Cost of repaving driveway?

[Supersport]

I am wondering if anyone here have repaved their driveway with cement.

This is ripping out the current one, and laying down the metal and then repouring concrete.

Our driveway parks 2 cars and is about 1.5 car widths wide. I got a quote for 4000 dollars including widening our sidewalk and pouring cement in the backyard as well to create bigger patio which will be 7ft X 10ft long.

I got a couple of quotes and 4000 is the cheapest, but is that a good deal? 4000 to replace a mega cracked driveway seems kind of steep still.

[dinosaur]

Is it possible to lay on top of the old one? Its always cheaper that way.

Price is also dependent on thickness and composite used.

[sleepywheel]

I had my driveway done last summer. It's about 27' x 27' x 6" thick and it cost me $9500 before taxes. They took away all the old concrete and some of the soil underneath because the house builder had left a lot of the garbage and built the driveway over top. They then laid down sand and gravel, compacted the whole area down and then laid down wire mesh before the pour.

Get three estimates and have it in writing what preparations they are going to do before pouring, and what kind of cement they are using. There is a difference in grades.

If you get it done, keep in mind what kind of finish you want. I had them do a smooth finish but I found it gets slippery especially this time of the year where algae has started growing in areas that we don't drive or walk on. Have to brush the areas down with a broom a couple of times a week and wash the stuff away.

Don't forget to seal it after a month. My neighbour didn't and the salt dripping off the cars during the winter cause the concrete to spall. I used a sealant from National Concrete that reacted with something in the cement and prevents salt and water from soaking in but still allows the concrete to breathe. Hope this helps.

[Supersport]

Thanks for the info. I hired the cheapest guy. He is going to remove the old driveway, lay down metal mesh and repour cement for us.

Did you seal the concrete yourself?

[sleepywheel]

Yeah, I sealed it myself. Don't use the stuff from Behr that Home Depot sells. It seals the concrete but also makes it shiny and slippery when wet. The rep from Behr emailed me and said I could put in a additive that keeps it from being slippery but would need to be recoated every two or three years.

The stuff from National Concrete just soaks in and the concrete looks like normal concrete except slightly darker. Really easy to do, just make sure the surface is clean and use a paint roller to spread it around. Not cheap stuff though, I think it was $170 for a five gallon bucket.

Before the guy pours the cement for the driveway, I think you should ask him to make sure the ground is solid. Otherwise you'll get hollows when everything settles and the driveway won't have any support. My old driveway was like that, I could hear echoes when I dragged my floor jack across it.

[melloman]

Lets not forget here, your doing CONCRETE.

This day and age, even the city goes with asphalt over concrete because of the shear cost. $4000 is probably a bit LOW for the amount your getting.

[snails]

this might be a stretch for you, there is this rubber/resin mix i have layed in the past when i worked for a company, eccentially you coat the top of the driveway with 3-5" of rubber, it looks great and it was pretty cheap from my understanding, the driveway was 2 car wide, 4-5 long and it was only a couple "give or take" grand we charged, myself and 2 others did it in a 9 hour day


heres a link as an example of what it is, this isnt the company i worked for, just a google search to show you

Latest Projects | BC Eco Paving

[Gridlock]

Originally Posted by sleepywheel

Before the guy pours the cement for the driveway, I think you should ask him to make sure the ground is solid. Otherwise you'll get hollows when everything settles and the driveway won't have any support. My old driveway was like that, I could hear echoes when I dragged my floor jack across it.

I'm going to say, that if you need to ask to make sure that the ground is solid before you pour 1000's of dollars worth of concrete on it-I would probably spend a bit more on the company you are using.

There are differences in the type of aggregate that is used(some used broken up concrete-cheap, others use a proper mix of gravel and sand) how much compression, and how much of the old substrate is removed to add new.

The other thing is, paving companies can be notorious on extra charges for dealing with the substrate. I wasn't too impressed when the company that did our parking lot was like, "yeah, we had to remove a dumptruck of the old base and use extra new gravel to compensate" I like to be informed of the changes to pricing as they happen. Makes me feel like I had a say in the matter. In the grand scheme, it wasn't that much extra, but I'm always cautious especially where I'm spending other people's money. Puts it on me that I need to tell them that the bill that we thought was 18k, was 19.5 you know?