Concrete in Troy does not usually fail from wear. It fails from water. Water soaks into the pores, freezes, expands roughly 9%, and pops the surface apart — that's the flaking, pitting, and spalling you see on driveways and front steps every spring.
Hillside runoff pushes joint sand downhill, and the city's shaded, damp microclimate lets moss establish in walkway joints within a couple of seasons.
Sealing stops that at the source. A penetrating sealer soaks in and forms a hydrophobic barrier inside the concrete, so meltwater and brine beads off instead of soaking in. We clean the slab with a commercial rotary surface cleaner first — sealing over dirt just locks the dirt in — then apply Trident Break Wall (5-year) or the premium Sea Wall (7-year) system.