What concrete driveways means in Las Vegas
A residential driveway is a four inch slab over a compacted base, and six inches where anything heavier than a pickup will park on it. Those extra two inches are the difference between a slab that spreads a wheel load and one that cracks under it.
Reinforcement is either welded wire mesh set on chairs at mid-depth or fibre in the mix. Mesh lying on the ground under the pour does nothing at all, and it is the most common thing we find when we break out a failed driveway.
Under most of the Las Vegas valley there is caliche, a cemented limestone hardpan that is hard to break and close to impermeable, so water sitting on it has nowhere to drain. A driveway here is excavated into that layer rather than onto soft ground, which changes the excavation cost and means the drainage has to be designed rather than assumed.
- Thickness
- 5 inches residential, 6 inches where a truck parks
- Mix
- 4,000 psi, air-entrained, fibre or #4 bar at 18 inches on centre
- Ready to use
- cars off for 7 days, no heavy trucks for 28
- Typical cost
- $7-$13 per square foot plain, $13-$22 stamped
- Service life
- 30–40 years
How concrete driveways is poured
The base is the job. Six to eight inches of compacted crushed stone, plate-compacted in lifts rather than dumped and raked, because a slab is only as flat as what it sits on stays.
Forms go in with a fall of about a quarter inch per foot away from the house and away from the garage door. Water that cannot leave a driveway will find the garage or the foundation.
Control joints get cut or tooled at intervals of roughly 24 to 30 times the slab thickness, which on a four inch slab means every eight to ten feet, and every panel kept close to square. A long thin panel cracks across its middle no matter how good the concrete is.
Where the driveway meets the garage slab and the sidewalk it gets an isolation joint, so the two can move independently instead of one dragging a crack through the other.
What concrete driveways costs in Las Vegas, NV
A plain broom-finished driveway is the baseline price. Removal of the old one, base repair, and anything decorative are the three lines that move a quote, and removal is often the biggest of them.
Plain driveways in the valley run $7-$13 per square foot and stamped $13-$22 per square foot. Breaking caliche is a separate consideration and it is why excavation quotes here differ from other markets.
Where concrete driveways goes wrong in Nevada
Concrete cracks. The job is to decide where. A driveway with no control joints will still crack at eight to ten foot intervals, just in a random line across the middle instead of in a straight tooled one.
In a Las Vegas July the air is over 45 degrees at 15 percent humidity, and fresh concrete loses surface water faster than it can bleed. A driveway poured at midday in summer without an evaporation retarder gets plastic shrinkage cracks in the first hours, before it has any strength at all.
Where we do concrete driveways
We cover Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and the wider Clark County valley, including and 34 more areas.
Questions we get asked about concrete driveways
How thick should a driveway be?
Four inches for cars, six where a truck, RV or trailer will sit. Over a soft base, six regardless.
Will it crack?
Somewhere, yes. Control joints decide where, so the cracking happens in a straight line you chose rather than a random one.
How soon can I drive on it?
Foot traffic at 24 to 48 hours, cars at seven days, anything heavy at 28 days when the concrete reaches its design strength.
Get a free estimate
Tell us what you need. We answer the same day, the free estimate is on site, and nobody chases you afterwards.
Get a price for your concrete driveways
Call (702) 966-9498 and we will come out, measure, and leave you a written quote. There is no charge for the visit and no obligation afterwards.