Straight Answers
Some cracking in a Winston-Salem concrete driveway is normal and some means the slab is failing, and the difference is measurable. Hairline shrinkage cracks under about 1/8 inch wide, with both sides still level, are cosmetic: nearly every slab develops them as it cures. Cracks wider than about 1/4 inch, cracks where one side sits higher than the other, or cracks that keep growing after being filled point to movement in the base, and in the Piedmont the usual mover is red clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry.
Updated Aug 17, 2026 · Winston-Salem Concrete Co, Winston-Salem, NC
Read the crack before you price the fix. Width, displacement, and whether it is still moving tell you most of what matters.
| What you see | What it usually means | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Hairline cracks, both sides level | Normal curing shrinkage | Cosmetic. Seal to keep water out. |
| Crack along a control joint | The joint doing its job | Nothing. That is where cracking was designed to go. |
| Wider than 1/4 inch, sides level | Slab movement, early base trouble | Rout and seal, watch for growth. |
| One side higher than the other | Base washout or settlement | Slab lifting, or sectional replacement. |
| Spiderweb cracking across a section | Overload or a failing section | Sectional or full replacement. |
| Corner of a slab broken and dropped | Unsupported edge, water under the slab | Sectional replacement, fix the drainage. |
Most of Forsyth County sits on red clay. Clay holds water, swells as it wets, and shrinks as it dries, so a slab on clay is riding a base that moves with the seasons. Good construction manages this with a compacted aggregate layer between clay and concrete, correct fall so water runs off the slab, and drainage that keeps roof and yard water from ponding against it.
When a driveway cracks years early, the cause is almost always water: a downspout discharging beside the slab, grade that sends runoff under it, or a base that was never compacted. The concrete gets the blame; the water did the work.
Those are control joints, and they are the reason a good driveway shows few random cracks. Concrete shrinks slightly as it cures, and it will crack somewhere. Joints are straight, deliberate weak lines, cut to about a quarter of the slab's depth, that tell the crack where to happen. On a 4 inch residential slab they belong roughly every 8 to 12 feet.
A crack running neatly along a joint is the system working. Random cracking on a slab with joints far apart, or none, is a finishing shortcut showing itself.
Crack repair quotes differ because the crack is not the job, the cause is. One contractor may be pricing a surface fix; another may have found the settlement behind it and priced lifting the slab or correcting drainage. The cheap quote treats the symptom. Ask each one what they think caused the crack and the quotes will sort themselves.
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