Concrete Driveways in Mesquite, TX

Most concrete driveways we look at in Mesquite are the ones poured with the house. Point2Homes' summary of census estimates puts roughly two-thirds of the city's homes in the 1950 to 1989 range, and HomeGuide gives a typical driveway 30 to 40 years of life. Plenty of those slabs have reached the stage where patching cannot keep up. A new concrete driveway takes care of the cracks, trip edges and low spots in one job, and it is the first thing anyone sees when they pull up.

When a driveway is due for replacement

• Cracks crossing several panels, especially any wider than a pencil
• Panels sunk at the garage, the sidewalk or the curb, leaving a lip to trip on
• Puddles that sit on the slab or drain back toward the garage door
• A top worn down to the stones, or edges that flake and crumble
• Weeds and grass rooted in the joints
• Tree roots heaving sections near the street

One or two bad panels can often be cut out and replaced by themselves. When most of the slab shows these problems, a full tear-out is the better value.

Building a driveway on clay

The Dallas County Master Gardeners describe the soil here as expansive black clay that swells when wet and shrinks and cracks when dry. A driveway rides on that clay every day of the year, so we build from the bottom up:

• Break-out and haul-off. The old slab is broken up and hauled away, buried chunks included.
• Subgrade and stone. The ground is cut to depth, then crushed stone is spread and compacted into a firm, even bed.
• Forms and pitch. Forms are set so rain runs off toward the street or the yard, never toward the garage.
• Rebar. Bars sit on chairs and are tied where they cross, so if the slab cracks the pieces stay locked at the same height.
• Depth. HomeGuide treats 4 inches as the residential minimum and suggests 5 to 6 inches where RVs or heavy trucks park, with edges thickened to 6 to 8 inches. We add depth along the edges and at the approach, where the load is heaviest.
• Joints. Control joints are tooled or saw-cut at a spacing matched to the slab width, so cracking follows straight, planned lines.

Pouring in Texas heat

The Fort Worth office of the National Weather Service puts the area's average first 100-degree day around July 1. Summer driveway pours start at first light. The stone base is wetted down first so it cannot soak water out of the fresh concrete, the surface gets a broom texture for traction, and the slab is kept wet or covered for its first days. A top that dries too fast can crack and dust, and that damage is hard to undo.

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Options

A plain broom finish is the most common and the most affordable. You can add a smooth troweled border, a stamped or colored band along the edges, or an exposed aggregate surface. Many Mesquite owners use a replacement to widen the driveway, add a side pad for a boat or trailer, or add a walk to the front door. Ask about these at the estimate so they can be poured in one trip.

Looking after a new driveway

Park elsewhere until we give the all-clear, usually about a week. Seal the surface once it has cured and again every few years. Aim sprinklers away from the edges, and clean up oil before it soaks in. If a crack opens, fill it so water cannot reach the base.