The joint is doing
its job. The filler isn't.
Joints exist so the slab can move without cracking where it pleases. When the filler in them dries out, shrinks and splits, every joint becomes a drain — straight down into the sub-base your driveway is sitting on. We cut the old material out, clean the channel, and re-fill it so the slab can keep moving without letting anything in.
- 1/3"
- Roughly how much a 50-foot slab moves across our seasons
- 3
- Steps — cut out, clean, re-fill. No caulk over the top of failure
- Free
- On-site assessment, no obligation
Why it matters
Water under the slab
is the expensive kind.
Concrete expands and contracts with temperature, and southern Utah gives it a hundred-degree annual swing to work with. The joints are where that movement is supposed to happen. But movement is exactly what kills the filler: it stretches and compresses season after season until it pulls away from the joint walls or splits down the middle.
After that, every storm and every sprinkler cycle sends water through the open joint into the sub-base — the compacted material the slab depends on. Wash enough of it out and the slab settles, rocks and cracks, and at that point the repair is no longer a joint repair.
Re-filling a failed joint costs a fraction of correcting a settled slab. It is also the first thing we check before sealing a driveway — sealing the surface while the joints are open is solving the small leak and ignoring the big one.
How we do it
Out, clean,
and back in.
- The failed filler is cut out completely — not topped up, not caulked over
- The channel is cleaned back to sound edges so the new material can bond
- The joint is re-filled with material that flexes with the slab's movement
- Done alongside sealing or on its own — whatever the surface actually needs
Filler that is simply laid over the top of failed material fails again on the same schedule. Cutting it out is slower. It is also the job.
Expansion joint questions
Worth asking
before it settles.
How do I know my joints have failed?
Look along them. Filler that has sunk below the surface, pulled away from either edge, cracked down its length or gone hard and crumbly is no longer keeping water out. Weeds growing out of a joint are the surface's way of filing a report.
Can you just fill the gaps that look bad?
We can, but we will tell you what we see first. Joint filler tends to age at the same rate across a slab, so one failed section usually means the rest are close behind — and doing them together costs less than doing them twice.
Does this get done before or after sealing?
Before. Prep first, always — joints, cracks and surface correction all come ahead of any sealer. Nothing goes down over a problem.
Get started
Request an
assessment.
We come out, look at the surface, and tell you what it needs. No charge for the visit, and no obligation attached to it.
Request an assessment- Dylan Evans
- 435·994·5235
- Zac Evans
- 435·224·6987