Concrete Driveways in Madison, WI

Concrete driveways take more abuse than any other slab around a Madison home. Every winter they carry cars dripping brine, get scraped by shovels and plow blades, and catch meltwater that refreezes overnight. With about 52 inches of snow in an average year at Dane County Regional Airport, according to Wikipedia's climate table for the city, that cycle repeats dozens of times. Most driveway failures show up in the same three places: the apron by the street where slush collects, the joint where the drive meets the garage floor, and anywhere water gets under the slab.

Signs a driveway needs replacing

• Flaking or pitting over a large part of the surface
• Cracks wide enough to fit a coin, or cracks where one side sits higher than the other
• A panel at the garage door that has dropped and holds water
• Runoff that heads toward the house instead of the street
• A broken apron or crumbling edges along the lawn
• A width that no longer fits the cars you own

One sunken panel on an otherwise sound driveway can often be lifted, and light surface damage can be resurfaced. HomeGuide's driveway guide says replacement usually makes more sense once there is extensive cracking, real settling or a drainage problem, or when the driveway is nearing 30 to 40 years old.

What goes under the concrete

The base decides how long a driveway lasts. We remove the old concrete or asphalt, dig out soft or organic soil, and bring in crushed stone compacted in layers. That gives the slab firm support and a path for water to drain away instead of freezing under it. Forms are set so the finished surface falls toward the street, away from the garage and foundation.

Thickness follows what parks on it. HomeGuide calls for at least 4 inches for standard vehicles, 5 to 6 inches for RVs or heavy traffic, and edges of 6 to 8 inches. If a pickup with a plow, a trailer or a camper sits on your driveway, we thicken that area. Air-entrained concrete is the main protection against freeze-thaw, rebar or wire mesh keeps cracked sections from drifting apart, and joints on a planned grid give shrinkage cracks a straight path.

The apron and the city

Many Madison driveways cross a terrace and a public sidewalk before reaching the curb. The city's driveway standards classify a residential approach with four or fewer stalls and a raised curb as Class I. The City Engineer issues that permit, the entrance can be no wider than 20 feet, the curb cut no wider than 30 feet, and the flare no more than 5 feet. The entrance must sit at least 5 feet from the property line and 10 feet from an intersection, and resizing or moving it takes written permission. If your street has no raised curb, it falls under Class II, which allows an entrance up to 30 feet.

If the public walk across your driveway is in a year's sidewalk program, the city's brochure notes that driveway restoration is billed at full cost rather than half. We mark on the quote where your private slab ends and the approach begins, so the permit and any sidewalk notice are sorted out before the old driveway comes out.

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Finish options

• Broom finish: the standard on most Madison drives, with a texture that grips in slush and rain.
• Exposed aggregate: the surface paste is washed away to show the stone, which hides tire marks and gives good traction.
• Stamped or colored borders: a decorative band along the edges, leaving the main lanes plain and easy to shovel.
• Smooth trowel: clean looking but slick when wet or icy, so we avoid it on sloped driveways.

The first year

Keep cars off for at least 7 days and heavy trucks off for 30, per HomeGuide. Skip salt the first winter and use sand; the City of Madison gives it away free at several locations. In later years, avoid de-icers made with ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate, which break down cement paste. HomeGuide puts sealing at $1 to $3 a square foot. Point downspouts away from the slab, and ask whoever plows to use a rubber edge or raise the blade slightly.