What is driveway and concrete sealing?
Driveway and concrete sealing is a protective treatment that resists water, road salt and de-icing chemicals soaking into the surface, which is what causes most of the cracking, flaking and surface loss on an Ottawa driveway. It works on the way in, not on damage already done.
PROTEXA is a certified GoNano contractor in Ottawa. Which GoNano treatment we apply depends on what the driveway is made of, and the two are not interchangeable:
- Concrete, masonry and pavers. GoNano Concrete Saver.
- Asphalt paving. A separate GoNano asphalt treatment that works into the bitumen binder.
Both work by penetration rather than by building a film on top. The particles are 40 to 60 nanometers, small enough to get into the material instead of forming a layer on it.
Which surfaces does Concrete Saver go on?
GoNano Concrete Saver goes on concrete, brick and masonry, stucco, CMU, exposed aggregate and pavers, which on an Ottawa property means concrete driveways, patios, walkways, porches, garage floors, interlock pavers and patio stones. It is not an asphalt product and it must not come into direct contact with bitumen, so we treat asphalt driveways with a separate GoNano asphalt treatment instead.
| Surface | What the treatment is protecting against |
|---|---|
| Concrete driveways, patios, walkways and porches | Cracking and spalling, road salt, freeze-thaw damage, surface stains |
| Garage floors and parking areas | Road salt tracked off the car, concrete dusting, staining |
| Interlock pavers, patio stones and exposed aggregate | Water penetration, staining, freeze-thaw damage |
Garage floors are on that list because the product is made for garages, parking garages, driveways, loading docks and public sidewalks.
Concrete Saver is not basement waterproofing. It will not inhibit water penetration through defective flashing, caulking or structural waterproofing, so a wet basement is a different job. If your surface is not on the list above, raise it at the assessment.
Asphalt driveways are a separate service and a separate product
We treat asphalt driveways with a GoNano asphalt treatment. It penetrates the bitumen binder rather than forming a film over the top, so the asphalt still breathes. Traditional sealers do the opposite: they lay a coating across the surface and seal everything in behind it.
We clean and prepare the driveway, spray-apply the treatment, and the surface goes back into use. What it will do for your driveway is something we tell you at the free on-site assessment.
What does an Ottawa winter actually do to a driveway?
Ottawa driveways fail from the surface down, and the cause is almost always water that got in before it froze. Water expands as it turns to ice, so every drop sitting in a pore or a hairline crack becomes a small wedge pushing the surface apart from the inside.
What makes Ottawa hard on concrete is not the depth of the winter but the number of times the temperature crosses zero. Each thaw lets in more water for the next freeze to work on.
Road salt makes that worse twice over. Brine from tires and the plough keeps the surface wet at temperatures where plain water would have stayed frozen, and the chloride attacks the cement paste holding the surface together. Spring melt is the worst stretch: saturated concrete, salt residue and daytime thaws over freezing nights.
What are spalling and scaling, and how do they start?
Spalling is when the top layer of concrete flakes, chips or pops off and leaves the aggregate underneath exposed. Scaling is the same failure at a shallower depth, a fine peeling of the very surface. Both start with water and salt getting into the surface and freezing there.
The order it usually goes in on an Ottawa driveway:
- Dark patches that stay damp long after the rest of the surface has dried.
- A chalky, dusty feel to the surface, and colour that has gone flat.
- Fine flaking at the edges, along the garage apron, and wherever snow gets piled and salted.
- Pitting, then exposed aggregate, then chunks lifting out.
Applied at step one or two, a treatment protects what is there. Applied at step four, it is protecting a surface that has already gone. Sealing is preventative work.
What does Concrete Saver do once it is on the surface?
Concrete Saver makes the surface hydrophobic and forms a chloride screen that dramatically reduces chloride ion ingress. It reflects UV rays to limit heat absorption, slow aging and prevent discoloration.
It also increases abrasion resistance and reduces concrete dusting, so the surface stays cleaner with less maintenance. Taken together it resists cracking, spalling, pitting, salt and freeze-thaw damage.
The limit: it resists the moisture intrusion that causes cracking and spalling, but it does not seal cracks that are already there, and it will not inhibit water penetration through unsound or cracked surfaces.
How does the job run, from first call to finished driveway?
- Free assessment. We inspect the surface at no charge to confirm its condition and what it is made of, and give you pictures of how it looks now. No obligation.
- Prep and repair. If the surface qualifies, we handle any minor repairs, such as minor surface cracks, and clean it thoroughly. A treatment is only as good as what is underneath it, so this stage is not optional.
- Treatment. The right product for the surface, applied on site by our own team.
How long the surface has to stay clear before you can walk on it, and then park on it, depends on the surface, the size of the area and the weather that day. We tell you the actual window at the assessment.
What does the driveway look like after it is treated?
Concrete Saver is transparent and dries to a natural flat finish that does not change surface appearance. Skid-resistance testing under ASTM E 303 returns the same rating treated as untreated, so a walkway is no more slippery after we have been there.
The GoNano asphalt treatment does not change how the driveway looks either, because it penetrates the binder rather than coating the surface.
Neither is a resurfacer or a colour coating, so neither will hide cracks, oil stains or previous repairs.
When is the best time to seal a driveway in Ottawa?
The application window runs through the warm, dry part of the year, because the treatment needs a surface that is clean, dry and above freezing to go on and cure properly. That rules out most of late autumn to early spring. Two moments make the most sense:
- Late spring, once the winter salt has been washed off and any damage from the last freeze season is visible. You treat a surface you can actually see the condition of.
- Late summer into early autumn, so the driveway goes into the first freeze already protected rather than absorbing one more winter first.
We confirm the conditions on the day, because a surface that is damp, dirty or too cold will not take the treatment properly. Newly poured concrete has to finish curing first: if your driveway was poured this season, say so when you book.
How long does it last, and does it need reapplying?
Concrete Saver protects your concrete for up to 10 years, and certain conditions apply to that figure. One treatment delivers long-lasting protection rather than needing reapplication every few years the way many other sealers do.
How close a given driveway gets to ten depends on its condition when we treat it, how much salt and plough traffic it takes, and whether water sits on it through the freeze-thaw season.
Is there a warranty on driveway work?
GoNano's warranty applies to our NuRoof asphalt shingle roof treatments, not to driveway work. The up to 10 years on concrete is a protection figure, not a written term you can claim against, so keep the two apart when comparing quotes.
Whatever is in writing for your job is put in front of you before anything is applied. Ask us for it at the assessment.
When sealing is not the right choice
Sealing is preventative. These are the cases where we will tell you to spend the money elsewhere:
- Cracks that run through the full depth of the slab, or sections that have heaved or settled unevenly. That is a base or drainage problem underneath the concrete and a surface treatment does not touch it.
- Asphalt that has gone to a network of interconnected cracks, or that feels soft and crumbles underfoot. At that point the driveway is at the end of its service life.
- Concrete with aggregate exposed across large areas. The surface the treatment is meant to protect has already been lost, and a treatment cannot put it back.
- Concrete poured too recently to have finished curing.
- A surface that cannot be got properly clean and dry before application.
If the surface is past the point where a treatment helps, we say so at the free assessment rather than selling you a product that will not do anything.
What determines the price of driveway sealing?
We price a driveway after standing on it, because a square-footage figure would be wrong more often than right. What moves the number:
- Total surface area, including any walkway, porch or patio you want done in the same visit.
- Surface type. Concrete, asphalt and interlock take different products and different amounts of prep and labour.
- Current condition. A five-year-old driveway with a clean surface is a different job from one with staining, moss in the joints or early scaling.
- Prep and minor repairs needed before anything can be applied, the stage that varies most between one driveway and the next.
- Access and layout. Slope, steps, tight side yards and anything that has to be masked or protected all add time.
The same logic applies to roofs, set out in our guide to what determines the cost of a nano coating in Ottawa. For a real number on your own surface, book the free on-site assessment.
Where PROTEXA seals driveways and concrete
PROTEXA works across Ottawa, Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orleans, Gloucester and Stittsville.
We also treat asphalt shingle roofs through our Ottawa roof nano coating service and flat commercial roofs through elastomeric membrane roof treatment, so one visit can cover more than one surface.