Concrete Driveway Building in Kearney NE - a slab that drains right and stays flat

Most people call us when the old drive has cracked into pieces, sunk by the garage or started holding water, and they want the next one done once. The price moves with the size, whether an old slab has to be broken out and hauled off, how much digging and base rock the ground needs, the thickness and steel, and the finish, from plain broom to stamped concrete. The schedule turns mostly on the weather and how much tear-out there is, and you get your own figure in writing once I've come out and measured.

A driveway carries weight every day for a long time, so most of our work goes in before any concrete shows up. We break out the old slab and haul it off, dig down to firm subgrade, which is the ground the whole driveway sits on, and bring in base rock that we pack in layers instead of raking it level. We set the forms so the slab falls away from the house and toward the street, then lay rebar, the steel bars that hold the slab together if it does crack. We pour early in the day when we can, because a slab that bakes at midday tends to end up with a weak, dusty top. We give it a broom finish, a light brushed texture so tires and boots get some grip, and we cut control joints, shallow grooves that tell the concrete where to crack, the same day so it doesn't pick its own spots. Then it cures, which is the wait while the concrete gains strength before it takes a load. When the budget's tight, people want to trim the base first because nobody sees it on day one, and I'd rather keep the base and go plainer on top, because a fancy surface on bad ground just cracks in a nicer pattern.

The same base work goes under a concrete patio out back, and if you want more than plain gray up front, stamped concrete can go on a border, a walk or the whole drive. Doing them in one job can save you a second round of tear-out and cleanup.

The City of Kearney requires a right-of-way permit for any construction or digging in the public right-of-way, and on a driveway that usually means the apron where it meets the street. City of Kearney Utilities helps with that application. Whether the rest of your job needs more than that is something we check with the local building office before we start, and we take care of the paperwork when it falls to us or walk you through it when it falls to you. The city's standard specification for driveways calls for air-entrained concrete, which has tiny air bubbles mixed in that give freezing water room to go, and for curing exposed surfaces for at least 3 days after the pour. Whether that specification governs a private driveway on a private lot isn't spelled out, so ask about it at the estimate and we'll tell you what we're pouring.

Around Kearney we break out a lot of older drives that were poured on raked dirt and have settled toward the garage, and we pave long gravel lanes on acreages where the stretch by the house finally needs to be concrete. We see the same calls on jobs in Lexington and Holdrege.