CONCRETE
A driveway carries more weight than anything else you pour on a residential lot, and in this valley it does it while freezing at night and baking in the afternoon. We build them thicker, on a deeper base, with reinforcement sized to what will actually park on them.
Driveways fail from the bottom up. We dig out topsoil and soft material, then place and compact crushed rock in lifts to a depth that suits the soil we find, which on valley lots ranges from clean sand that compacts easily to fill that has to come out entirely.
The approach where the drive meets the street or alley takes the heaviest and most repeated loading, so that section gets extra attention on both base and thickness.
Passenger vehicles are fine on four inches over a good base. Trucks, RVs, boats, and delivery traffic call for more thickness and steel. We size rebar or mesh and slab depth to the vehicles you actually own, not a generic spec.
Control joints are cut early, deep enough to work, and spaced so panels stay roughly square. Isolation joints go where the drive meets the garage slab, sidewalks, and foundations so the two can move independently instead of cracking each other.
Grade is set so meltwater and rain leave the driveway rather than running toward the garage door or standing in a low panel. On sloped lots that can mean a swale, a trench drain, or a curb along one edge to steer runoff.
Because plows and shovels live on this surface all winter, we keep the finish smooth enough to clear easily and textured enough for traction, and we keep expansion material below the surface where a blade cannot catch it.
Replacement starts with breaking out and hauling off the old slab, then evaluating what is underneath, which is usually the reason the first one failed. Utilities, sprinkler lines, and conduit crossing the drive are located before excavation and sleeved during the pour if you want power or irrigation across it later.
We stage the work so you keep vehicle access as long as possible and give you a clear date for when you can drive on the new surface. Written estimate follows a site visit, since truck access and haul distance affect the work.
FAQ
