How to Lay a Concrete Driveway

A concrete driveway can add value to your property and add to the beauty of the landscaping. A properly laid concrete driveway can add appearance and functionality to your home without requiring heavy maintenance, but pouring a driveway can offer challenges that require forethought and planning on your part.

Things You'll Need

• Frame wood
• Support steel
• Fill dirt
• Wooden stakes
• Tape measure
• Concrete
• Hoe
• Bulldozer (if necessary)

Instructions

1. Plan first. Determine the path your driveway and any obstacles you may encounter when you dig out the rough path. This includes checking to make sure there are no utility lines beneath the ground where you will be digging. You can call the utility companies for this information if you aren't sure. If there are any natural obstacles in your way, decide how you will remove them.

2. Prepare the driveway for digging. Consider a width of between eight and twelve feet and mark the pathway your driveway will take with wooden stakes or iron rods. You can add bright orange paint on each stake to make the outline more visible when you begin digging. Tie string between the stakes as guidelines.

3. Dig the form for your driveway. This will require renting heavy equipment such as a backhoe.

4. Use 2x4 wood pieces to form the support rails for your drive. Hammer wooden stakes into the ground to support the wooden forms. Consider using a compactor to compact the soil and dumping a load of gravel on top. Use steel reinforcement (sometimes called chicken wire) on top of the fill for additional support.

5. Bring in the concrete. This is usually done via truck. Use a concrete spreader to level the concrete as it's poured from the concrete chute.

6. Cure the concrete by sealing the length of it in clear plastic and let it dry for two or three days before you test your drive.

Tips & Warnings

• The upfront cost of pouring a driveway, factoring in the cost of the concrete itself and the labor involved in pouring, will run in the thousands, so you want to have your construction plan thought out ahead of time.

References

• Concrete Driveway Secrets (video)