Concrete Driveway Building in Orinda CA - a slab that sheds water away from the house

Most folks who call about a driveway have an old one that's cracked, sunk or holding water, or a gravel drive they're tired of raking. The price comes down to the size, how thick the slab has to be for what you park on it, whether we reinforce it, and whether the old driveway has to be broken up and hauled off first. The schedule mostly turns on the city permit for the street end and the curing time once it's poured, because nobody drives on a fresh slab until it's ready. When I walk the job with you, the estimate puts all of that in writing so you can see what moves your number.

We start by breaking out the old driveway or stripping the topsoil, then dig out the soft spots and pack the subgrade, the dirt the slab sits on, so it won't settle later and take the concrete down with it. Before a single form goes in, I check where the water runs, because a slab that falls toward the house is a problem you've paid to build. If you want rebar, the steel bars laid inside the slab for strength, it goes in next, and then we pour in the cooler part of the day where we can, since midday heat can leave a weak, dusty top that wears early. The surface gets a broom finish, a light texture that gives tires and shoes some grip, and we cut control joints, grooves placed on purpose, early so the slab cracks along our lines instead of wherever it pleases. Then we keep the new slab covered and damp while it cures, the slow set that makes concrete hard. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather trim the finish than the base, because nobody sees the base on day one but it decides whether your driveway stays flat. Back on the farm we'd say you don't fix a leaky trough by painting it.

A driveway job is a good time to think about the rest of your flatwork, the flat concrete around the house. If you've been wanting a spot to sit out back, our concrete patio construction uses the same base and drainage work, and doing it while we're set up saves a second round of digging. For a front entry with more character than plain gray, stamped concrete services can add a pattern along the edges or across the entry.

Where your driveway meets the road, the city's Public Works department issues the encroachment permit for building or replacing a driveway in or next to the right-of-way, the strip along the road the city controls. On that stretch the city sets a minimum concrete depth and base, and it wants the driveway sloped so a thin sheet of rainwater doesn't run out onto the road, with the drainage protected and nothing washing away. That shapes the street end more than any other part of the plan, so we pull the permit as your contractor, handle the paperwork and inspection calls for our part, and build that section to the city's standard before we worry about the rest.

Water is the other thing Orinda watches. Projects that create or replace 2,500 square feet or more of hard surface like pavement need at least one way to handle the runoff, such as sending it onto planted areas, into rain barrels or through permeable paving. A long driveway plus a new patio can add up quickly, so I measure the whole job on the first visit. We're based in Orinda and work on both sides of the hills, and we plan the runoff just as carefully on driveways in Moraga and Lafayette.