Protect your driveway now with Perfect Power Wash

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Now is the perfect time to have your concrete driveway cleaned and sealed.

By Mimi Vanderhaven

It won’t be long before you wake up one morning to find the temperature outside well below freezing. According to WeatherSparks, Northeast Ohio is either freezing or “frozen” (below 15-degrees) 76-percent of the time from late October to early April.  

While you can counter the cold by putting on a warm coat and leather boots, your driveway lays bare to the elements. When water freezes, it expands by roughly 9-percent. This means that the water trapped inside your driveway’s porous concrete has no choice but to spread out. As it does, it produces pressure inside the capillaries and pores of the concrete. 

Eventually, over repeated freeze and thaw cycles, this pressure builds to the point where it exceeds the tensile strength of the concrete. When that happens, concrete’s cavities rupture, resulting in cracking, chipping, spalling, pitting and ultimately costly concrete repair bills. (Imagine what would happen to your perfectly fitting leather boots if the size of your feet kept expanding by 9-percent and then retracted to a smaller size again and again.) Replacing concrete can cost $15 per square foot—or more.

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Once your cars bring salt and de-icing agents onto your driveway, there is a whole new set of problems for your concrete. The salt in those de-icers is an effective absorber of water, so it pulls more moisture into the concrete, which ultimately results in more freeze-thaw damage. On top of that, the acidic properties of salt weaken the chemical bonds that hold concrete together. 

Fortunately, Mike Palubiak and his team at Perfect Power Wash can protect your driveway from winter’s wrath, but it’s important to do it now.

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A nationally recognized authority on concrete maintenance (he wrote the standards on the subject for PWNA, the trade group Power Washers of North America), Mike and his team have treated over 24.6 million square feet of driveways—the equivalent of almost 500 football fields. 

At Perfect Power Wash, the process of protecting your driveway involves three critical steps:

  1. Cleaning—First, a team of highly trained professionals applies an environmentally safe and biodegradable cleanser to the driveway surface.
  2. Pressure Washing—Next comes a high-pressure wash to remove debris from the concrete’s surface and inside the tiny pores below it. This deep cleaning is extremely important because particulate matter that enters the concrete’s pores along with the water compounds the problems created during the freezing/thawing cycle by putting extra pressure on the area around it. (A good way to appreciate what this pressure does is to imagine what would happen if there were some pebbles inside your leather boots when your feet expanded by 9-percent.)
  3. Sealing—Once your driveway is thoroughly cleaned, Perfect Power Wash applies a deep-penetrating siloxane sealer that keeps out moisture to provide the ultimate concrete protection. A chemical compound of silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen-siloxane is the best way to not only protect your driveway, but the optimal way to keep it intact.

“Despite its appearance of being rock solid, concrete is actually a porous material, like a sponge with many microscopic voids and holes,” says Mike. 

“When water, debris and deicing salts get inside these pockets, you get trouble. Our siloxane sealer addresses this issue by getting inside the concrete and bonding to its pores. This prevents liquid from entering into the concrete. Otherwise, when it freezes, that water would expand, leading to damage.”

Our Siloxale Sealer penetrates below the surface of a concrete driveway and is not prone to being worn away by the comings and goings of your family vehicles or by sunlight and weather. 

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The Ideal Time is Right Now 
The earlier you get a jump on protecting your driveway, the better chance you have to avoid extensive damage and costly repairs. Right now is the perfect time (and weather), and there’s no better company to call than Perfect Power Wash.

Mike and his team have been in business for 17 years and have been awarded a prestigious award by Case Western Reserve University, which recognizes an “elite group of companies who are the best example of leadership, growth and customer service in our region.”

Perfect Power Wash has also been recognized as a recipient of the Super Service Award on Angie’s List. Plus the company has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

When maintained by Perfect Power Wash, your concrete driveway will stay in excellent shape for many years. After all, properly cared for, concrete is built to last.

To ensure your home’s exterior maintains its beauty and function, contact Perfect Power Wash at 330-645-8098 or 440-984-6402. Visit Perfect Power Wash online at PerfectPowerWash.com to learn more about the services offered.

Categories: Home & Garden