Why Concrete Driveways Crack in Utah (and What Is Normal)

Concrete cracks. Homeowners in Draper see a crack appear in a new driveway and assume something went wrong, but cracking is part of how a slab works.

Control joints are cut deliberately into a driveway so that when the slab contracts and moves, it cracks along a straight line you can live with rather than somewhere random. A driveway with clean cracks running along its joints is doing what it was built to do.

The cracks worth calling someone about are different in character. A crack that keeps widening season after season. A crack where one side sits higher than the other. A crack that lets water under the slab, where it can freeze and lift.

In Utah the mechanism behind most of the bad ones is water. Ground that freezes and thaws moves, and if water is sitting under a driveway or running toward it, that movement will find the weakest point.

This is why the base matters more than anything you can see. A driveway poured on a well-compacted base with drainage that carries water away will outlast one poured thicker on poor ground almost every time.

When you get quotes, ask what is going under the slab and where the water goes. The answers tell you more about how long the driveway will last than the price does.