We live in the Midwest and as sure as day follows night, the snow is going to come. Some people will prepare more than others. You get your bulbs in the ground, you may put away your patio furniture, and you check the treads on your tires to make sure they’ll have better traction in the snow and ice. What else can you do to prepare? Check out this shortlist of things to do before it snows that you may not have thought were very important.

Fix Your Concrete Driveway before it snows

If your concrete driveway is sinking by your garage door better fix it before it snows. The concrete may have some cracks in it as well. As the snow comes and goes the melt follows the path of least resistance and seeps into the areas closest to your garage door, which also happens to be your home’s foundation. This happens enough times and for long enough and your driveway problem also became a foundation problem and a potential wet basement problem and that means expense. Lots of expense. Go out to your driveway. Take a look around. Is there a 2” difference between your driveway and your garage floor? Are there cracks in your driveway? Are the concrete slabs in your driveway uneven? You may have a problem. Fix it before the ground freezes and it snows.

Get your Sidewalk fixed

The holidays mean company and inviting friends and family to enjoy your home and spend quality time together making memories. Although it will stand out as a memory, a trip to the hospital because someone tripped on your uneven sidewalk, is not what you had in mind when your guests come for a good time. If your sidewalk slabs are uneven more than ¼” your sidewalk is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and you could be liable for any accident that happens on your property when someone trips over your uneven sidewalk. Now, we hope that your friends and family won’t sue you, but it will certainly put a crimp in the festivities if someone does take a tumble while trying to maneuver your uneven sidewalk in the snow and has to be rushed to the hospital.

Fix Your Garage Floor

Does your garage floor sound hollow when you drive over it? Are there cracks in the garage floor under your car? In the winter your car is full of snow and ice. You pull into your warm garage where the snow and ice proceed to melt. If there are cracks in your garage floor or there is a void under your garage floor, this draining water is just exasperating the problem and making it worse and more expensive to fix. The only thing that may be keeping your car from crashing through the concrete and into the void underneath, is the rebar supports that were put in to support the concrete. How long do you think they will last? Yeah, we’re not sure either.  But we do know that the void is probably getting worse with each season.

You’ve had the concrete mud jacking before

We know it’s frustrating. You’ve already had your driveway or sidewalk already mud jacked. To be honest, it wasn’t the fault of the company who did it. The fault lies in the system they use. Traditional mud jacking uses a combination of cement, dirt, and water to fill the gaps under your sinking concrete. When the water evaporates from this system, the concrete sinks again. We use a 2 part polyurethane foam to fill the voids under your concrete. This system is impervious to the elements (it will not shrink) and expands in 7 feet in either direction. Once we shoot our foam into the ground, it stays there, holding up your concrete for the life of your driveway, sidewalk, or garage floor. Fifty percent of the jobs we do have had traditional mud jacking done before.

Prepare for the snow this year a little differently and get your concrete driveway, sidewalk, and garage floor fixed before the ground freezes to avoid injury, expense, and destruction before it’s too late.

This article was originally published in October 2014 and has been recently updated.