New Concrete Care

To ensure your new addition to your home or business continues to look its best for years to come; here are a few things you should know:

• Using salts and/or deicing products may damage your concrete driveway, garage, sidewalk or patio.

• Industry associations including the American Concrete Institute and National Ready Mixed Concrete Association along with product manufacturers have issued warnings against using salt, fertilizers, calcium chloride and/or commercial deicing chemicals on concrete surfaces. Using these products may aggravate damage caused by freezing and thawing, causing the concrete surface to flake, spall or peel off.

• The use of deicing products is not recommended during the first year of newly placed concrete surfaces and should be used sparingly in subsequent years.

• Any product containing ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate will chemically destroy concrete and should never be used on a concrete surface.

• Because some geographical areas use deicing products on city streets, county roads and state highways, melt-off of “salty” slush from your vehicle may also cause damage to your concrete. When this occurs, try to wash or sweep off salt deposited by cars on newly placed driveways or garage slabs. Applying a concrete sealer annually in the fall will help prevent and avoid damage to driveways and garage slabs.

• To add traction to icy surfaces, using clean traction sand or a non-damaging product such as clean kitty litter is recommended.