Concrete driveway building in Fargo ND - a drive that drains away from your house

Most driveway calls start with an old slab that's cracked through, sunk by the garage or holding water after a rain. The price moves with the size of the drive, whether the old one comes out, how thick it needs to be for what you park on it and how much work the ground under it needs. The schedule turns on dry weather for the pour and on curing, the wait while new concrete gains strength before you use it, so I walk the job with you and put your scope in writing before anything gets booked. If the front walk is in the same shape, a new sidewalk can be planned at the same visit.

Before we pour, the slope, the thickness and the joint plan are on paper, so you know what you're paying for. Our crew digs out the old drive and the soft soil under it, then packs the subgrade, the ground the slab sits on, because a base that's only raked level settles with the dirt and takes the slab down with it. We set the forms with the fall built in, so water runs away from your garage and house, and that's the time to ask about slope, before any concrete shows up. We pour early in the day when we can, since a slab that bakes in midday heat can end up with a weak, dusty top. We give it a broom finish, a light texture that gives tires and boots some grip, and cut control joints, shallow grooves that give the slab a planned place to crack, on time and where the plan put them. While it cures, you already know where you're parking, because we work that out with you ahead of time so the first week isn't a scramble.

Plenty of driveway jobs grow a little. If you want pattern and color, stamped concrete can cover the whole drive or just a border, and a concrete patio out back can be planned at the same visit. If the budget has to give somewhere, I'd trim the finish before the base every time, because the base is hidden on day one and it's what keeps the drive flat.

In Fargo, the city sets part of the shape of the job before we dig. Residential drives have to be no less than 9 feet and no more than 30 feet wide where they meet the sidewalk, so a drive you're widening may have to narrow back down at that line. Under the city's standard specification, the contractor asks the city's engineer to set line and grade, where the drive runs and at what height, before building or rebuilding a driveway, and we make that call. We also check with the city what your job needs, and when a permit's required, we handle the application and set up the inspections with you.

Some lots here sit on a deep clay soil that holds water and drains slowly, so we don't trust what's under the old drive until we've dug it out and looked. We build the base and check the water's path the same way on jobs in West Fargo and Moorhead.