What's So Scary About Street Creep?

What is "Street Creep?"

What if you were told that the asphalt road in front of your home was an ever-present threat to the condition of your driveway and your foundation as a whole?

While the concept may appear humorous, the phenomenon known as "street creep" is no laughing matter, despite its funny name.

Street creep occurs when the asphalt of roads expands, exerting pressure against the driveway of your home. This ongoing pressure can extend further, potentially causing damage to your entire home's foundational structure.

To counteract this pressure, both expansion and control joints are installed in concrete driveways. Nevertheless, despite these preventative measures, various other problems can still arise.

In the cooler months of the year, the asphalt street in front of your home and your concrete driveway undergo shrinkage, causing control joints to widen. These expanded joints can become filled with materials such as sand, rocks, and other debris.

During Florida's hot summer months, the concrete expands, and the control joints, now filled with debris, lose their ability to compress. As a result, the concrete in your driveway pushes against the adjacent slab. 

Because the expansion is so subtle over time, you probably wouldn’t notice it as it’s happening. Over a period of months, however, the amount of movement can result in significant pressure on your driveway, causing severe cracking of the concrete.

Over time, this expansion can end up pushing your driveway into your home’s foundation, creating greater and more expensive problems.

What Can Be Done?

The best preventive measure you can take as a homeowner is to have a reliable concrete repair contractor come out and assess whether your home is under the threat of street creep.

LRE Foundation Repair can provide long-term solutions that contract and expand with the concrete, as well as seal the joints and protect them from debris. 

To guard against long-term damage to your driveway and foundation, CompressionGuard can be installed to replace the cheaper-quality fiberboard expansion joints that are usually installed in most driveways. This flexible replacement can endure the constant fluctuations of the ever-expanding and shrinking concrete, preventing further pressure on adjacent slabs as well as your home’s foundation.

Furthermore, NexusPro can be applied to efficiently seal control joints and cracks, preventing them from being filled with debris. This long-lasting, durable solution is unaffected by temperature fluctuations as well as being resistant to damage caused by harsh UV rays brought on by the hot Florida sun.

Street creep is a problem that subtly worsens over time. Taking preventive measures early can lessen its impact and save your home from serious damage and costly expenses.