Most of what is sold as concrete maintenance is sealing, and most of what actually extends a slab is drainage and joints. Concrete fails at its edges, at its joints, and wherever water sits or gets underneath it, so the maintenance worth paying for is the work that keeps those three in order. Sealing has a real purpose and it is narrower than the sales pitch.
Joints are the maintenance nobody does
A slab is designed to crack and joints decide where. Contraction joints let it shrink in straight lines and isolation joints keep it from binding against a wall or a column, and both stop working when they fill with grit or when the sealant in them has gone. Clearing and resealing joints is unglamorous, and it is the cheapest thing that keeps a drive or a patio from cracking somewhere nobody chose.
Water is the whole argument
Freeze and thaw does its damage to saturated concrete, so the surface that dries is the surface that lasts. That makes falls, edges and where the downpipe discharges more important than any product: a drive that ponds at the garage threshold or a patio that sheds water against the house is a maintenance problem no sealer fixes. Check it in the rain rather than in the sun, which is when the fall is actually visible.
Concrete resurfacing options, and when they are the answer
A thin overlay, a microtopping or a ground and polished finish can each put a new face on a slab whose structure is sound, and none of them holds on a slab that is moving or on a base that has washed out. The test is whether the cracks are still opening and whether the slab rocks under load. Where the base has failed, resurfacing buys a season and replacement buys a decade, and an honest quote says which one it is.
Sealing, and the cost to seal concrete against what it buys
A penetrating sealer reduces how much water and de-icing salt the surface takes up, which is worth having on an exposed drive and on anything in a freezing climate. It does not stop cracking, it does not fix drainage, and it wears where the tyres turn, so it is a repeat cost rather than a one off. Price a concrete driveway sealing cost against the years it adds in your own climate rather than against doing nothing.
What to leave alone
Hairline crazing, some colour variation and the faint white bloom of efflorescence are cosmetic, and grinding or acid washing them is a good way to shorten a slab's life. De-icing salts on young concrete are the one thing to be genuinely careful about in the first winter, because the surface has not finished gaining strength and scaling from that first season does not come back.
Questions people ask about concrete maintenance
How often does a concrete driveway need sealing?
On an exposed drive in a freezing climate, every few years; on a sheltered patio, rarely. It is a wear item rather than a schedule, so the test is whether water still beads and darkens the surface slowly rather than instantly.
What does the cost to seal concrete buy?
Less water and less de-icing salt taken up by the surface, which is what scaling and freeze damage need. It buys nothing against cracking or against a base that has failed, and it is a repeat cost.
Are concrete resurfacing options worth it on a cracked slab?
Only if the cracks have stopped moving and the base is sound. Over a slab that still rocks or is still opening, an overlay telegraphs the crack back through within a season or two.
What is the most useful thing to do each year?
Clear the joints and check where the water goes. Both are cheap, neither is sold to you, and together they prevent more damage than anything applied to the surface.