Concrete Driveways near you

Replacing a driveway starts with breaking out the old surface and digging below it: soft soil, organic material and any wet, clay-rich layer prone to frost heave come out, and the ground beneath is compacted. Crushed stone then goes down in compacted layers to form a firm, free-draining base. How deep to dig depends on the soil, the traffic and how wet the site stays, which is why a contractor should look at the ground rather than quote from a photo.

Slope is set at this stage, not on pour day. The finished surface should fall away from the house and garage toward the street, a lawn or a drain, never toward a foundation or a neighbour's lot, and water shouldn't pond at the garage door, where it freezes into a ridge. A driveway that slopes down to a basement garage needs a drain designed to carry that water away.

A driveway is thicker than a walkway because it carries vehicles, and it may need more depth where a heavy truck, a trailer or a fuel delivery will stop. The contractor or designer sets thickness for the loads and the soil, not by habit, and pays special attention to the edges, the weakest part of any slab, sometimes by thickening them.

Reinforcement doesn't stop concrete from cracking; it holds cracks tight and helps the slab bridge small soft spots. Steel bars or welded wire mesh only work when they sit within the slab on supports rather than pressed into the base, and fibre-reinforced mixes are another option. Ask for the planned thickness, reinforcement, joint layout and a mix specified for freeze-thaw and salt in writing, so every bidder is quoting the same driveway.

Sealing limits how much water and salt soak into the surface, the process behind scaling. Penetrating sealers soak in and barely change the look, which suits broom and exposed-aggregate finishes. Film-forming sealers leave a coating that deepens colour and gives the wet look often chosen for stamped concrete, but they wear in traffic lanes, can turn slippery when wet and may peel if moisture is trapped beneath.

New concrete has to cure before any sealer goes on, so follow the product label and the contractor's advice on timing. After that, reseal when water stops beading and darkens the surface unevenly, on a dry, mild day with the slab clean. A sealer makes care easier, but it can't make up for a poor mix, a weak base or bad drainage.

Hairline cracks and cracks inside control joints are mostly cosmetic, and sealing them with a flexible filler keeps water and salt from getting under the slab and widening them. Shallow scaling can be resurfaced once the loose layer is removed, and a section that has sunk as a unit, often near the garage or the street, can sometimes be lifted by injection.

Replacement makes sense when cracks split the driveway into loose pieces, when sections have heaved or dropped enough to catch a shovel or a tire, when deep scaling covers most of the surface, or when water runs toward the house and the slope can't be corrected. Sometimes only the worst panels are cut out at existing joints and repoured, though new concrete rarely matches the old. Deal with tree roots, a failing base or a downspout emptying onto the slab first, or the new driveway will crack the same way.

Replacing a driveway in the same footprint rarely raises questions, but changing its size or position often does. Municipal bylaws commonly regulate driveway width, how much of the front yard can be paved, distances from lot lines and city trees, and where runoff may go. Any change at the curb involves the city: in Montreal, for instance, a borough permit is needed before a curb cut is created, removed or modified, and the city does the sidewalk work at the owner's expense. Check your municipality's rules before signing, and make sure the contractor's plan follows them.