Things You'll Need:
- marking paint and or string and stakes.
- tape measure
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Step 1
Figure out what the driveway needs are, do that by figuring what will be parked on it and or driving on it. Most common driveways are 4" thick unless you have a big RV or work trucks in that case the driveway needs to be 6". We will say that for our example we need the standard 4" for everything, we then need to figure out our approach and or how many we have, (the approach is the first 9' to 10' of the driveway and it must be 6" of concrete, i.e turn of off the road onto the driveways approach) we will say we have 1.
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Step 2
If you have a driveway that you just want to replace you would take all them measurements and note them down on a note pad drawing little boxes with the measurements of the driveways as you take them. If not you should set up a string line of the needed shape of the driveway. For our example we will say that we are just making a standard drive one approach running back 50' and we want it to be 15' wide.
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Step 3
Doing the math, the first thing we do is take off the 10' that we want to make our approach from the total measurement of the driveway example, 10'-50' =40', Now take that number and multiply it by the width and thickness of your driveway. 40'x15'x4" =200 cu ft, Now you need to convert that into yards by dividing it by 27 example, 200/27 =7.40 cu yrds.
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Step 4
Figuring out the approach, Remember when turning in onto a drive way you come in on a angle, so the driveway cannot just go straight from the back to the road. What you need to do is start at the rood to come in 3' make a mark, then where the driveway meets the road pull over a foot (or whatever you feel it needs) to the left and right side, so it should look like you have two 1'x 3' triangles at the end of the driveway where it touches the road. Now first lets get the sqft of the triangles with the following math, 1'x3'x6" =1.5 cu ft now lets do the rest of the approach 10'x15'x6" =75 cu ft then add both of the numbers together and divide it by 27 example, 1.5+75 =76.5 cu ft / 76.5/27 =2.83 cu yrds
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Step 5
Add step-3 and step-4 together, 2.83+7.40 =10.23 cu yrds, Now we know that we need 10.23 cu yrds of concrete for our example driveway we also want to add in the sand that will be needed, sand is cheap and a easy way to estimate sand cost is to take the driveway measurements and multiply them like the following example, 40'x15'x3" =150 cu ft 150/27 =5.55 cu yrds (note 3" of sand is needed under all new concrete)
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Step 6
Call your local concrete and sand wholesalers and get the cost for the needed materials, (note trucking cost for sand of you don't get it yourself should rang from $100-200.00) The following numbers are about standard for 2008 and you could use these to give you a idea of the cost, sand is $14.00 per cu yrd and the concrete is $90.00 per cu yrd example math, concrete 10.23x$90.00 =$920.70, sand 5.55x$14.00 =77.70, So total cost without trucking or any of the 2x4s and stakes you would also need to add in if your the DIY and you want to pour the concrete to, cost is $998.40 (note if you want to estimate in 2x4s you could estimate it at $3.00 per 10' of needed 2x4s to form it up and also add in $25.00 for wood stakes)(tip if you're going to pay someone to build the forms, work the pour, and do the finishing work. Standard labor costs will run in the neighborhood of $1 per sq ft.)
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Step 7
Reinforcement, To add longevity to your new driveway project, you'll need to install some reinforcement after the forms are built to prevent cracking and or other damage later when your concrete expands and contracts from weather. Wire mesh, and steel re-bar are all commonly used standard materials that cost is about 10 cents per sq ft.)
