Concrete Driveways in Fort Wayne, IN

Concrete driveways in Fort Wayne take more abuse than any other slab on the property. Cars carry salt brine up from the street, shovels and plow blades scrape the surface, and on flat lots snowmelt tends to sit on the slab or along its edges instead of running off. The damage usually shows up first at the apron by the street, at the joint with the garage floor, and anywhere water has worked its way under the concrete.

Signs it is time for a new driveway

• Flaking or pitting across a large part of the surface
• Cracks wide enough to hold a coin, or cracks with one side higher than the other
• A panel near the garage that has sunk and now holds a puddle
• Water draining toward the house instead of the street
• A broken apron or crumbling edges along the lawn
• A drive too narrow for the cars you own now

A single sunken panel on an otherwise sound driveway can often be lifted, and light surface wear can be resurfaced. When settling, wide cracks and scaling show up together, replacement usually costs less over the next ten years than patching every spring.

How we build it

The base decides how long a driveway lasts. We break out the old concrete or asphalt, dig out soft or organic soil, and replace it with crushed stone compacted in layers so water drains away from the underside. Because Fort Wayne lots are so flat, we set the forms to give the surface a steady fall toward the street or the yard, away from the garage and the foundation.

Thickness follows what you park. HomeGuide's driveway guide calls for at least 4 inches for ordinary cars, 5 to 6 inches for RVs or heavy vehicles, and thickened edges of 6 to 8 inches. If a pickup, trailer or camper lives on the drive, we add depth where it sits.

The mix is air-entrained to resist freeze-thaw, reinforcement goes where the layout calls for it, and control joints are cut on a planned grid so shrinkage cracks follow straight lines instead of wandering.

The apron and the City's rules

Inside Fort Wayne, the approach between the sidewalk and the street sits in the public right-of-way. The City requires an access permit to construct, remodel, alter or relocate a driveway approach, with a $50 residential fee, and a Right-of-Way Inspector checks the forms, grade and specifications before the pour. The City's driveway permit application form shows the approach as 6-inch plain concrete, and its Permits and Bonds page allows one residential driveway per lot along a street frontage, with connected horseshoe drives possible on corner lots or lots with 100 feet or more of frontage.

The City's 50/50 Cost-Share program also covers residential drive approaches inside city limits, with the City's contractor doing that work. Our quote separates your private driveway from the approach, so you can decide whether to petition the City or have us pull the permit and pour it with the rest of the job.

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Finish options

• Broom finish: the standard for driveways, with a texture that grips in rain and slush.
• 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 while the driving lanes stay plain and easy to shovel.
• Smooth trowel: clean looking but slick when wet or icy, so we keep it off sloped and exposed drives.

Caring for a new driveway

Keep cars off for at least 7 days and heavy trucks off for about 30. Use sand, not rock salt, through the first winter, and avoid de-icers made with ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate in later years because they attack the cement paste. HomeGuide recommends waiting 28 to 30 days before the first sealer coat and resealing every 2 to 3 years. Turn downspouts away from the slab and ask whoever plows to use a rubber-edged blade.