Abilene, Texas · Taylor County
A new driveway is the one slab at your house that takes a two-ton load every day, and in Abilene it does that on ground that can shrink in August and swell after a wet May. Abilene Concrete Builders installs new concrete driveways and replaces worn-out ones across the city, from short drives on older lots to long runs out to a shop on a few acres.
Since December 2006, Abilene's Municipal Code has required cars, trucks, trailers, RVs, boats and motorcycles to be parked on an improved surface unless they're fully screened from view, and the City's Code Compliance division enforces parking on unimproved residential yards. For houses and duplexes, the City lists pavement, concrete and brick as improved surfaces. Gravel counts too, but only granular limestone, sandy gravel or asphalt millings, compacted to at least 3 inches, kept clean of topsoil, and contained with edging or set flush with the yard.
Gravel is cheaper on day one. It also ruts, migrates into the lawn and needs topping up, and that 3-inch, contained standard is easy to fall short of. Concrete costs more up front and then mostly asks for a sealer coat and a little joint care.
On expansive clay, a thicker slab poured on a dry, loose base still cracks. We strip the topsoil, condition the subgrade to the right moisture, compact it, and add a compacted base. On shallow limestone or caliche, grading may take a breaker, but the slab gets a firm footing.
HomeGuide's national guide puts standard car driveways at 4 inches minimum, 5 to 6 inches for RVs and heavy vehicles, and 6 to 8 inches at thickened edges. We set rebar on chairs so it stays in the middle of the slab, and we thicken the edges and the turn-in where trucks and trailers swing.
Control joints go in at a spacing that matches the slab, so the shrinkage crack lands in the joint and not across the middle. The drive slopes away from the garage and toward the street or yard, not toward the house.
When a driveway has heaved, broken through or settled toward the house, patching it is like putting a new tire on a bent rim. We saw-cut a clean line, break out and haul off the old concrete, fix the base and pour new. If only a section has sunk, look at concrete leveling first, and if the problem is cracks and spalling, our concrete repair page may save you a full tear-out.
Driveways that meet the street need an Approach Permit from the City before construction, and that part is covered on our driveway approach page.
National cost guides put concrete driveways at $6 to $15 per square foot, a typical two-car driveway at $2,400 to $8,600, and removal of old concrete at $2 to $6 per square foot, according to HomeGuide. Your estimate lists tear-out, base, steel, concrete, finish and any permit on separate lines.
Tell us roughly how long and wide the driveway is, what you park on it, and whether there's an old slab to remove. Call (325) 728-4111 anytime, or use the quote form and choose "Concrete Driveway."
Prefer to talk? Call (325) 728-4111 anytime.
See every service we offer at Abilene Concrete Builders.
