Resurfacing concrete driveway

[Bob H.]

I am planning to buy a house in Colorado that has a driveway with some significant surface deterioration, apparently from excessive use of salts to melt snow. Other driveways in the neighborhood have the same problem to a lesser extent. The structure seems sound; the driveway is only 15 years old.

Do you have any experience with Quikrete Concrete Resurfacer or a similar product? I am particularly interested in how well the new surface holds up over time.

[Bill S.]

@Bob H. a waste of money. The concrete has failed. Tear it out and replace. Any patch product that works is so expensive that it's cheaper on a large scale project to just redo it.

BTW it sound like the driveways in the neighborhood were improperly constructed. The problem you described is from the concrete finishers adding too much water to the concrete. When finished the excess water weakens the finished concrete. It then fails prematurally during the freeze thaw cycle. Finishers like to add water because it makes the finishing easier and if you don't have someone watching them that knows what they are doing, the surfaces look great but fail after a few years.