Concrete Driveway Repair & Resealing in Birmingham
Cracks, flaking, a sunken corner, faded colour or a sealer gone milky can usually be put right for a fraction of the cost of a new drive — and sometimes they cannot, in which case we will say so. We price the repair the same working day from published 2026 rates and arrange it through a vetted local partner who does this work.
Repair or Replace? What Can Be Fixed
Concrete fails in two places: at the surface, which is cheap to put right, and in the slab or the ground under it, which is not. The first thing a partner does on a survey is work out which you have, because a surface fix on a moving slab is money thrown at a crack that will be back by spring.
| What you can see | What is usually behind it | The fix | 2026 guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hairline cracks, no step across them | Control joints missing, too far apart or cut too late | Rout out and fill with a flexible or resin filler, colour-matched on imprinted, then seal | £100–£300 for small repairs |
| Cracks with a step, a section that rocks, a dropped corner | Sub-base washed out or never compacted; slab too thin; tree roots | Cut out the section, compact a proper sub-base and re-lay it; a new slab if it is widespread | Priced per m² of new slab |
| Flaking, scaling, pitting (spalling) | Freeze-thaw on a mix that was not air-entrained; water added on site | Light: clean and seal. Widespread: overlay or replace in the right mix | Resurfacing £40–£70 per m² |
| Faded or patchy imprinted colour | Sealer worn through, sun, tyres | Clean, even out with a tinted sealer, two coats of clear sealer | £4–£8 per m² to reseal |
| Peeling, milky or white sealer | Sealer put on damp concrete or too thick, trapping moisture | Strip and reseal in thin coats on a dry day | Reseal price plus stripping |
| Green or black growth | Shade, damp, no sealer left | Clean, treat, seal | Included in a reseal |
The honest line: repair when the slab is sound and the problem is on top of it; replace when the slab or the ground has failed. A partner who wants to fill a stepped crack or paint a scaling surface is not repairing it. When the answer is a new drive, the plain concrete and imprinted concrete pages have the 2026 prices.
Resealing an Imprinted Driveway
The sealer is the wearing layer on a pattern imprinted drive: it holds the colour, sheds water and keeps algae out of the texture. The trade guides say reseal every 3–5 years; Pavingexpert says 2–4 years for the acrylic sealers most drives get. Professionally it runs £4–£8 per m² in 2026, so £240–£480 for a 60m² drive. The order of work matters more than the product.
Clean
Pressure wash the whole surface, treat any algae or lichen, lift oil marks. Sealer over dirt seals the dirt in; sealer over algae goes cloudy within months.
Dry
The concrete has to be dry through, not just on top, or moisture is trapped under the new coat and turns it white: a dry day or two after washing, which is why resealing is a spring-to-autumn job.
Repair and re-colour
Hairline cracks are filled and colour-matched. Patchy or faded areas are evened out with a tinted sealer before the clear coats go on, which is how a ten-year-old drive comes back without re-laying anything.
Seal
One, preferably two, thin coats of acrylic sealer. Thick coats are the classic mistake: they trap solvent and moisture and peel. An anti-slip additive goes in the top coat on a sloping drive.
Keep off it
Foot traffic once the surface is dry; cars when the partner says so, usually the next day or the one after. Then forget about it for a few years.
Crack Repair: Why It Cracked Decides How It Is Fixed
All concrete shrinks slightly as it cures, which is why a drive is built with control joints sawn at roughly 30 times the slab thickness — about every 3m on a 100mm slab — so that the cracking happens in a straight line in the joint, where it is invisible and harmless. A crack along a joint is the design working. A crack anywhere else has a cause, and Pavingexpert lists the usual four: joints missing or cut too late, a slab that is too thin, a sub-base that was never compacted, and water added to the mix on site.
For a fine crack with no movement across it the repair is straightforward: routed out to give the filler something to hold, filled with a flexible or resin filler, and on an imprinted drive colour-matched and sealed over so it disappears into the pattern. MyJobQuote puts small crack repairs at £100–£300 in 2026. Run a finger across the crack first: if one side is higher than the other, or the section rocks under a car, the ground has moved and filling the gap is cosmetic; that section wants cutting out and re-laying on compacted Type 1. Ask the partner why it cracked, not just to fill it; if the answer is "the slab is 75mm on ash", you are looking at the replacement page sooner or later.
Overlays and Resurfacing: When the Slab Is Sound
If the slab is thick, dry and not moving but the surface is worn, pitted or simply ugly, resurfacing sits between a reseal and a new drive. MyJobQuote's 2026 guide puts resurfacing worn concrete at £40–£70 per m², against £85–£125 per m² for a new plain slab and £75–£130 for imprinted, plus £500–£2,000 to break the old one out.
Two routes: a thin bonded overlay, brushed or coloured, gives a plain slab a new face; or a new imprinted surface can sometimes go over a sound, thick existing slab — never over tarmac, block paving or a cracked base, which would print its faults straight through. Either way the levels rise, so the partner checks that the finished surface still sits well below the damp-proof course and the falls still send water to the drainage rather than the front door. The test is whether the base will outlast the overlay: a sound 1990s slab that has lost its face will; a 1960s slab on ash with a drop at the kerb will not, and the overlay follows it down.
Flaking Concrete Usually Means the Mix Was Wrong
Scaling — the top few millimetres flaking off in patches, a little more each spring — is what a plain C20 slab does in a Birmingham winter. Water gets into the surface, freezes, expands and pops the top layer off. The mix that resists it is air-entrained: a PAV1-equivalent C25/30 with a minimum 4.5% of microscopic air bubbles that give freezing water room to expand. It costs a little more per cubic metre and lasts the difference many times over, which is why it is the only mix our concrete for driveways page recommends. Water added on site and over-trowelling make it worse; salt off the road finishes the job.
For a repair that means: light scaling in a few patches can be cleaned and sealed, and the sealer will slow it down. Scaling across most of the drive cannot be sealed back together; the honest options are a bonded overlay on a sound slab, or a new slab in the right mix. A partner who quotes to "seal it properly this time" over widespread scaling is selling you two years.
Repair and Resealing Guide Prices in Birmingham
| Job | 2026 guide price | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Professional reseal, imprinted concrete | £4–£8 per m²; 60m² £240–£480 | Every 3–5 years; includes cleaning and two thin coats |
| Sealer for a DIY reseal | £55–£110 per 20 litres | The cleaning and the drying are where DIY jobs go wrong |
| Small crack repairs | £100–£300 | Hairline cracks with no movement; colour-matched on imprinted |
| Resurfacing worn concrete | £40–£70 per m² | Only over a sound, thick, dry slab |
| Section replacement | Per m² as new slab: £85–£125 plain, £75–£130 imprinted | Small areas cost more per metre than a whole drive |
| Removing a failed drive | £500–£2,000 | Depends on thickness and how many skips (£240–£550 each) it fills |
Sources: the 2026 MyJobQuote imprinted and concrete driveway guides and the Checkatrade Birmingham guidance. What moves a repair quote is access, the area, colour matching, whether the drainage needs sorting first, and how much of the work is on hands and knees rather than behind a machine. The installing partner's written quote after looking at it is the price.
Why Birmingham Drives Fail Early
Around 30% of Birmingham's homes are interwar, and a good share of their drives were laid decades ago as thin slabs over ash or a skim of hardcore, long before anyone specified a sub-base. Under them the ground moves: the Mercia Mudstone beneath much of the city behaves as shrinkable clay in its top metre or two, swelling in wet winters and shrinking in dry summers, and clayey till does the same across the south-west of the city. A slab with nothing compacted under it rides that movement until it cracks. Trees make it worse — oaks, poplars and willows dry the clay hardest — which is why the crack so often runs from the corner nearest the big tree.
Then the winter finds every drive poured in a C20 mix or with water added on site. Birmingham City Council also records dozens of complaints a year about doorstep contractors who resurface a drive for cash; if one of those did yours, the surface is often the least of it, and a partner who quotes in writing after looking underneath is the only kind we send. Our installation partners cover the city and the West Midlands, including Sutton Coldfield, Solihull, Dudley, Walsall, Tamworth and Bromsgrove.
Arranged Through a Partner, or Materials Only
Arranged: send us a few photos, the size of the drive and what is wrong with it, and we price the repair the same working day from the rates above, then arrange a vetted local partner to look at it and quote in writing. Installed work is carried out by a vetted local partner; you'll be told who is attending before the job is booked.
Materials only: if you or your builder are re-laying a section, our delivery partners batch the air-entrained driveway mix from 0.5m³ through mini mix, metered so you pay for what goes in — see concrete for driveways and the concrete calculator. Related: imprinted concrete driveways and plain concrete driveways when the answer is a new slab, patios and paths for the same repairs round the back, the colours, patterns and sealing guide for choosing a sealer, and the full list of installed concrete services.
Driveway Repair and Resealing FAQs
How often should imprinted concrete be resealed?
Every 3–5 years is the figure in the Checkatrade and MyJobQuote guides; Pavingexpert says 2–4 years for the acrylic sealers most drives get. Read the surface rather than the calendar: when the sheen has gone, water stops beading and the colour looks dusty, it is due. A drive left unsealed for years fades faster and picks up algae, and putting the colour back then costs more than a routine reseal.
How much does it cost to reseal an imprinted concrete driveway?
As a 2026 guide, professional resealing runs £4–£8 per square metre, so a 60m² drive is £240–£480 including the clean and two thin coats. A 20-litre tub of sealer for a DIY job is £55–£110. Colour touch-ups with a tinted sealer, algae treatment and repairing cracks first are the lines that push a quote above the guide range.
Can cracks in a concrete driveway be repaired?
Fine cracks with no movement, yes: they are routed out and filled with a flexible or resin filler, colour-matched on an imprinted drive, then sealed over. MyJobQuote puts small crack repairs at £100–£300 in 2026. A crack with a step across it, a section that rocks or a corner that has dropped means the sub-base has failed, and the honest fix is to cut out and re-lay that section on compacted stone rather than fill the gap.
Why is my concrete driveway flaking?
Freeze-thaw damage, almost always. Water gets into the surface, freezes, expands and pops the top off a flake at a time, which is what a plain C20 slab does in a Birmingham winter and what an air-entrained PAV1-equivalent mix, with a minimum 4.5% of microscopic air bubbles, is designed to resist. Light scaling can be cleaned and sealed; widespread scaling needs an overlay or a new slab in the right mix, because no sealer will glue a rotten surface back together.
Can a faded imprinted driveway get its colour back?
Usually. The colour hardener is still in the surface; what has gone is the sealer that saturates it. A thorough clean, a tinted sealer to even out patchy areas and two coats of clear sealer bring most drives back. What does not work is driveway paint: it sits on top as a film, traps moisture, peels within a season or two and has to be stripped before the drive can be sealed properly again.
Repair or replace — how do I decide?
Repair when the slab is sound and the problem is at the surface: worn sealer, faded colour, algae, hairline cracks, a small spalled patch. Replace when the slab itself has failed: sections that have sunk or rock, cracks that step, scaling across most of the area, or a base that was never thick enough. Resurfacing runs £40–£70 per m² and a new plain drive £85–£125 per m², so there is a point where patching a failing slab costs more than laying one that will last 30 years. We will tell you which side of that line you are on.
Want a Price on the Repair Today?
A few photos, the size of the drive and what is wrong with it — we'll price it the same working day from the 2026 rates above and arrange a vetted local partner to look at it.