Sealer Is the Cheapest Protection You Can Buy
Concrete looks tough, but water is its enemy. Water soaks into the surface, freezes in winter, and expands — popping off flakes and opening cracks a little more each year. Road salt and de-icers make it worse: they drive deeper into the pores and attack the surface from inside. Oil, rust, and leaf tannins stain what salt does not break.
A quality sealer blocks all of that. It is a fraction of the cost of repairs or replacement, and it is the single highest-return maintenance you can do for a driveway, patio, or walkway in Maryland.
Two Kinds of Sealer, Two Jobs
- Penetrating sealers. These soak into the concrete and block water from inside the pores without changing how the surface looks or feels. No shine, no added slipperiness. Ideal for driveways, walkways, and anywhere traction matters most.
- Film-forming sealers. These build a protective layer on top that deepens color and can add anything from a matte to a wet-look gloss. Ideal for stamped concrete and exposed aggregate, where you want the color to pop. We add traction grit on walking surfaces so gloss never means slippery.
Big-box store sealers are usually thin acrylics that wear off in a year. We use professional-grade products with real solids content, applied at the right coverage rate — thick enough to protect, not so thick they peel.
When to Seal
New concrete should cure first — usually 28 days — before the first seal, so moisture can escape the slab. After that, driveways and patios in Maryland want resealing every 2 to 3 years. Decorative concrete with a film-forming sealer is on the shorter end of that range because sun and traffic wear the film. The water-bead test tells you where you stand: splash water on the slab, and if it soaks in dark instead of beading up, the sealer is gone.
What about winter salt?
Sealer is your defense, but less salt is better defense. On a sealed driveway, use salt sparingly and never on concrete less than a year old. Sand gives traction without the chemical attack. These two habits together — sealing plus going easy on salt — are why some driveways look new at 20 years while others spall at 8.
Sealing After Other Work
Sealing pairs with almost everything we do. Fresh overlays get sealed after curing to lock in color. Repaired cracks and patches get sealed to keep water out of the repair. New patios and driveways get their first seal at the 28-day mark — we can schedule it when we pour so you do not have to remember.
DIY vs. Professional Sealing
You can buy sealer at any home store, and for a small patio it is a fair weekend project — if you prep properly. The prep is where DIY jobs usually fall short: oil spots that were not degreased, algae that was not killed, and sealer applied too thick in the cool of the morning, which then peels by fall. We use commercial-grade products with higher solids than retail jugs, apply at the manufacturer's coverage rate with the right equipment, and warranty the work. For driveways and large areas, the equipment and product difference usually shows within two years.
What It Costs
Sealing is priced by square footage, and most residential jobs fall between $400 and $1,200 depending on driveway or patio size, which sealer type you choose, and how much cleaning and prep the surface needs — your written quote after our visit is the real number. It is the lowest-cost service we offer and the one that saves you the most over the life of your concrete.
Protect Your Concrete
Fill out our contact form and tell us what you have — driveway, patio, decorative concrete — and when it was last sealed, if ever. We'll test the surface, recommend the right sealer, and give you a written quote.