Concrete Driveways in Lakewood, CO

Concrete driveways in Lakewood get about 58 inches of snow dumped on them in a normal year, plus shovels, snowblowers and the brine that cars pick up from salt-sand on city priority routes. A large share of the city's homes went up from the 1950s through the 1980s, so many driveways are original or close to it. The wear shows in predictable places: flaking right in front of the garage door, cracks that widen after each winter, and panels tipped toward the house.

When a driveway is due

Watch for these:

• Surface scaling across big areas, worst where cars drip meltwater
• Cracks wider than roughly a quarter inch, or one side sitting higher than the other
• Sections that have dropped or lifted, leaving a lip or a puddle
• Water that drains toward the garage or foundation
• Crumbling at the public walk or curb
• Not enough width for the vehicles or trailer you own now

A single problem can often be repaired. Three or four at once usually mean a new driveway will cost less over the next couple of decades than patch after patch.

The base comes first

The old concrete or asphalt is broken up and hauled off, soft or organic soil is removed, and compacted gravel is built up in lifts. On clay, the goal is to keep the subgrade from soaking up water. The Colorado Geological Survey says clay can swell by as much as 20 percent of its volume when wet, and heaved driveways are on its list of common signs. That is why the new slab is pitched toward the street, downspouts are moved off it, and we do not pour over subgrade that has been left to dry out and crack.

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How thick, and with what inside

HomeGuide's driveway guide calls for a minimum of 4 inches for ordinary cars, 5 to 6 inches where RVs or other heavy vehicles park, and 6 to 8 inches at the edges. Thickness is picked from what will actually sit on the slab. Rebar or welded wire set mid-depth keeps cracked pieces from drifting apart. The concrete itself is air-entrained, meaning it carries millions of tiny bubbles that give freezing water somewhere to go. Leave that out and a Lakewood winter or two will start peeling the top off.

Joints and surface

Every slab shrinks as it hardens and expands and contracts with the seasons, so it is going to crack. Control joints, tooled in or saw-cut at the right spacing, decide where. A broom texture gives grip on icy mornings. If you want the driveway to tie into a new walk or patio, a colored, stamped or exposed-aggregate border is an option.

Where the driveway meets the city

Most driveways in Lakewood cross a public walk and end at a curb. The city puts concrete in the public way under a different contractor class than private work. When a replacement or widening reaches the walk, apron or curb, we check the city's requirements for your address and walk you through them before booking the pour.