If you own property along Colorado’s Front Range, your concrete takes a beating from the weather, not just from traffic or heavy loads. Colorado’s freeze-thaw cycles are some of the toughest in the country, and they can turn a brand-new driveway into a cracked and worn surface in just a few years if the concrete wasn’t built for this climate.
Here’s what’s happening below the surface and what experienced contractors do differently to make concrete last in this environment.
What Freeze-Thaw Does to Concrete
Because concrete is naturally porous, even a well-finished slab absorbs small amounts of water through its surface and along its edges. In Colorado, that water freezes and expands by about 9% as it turns to ice based on data from the Portland Cement Association. That expansion creates internal hydraulic pressure that pushes against the concrete’s pore walls.
When temperatures climb the next day which happens frequently since Colorado commonly sees temperature swings of 40 to 50 degrees in a single day, the ice melts, the pressure releases, and fresh water seeps deeper into the now-slightly wider pores. Then it freezes again, and the cycle keeps repeating…