experience to serve this terrific couple and appreciate the opportunity to give them exactly what they needed to be able to move into their dream house.
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If you or someone you know could benefit from a customized accessible home, contact us today. We welcome your call or visit to one of our model locations so we can get to work and move you into your own dream home!