Driveway + Walkway Replacement

The original driveway had done what unreinforced slabs on poor bases do: cracked where it wanted to, settled toward the garage, and started ponding water against the apron. Mudjacking had been tried once before we arrived; the slab settled again because the problem was never the slab. It was the base under it.

The owners wanted it done once. That meant demo, a real base, reinforcement, and a joint layout that decides where the concrete cracks instead of letting the concrete decide.

Demo first: the old slab broken, hauled, and the subgrade evaluated. The soft pockets that caused the settlement were dug out and rebuilt with compacted crushed rock in lifts, plate-compacted, and checked for grade so water runs away from the garage instead of into it.

Forms set the finished elevations and the drainage plan at the same time. Reinforcement went in on chairs so it lives in the middle of the slab, not on the dirt doing nothing. The pour was finished with a broom texture for wet-weather traction, edged clean, and jointed on a layout cut to depth so future cracking follows the lines we chose.

Then the part most people skip: cure. Concrete does not reach its strength on the day it looks done. We keep vehicles off flatwork for a full week and put that in writing at handoff, along with the reseal interval.

Grade was tight. The driveway had to fall away from the garage, meet the city sidewalk at its existing elevation, and still keep the walkway ADA-friendly at the entry transition. Forms were shot and re-checked twice before anyone saw a concrete truck.

Weather again: flatwork wants a dry pour day and a mild cure window. We held the pour date until the forecast cooperated rather than gambling a permanent surface on a passing shower.

Water now leaves the driveway the way the forms said it would. The joint layout has controlled cracking exactly as designed - hairlines in the cuts, nothing in the field. The broom finish grips in the rain and the sealed surface sheds the winter.

What we would tell any owner comparing flatwork bids: ask what happens below the slab. Thickness and PSI are on every quote. Compaction, reinforcement placement, joint depth, and cure discipline are the difference between the driveway that cracks in year two and the one that outlives the mortgage.