Driveways
Concrete driveways in Henderson, Kentucky
New driveways, tear-out and replacement, widening and street aprons. Four inches of air-entrained concrete on a real base, poured by crews that work Henderson County and know what the clay does under a slab.
The job
What a new concrete driveway in Henderson includes
A driveway is the biggest slab most houses ever get and the one that takes the most abuse: a two-ton vehicle turning on it twice a day, the sun on it all afternoon, and water running off it into the street. The version that lasts thirty years here is not complicated, but every part of it has to be there.
- Tear-out and haul-off of the old slab, quoted by the square foot so it can be compared.
- Subgrade cut to drain away from the garage and the house, which on a flat Henderson lot means building a slope that the old driveway probably never had.
- Compacted gravel base, four to six inches, over the clay. This is the line that separates a driveway that heaves from one that does not.
- Wire mesh on chairs or rebar for the heavy-duty version, sitting in the middle of the slab where it does something.
- Four inches of air-entrained mix, broom finished so tires grip it wet, with an expansion joint at the garage floor and at the sidewalk.
- Control joints cut on a grid that matches the slab, so it cracks where the saw told it to.
Henderson ranges
- Per square foot, installed
- $8 - $12 per sq ft
- 20 by 20, new pour
- $3,600 - $5,200
- 20 by 20, old one out
- $4,800 - $7,000
- Two-car, 40 feet long, with apron
- $7,500 - $12,000
- Apron only
- $900 - $2,200
Installed, Henderson County, before the site visit. The list of what moves these is on the page about what concrete costs in Henderson.
Replace or repair
When a Henderson driveway needs replacing, and when it does not
The site visit answers this before anyone talks about money. A driveway with a few hairline cracks and no movement is a candidate for sealing and a couple of repairs. A driveway that has scaled across the surface, heaved at the apron, or dropped a section next to the garage is past the point where patching pays, because the problem is under the slab, not in it.
Usually replaced
- A section sitting an inch higher or lower than its neighbor
- Scaling or flaking across more than a few square feet
- Cracks wider than a quarter inch, or cracks that have moved
- A slab under three inches thick, which the old builder-grade drives often are
- Water pooling against the garage after rain
Usually repaired
- Hairline cracks with no height difference across them
- One settled corner on an otherwise sound slab
- A stained or dull surface that just needs cleaning and sealing
- A broken apron on a driveway that is fine everywhere else
The repair side, including resurfacing and what it will and will not fix, is on the concrete repair and replacement page.
Henderson specifics
Three things about driveways here that a national brochure leaves out
The clay decides the base
Most lots east of Green Street and out Zion Road sit on clay that swells in a wet April and shrinks in August. A driveway poured on it with two inches of gravel moves with it. Four to six inches of compacted base is the standard here for a reason.
The apron is where it fails first
Where the driveway meets the city sidewalk and the curb, water gets underneath and freezes twenty times a winter. On the site visit the crew looks at the old apron before anything else, because it says what the subgrade has been doing.
Pour season has a hard end
April through November. Driveways get scheduled from the spring thaw to the last stretch of 40-degree nights, and the weather sets the day, not the calendar. A November quote is a spring pour with a firm number.
Asked and answered
Driveway questions from Henderson callers
How thick should a driveway be for a pickup?
Four inches of air-entrained concrete on a compacted base handles cars and half-ton pickups. If a boat trailer, a camper or a loaded dually lives on it, five inches with rebar instead of mesh is the right call, and the quote will say so as its own line. Thickness is the one thing you cannot add later.
What happens to the old driveway?
It gets broken up, loaded and hauled to a crusher, and the haul-off is a line on the quote ($2 - $4 per sq ft on most Henderson jobs). Nothing gets buried under the new base. Old concrete left in the subgrade is the start of a settled section two winters later.
How long until I can park on a new driveway in Henderson?
Walk on it in 24 to 48 hours, park a car on it after 7 days, and keep the heavy stuff off until 28 days. In July that clock runs on schedule. In late October, with cold nights, the crew may ask for a couple of extra days before the first car.
Can the driveway be widened or extended instead of replaced?
Yes, and it is a common job on the older East End ranches built with a single-car drive. A new strip gets poured alongside or in front of the existing slab with an expansion joint between them. The new pour will not match the color of the old for a year or so; that is normal, and it evens out.
Does the apron at the street count as part of the driveway?
It is poured with the driveway, but inside the city the apron sits in the right-of-way and the City of Henderson has a say in its slope and where it meets the sidewalk. The crew handles that. The apron is also the section most likely to have heaved on the old driveway, so it gets its own look on the site visit.
Free estimate
Get a written driveway quote
Say roughly how long and wide it is, whether the old one comes out, and where in the county the house is. A crew that pours in Henderson looks at it and writes it up.
Rather talk it through? Call (270) 714-3029. If nobody picks up, leave the address and the job and you get a call back.
- Measured on site before the number is final
- Tear-out, base, finish and haul-off itemized
- Pour dates set by the weather, in writing
Answers
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