No fault?Not for a damaged driveway

Your driveway is the entrance to your home and one of the first things to get noticed by visitors. If the driveway is busted or overwhelmed with unappealing cracks it can leave an unpleasant impression. More often than not, this is a problem that goes unaddressed.
If you have a driveway that is cracked or busted and are ready to address the problem you have two basic choices, replace or repair. Three things you must consider when making the decision to replace or repair.

1. Most driveways are a minimum of four inches thick. Natural stresses caused this four inch thick slab of concrete to literally tear itself apart. These stresses include expansion and contraction due to heat and cold, the weight of vehicle traffic, and movement of the substrate. Any crack repair material placed within these fractures will undoubtedly suffer a similar fate as the original slab of concrete, failure.

2. Driveway replacement can be expensive but if performed correctly can provide you with fifty plus years of solid use. If you decide to replace a concrete driveway make sure the contractor uses a four thousand psi mix of concrete poured at a minimum of four inches; furthermore, steel reinforcement should be added for increased tensile strength to compliment the already high compressive strength of concrete.

3. Over time, a driveway's surface can become weathered and lose its finish. There are a variety of overlays available. Although relatively expensive, when compared to the cost of replacement, these overlays can be a viable option. I don't suggest overlaying cracked or busted concrete; however, if the desired effect is simply a nicer finish then overlay can do the trick.

Concrete repair can be a risky endeavor. Far too often, I see a repair gone wrong, a costly mistake that never should have been attempted in the first place. Every day, home owners waste money on costly repairs that fail. That being said, cracks can be filled to prevent moisture penetration and good concrete can be overlaid for aesthetic appeal

From Timesunion.com

David Lilac was checking the mailbox on July 5 when a smoking Chevrolet TrailBlazer slowed on Sacandaga Road and maneuvered into his driveway.As flames appeared, Lilac helped the driver get his two daughters safely out of the SUV. By the time Lilac had retrieved a fire extinguisher, the vehicle was a mass of leaping flames and a job for firefighters.

After the blaze was out, Lilac and his wife, Kim Koza, were left with a charred husk of a Chevy that had burned so hotly it had to be scraped from their scorched driveway.Koza says the damage made a conversation piece five days later during her daughter's high school graduation party at their Glenville home, but they weren't overly concerned about it. 

"We were sure the driver's insurance company, Progressive, would repair our driveway," Koza explained.But they were wrong. Responding to their claim, a Progressive representative wrote: "the facts of this incident indicate our insured was not liable for this loss. I have determined that the fire to our insured's vehicle was accidental in nature and not the result of our insured's negligence."The couple looked into filing a claim under their homeowner's policy, but backed off because of potential elevation of their premiums and a $1,000 deductible they'd have to pay. Estimates for the driveway repairs are close to $4,000.

A sooty layer still coats the driveway. Pieces of the Chevy are cooked into the asphalt, and blackened bits of glass, metal and plastic occasionally come loose.Progressive did offer to settle with Koza and Lilac with a $999.99 payment, but the couple still would have to file a claim with their carrier and pay the deductible, so they declined.

They have filed a complaint with the New York State Insurance Department and, reluctantly, are preparing to sue the driver, Kenneth R. Briggs III of Berne, in Small Claims Court in an effort to force Progressive to pay."We don't want to sue this poor guy," said Koza. "We never imagined they'd say no."

It surprised me, too, and I turned to experts at the state Insurance Department for insight. My first question was why New York's "no-fault" insurance laws didn't ensure that Progressive would pay.The answer, to my dismay, is that no-fault provisions do not apply to property damage.

"No-fault really is only for medical expenses," said John Capuano, associate insurance examiner in the Insurance Department's Consumer Services Bureau.As Capuano explains it, a question of whether an auto insurer should cover damage to a third party's property typically turns on whether the driver showed negligence -- or what some might call "fault" or "responsibility" -- that led to the damage.In this case, Progressive contends that the driver did nothing wrong or unusual, sort of a like a neighbor whose tree falls on your garage."Mr. Briggs (the driver) was on a hill on a relatively rural road when his vehicle caught fire. Realizing this was an emergency, he had no choice but to back into Mr. Lilac and Ms. Koza's driveway to ensure his and his family's safety. We believe that most people would have done the same thing under the circumstances" Progressive spokeswoman Leah Knapp said.

"In addition," she said, "Mr. Briggs' maintenance records over the past 16 months showed that he kept his vehicle very well maintained and could not have anticipated it would catch fire."I agree the driver acted reasonably under the circumstances, but he did make a decision to roll his burning car into that driveway, so I'd say the company that insures his car should cover the damage.