Concrete Driveway Installation

Driveways are our favorite!

Driveways

Driveways are by far our most requested service. Concrete driveways seem simple enough. They should provide an adequate pathway from the road to your garage. They must also take care to slope water to your nearby drainage area, and ensure it is strong enough to withstand the occasional delivery vehicle visit.  Building Residential Standards require driveways to be a minimum of 4 inches thick, and have enough traction to walk upon without slipping. 

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Some driveways have borders, stamped patterns and an occasional custom shape. Most 800 sq ft driveways will take about a week to tear out and replace. Once poured, you will need to wait another 7 days for the driveway to cure enough to hold the weight of your vehicle without cracking. 

What goes into your prep work?

We our excavator to break your concrete up. Some slabs can be up to 1 foot thick. We use our break attachment to break that up before hauling it off.  During demo day, it will be loud and we load up for the dump. Demolition and haul off should only 1-2 days and all construction noise should be wrapped up by 5pm. We lay our wood forms which frame where the concrete will be poured. They will be removed after the concrete is set. Usually 24-48 hours after pouring. 

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We put in a minimum of 2 inches of gravel base. All slabs must be flexible to withstand earth movement. Most of our slabs will have a 2-4 inch thick gravel base, depending on the grading. We use #3 rebar and space them 24” each way. Rebar keeps your driveway from crumbling. While some people will be happy using wire mesh, we recommend using rebar as it holds your slab a little better.

We use concrete chairs to hold them up in place so that they are approximately 2 inches deep into the concrete and do not float to the bottom. Rebars hold the slab together so your driveway does not crumble when cracks form.