What is Street Creep?
We get it – Street creep sounds a little funny. Unfortunately, the damage it causes can be serious. Street creep happens with the concrete road by your house expands and pushes against your driveway. Your driveway, in turn, pushes against itself and your home.
Because of this, many homebuilders install expansion and control joints in the driveway to offset the pressure.
Temperature fluctuations cause the street to expand and contract during different seasons. During winter months, the control joints widen and can become filled with sand, salt or gravel. During warmer months, the concrete widens. With the control joint filled with incompressible materials, the concrete pushes against the slabs next to it.
You probably won’t notice this movement as it happens about a fraction of an inch at a time. But over time, it can result in several inches of movement. This could end up pushing your driveway into your home’s foundation, making the problem much worse and way more expensive to fix.
Having a concrete repair contractor come out and diagnose street creep is the best first step in addressing the problem. Our company can put in a solution that contracts and expands with the concrete and also seals off the joint from debris.
Street creep is a problem that slowly, but surely, becomes worse over time. The sooner you take steps to address it, the less damage it will cause and the less expensive it will be.