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Replace a concrete driveway, or the damaged sections of it, when the concrete is broken into pieces, crumbling, scaled deep over large areas, or showing rusted steel. If a section has sunk but is still in one piece, lifting it keeps the slab you have and skips the tear-out. Cracks 1/4 inch or narrower with level edges can be filled with a DIY kit and the slab sealed, whatever the driveway's age.
Check these first
Ten minutes with a few simple tools tells you which branch you're on.
- A tape measure or crack width card for the widest crack
- A straightedge or level to lay across each crack and joint
- A hammer to tap for hollow-sounding spots
- A look at where downspouts and runoff go
If any of these fit, find out who to call first: a structural engineer or a repair contractor.
When should you replace a concrete driveway?
When the concrete itself has failed: broken into several pieces, crumbling, flaking deep over large areas, or showing rusted steel. Those are problems in the slab, and no filler, resurfacer or lift fixes them.
Most driveways don’t get there. A crack, even a long one, is a repair; a sunken section is a lift; only a slab that’s breaking up needs to go. The questions below sort it out.
| What you see | Fix | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cracks 1/4 inch or narrower, both edges level | Repair: fill with an outdoor slab kit, then seal | The kit's method covers cracks up to 1/4 inch |
| Light flaking or scattered pits on a solid slab | Resurface or patch, then seal | The NRMCA says light to moderate scaling can be repaired |
| A section sunk or tilted, still in one piece | Lift: mudjacking or polyjacking | Raises the slab you have, once the cause is fixed |
| A crack wider than 1/4 inch, or one edge higher | Find the cause, then seal it like a joint, lift, grind or replace that section | Filler won't level an offset edge |
| Broken into several pieces, crumbling, rusted steel, or hollow over large areas | Replace the damaged sections or the whole driveway | The concrete itself has failed |
NRMCA Concrete in Practice sheets 2 and 20; outdoor slab kit instructions
Spalls, deep scaling and rusted steel are covered in more detail in the spalling and scaling guide. Cracks wider than 1/4 inch have their own large crack guide.
How old is too old for a concrete driveway?
Age alone doesn’t decide it; the condition does. A driveway with a few filled cracks and a sound surface is worth keeping at any age.
There’s also no reliable age figure to go by. InterNACHI’s widely used life expectancy chart has no concrete driveway row (opens in a new tab) at all; it lists concrete walks at 40 to 50 years and asphalt driveways at 15 to 20, and says each figure is only a guideline that varies with use, weather, installation, maintenance and materials.
Many of the problems that end a driveway early start on day one. The NRMCA ties scaling to concrete without enough entrained air, finishing and curing mistakes and salt on new concrete, and InterNACHI ties settling to poorly compacted soil, so those are the things to get right if you replace it.
When is repairing a concrete driveway enough?
When the cracks are 1/4 inch or narrower with level edges and the surface is solid. Fill the cracks, then seal the whole slab so less water and salt get into the surface.
For outdoor cracks in the sun, use a UV-stable slab kit. Its method is a urethane primer, dry sand packed to 1/4 inch below the surface, a urethane soak, then a gray polyurea top scraped flush; the concrete has to be at least 50°F, and it takes light traffic after 30 minutes and full traffic after 60 minutes at 70°F.
The driveway crack repair guide walks through the steps, including grinding cracks 1/8 inch and narrower open to 1/4 by 1/4 inch first.
Once the cracks are filled and cured, seal the slab with a breathable penetrating sealer. PS110 is a siloxane for broom-finished or porous concrete; its data sheet reports a 94.0% cut in chloride absorption in a northern exposure test and no scaling in the ASTM C672 freeze-thaw test.
The data sheets say these sealers won’t fix structurally unsound surfaces and aren’t meant to seal cracks, which is why the cracks get filled first. The driveway sealer guide matches a sealer to your finish.
When does lifting beat replacing a driveway?
When a section has sunk or tilted but is still in one piece. Lifting raises the slab you have by filling the gap under it, so you keep the concrete and skip the tear-out.
The mudjacking vs polyjacking guide compares the two lifting methods and explains why the soil washed out or settled in the first place. That cause has to be fixed, or the lifted slab can sink again.
If the sunken section is against the garage or house and the foundation wall shows horizontal basement wall cracks, bowing walls, wall cracks wider than 1/4 inch, offset edges or stair-step cracks in block walls, have a structural engineer look before any lifting or replacing.
Concrete driveway replacement cost: what drives the price?
The size of the job and what has to happen before new concrete goes in. Prices vary too much by region for a national average to help, so get written quotes and use this list to see why they differ.
- Area. Concrete and labor scale with square footage.
- Thickness. A thicker slab takes more concrete.
- Demolition and haul-off. Breaking out the old slab and trucking it away is its own line item.
- Base preparation. Soft, wet or poorly compacted soil has to be dug out, replaced or compacted.
- Reinforcement. Rebar, mesh or fibers, if the contractor uses them.
- Joints, finish and curing. Saw cutting joints and curing the slab properly take time and material.
- Drainage fixes. Regrading or rerouting downspouts so water doesn’t undermine the new slab.
- Permits and access. Some cities require a permit, and a tight or steep site slows the work.
Replacing only the failed sections between joints is a smaller job than the whole driveway. Ask each contractor whether that’s an option, knowing that new concrete won’t match the color of the old exactly.
Is it cheaper to repair or replace a concrete driveway?
Repair, when the slab qualifies for it. A DIY crack repair costs one kit plus a bag of sand, and sealing costs a pail of sealer.
- Outdoor slab kit, small: $109.95. About 40 to 100 feet of crack opened to 1/4 by 1/4 inch.
- Outdoor slab kit, large: $314.95. About 100 to 250 feet.
- PS110 sealer, 5 gallons: $169.95. At 150 to 200 square feet per gallon on broom-finished concrete, a pail covers about 750 to 1,000 square feet.
Lifting is a contractor price for one or more sections, and replacement is priced by the square foot plus demolition and base work. Neither makes sense to pay for when the slab only needs its cracks filled.
What should a driveway replacement quote include?
The concrete mix, the thickness, the base work, the joint layout and how the slab will be cured. Those decide how long the new driveway lasts, and a quote that lists only square feet and a price leaves them up to the crew.
The NRMCA’s guidance on preventing scaling gives a mix to ask for: concrete with a strength of 4000 psi, about 6% entrained air (opens in a new tab) and a slump of 3 to 5 inches, a broom finish, and curing with a curing compound or wet burlap and plastic.
- Mix: strength, air content and slump, as above, in writing.
- Thickness of the slab, and any thicker edges.
- Base: what will be removed, what goes back and how it’s compacted.
- Joints: spacing and depth. The NRMCA says joints should be spaced at most 24 to 36 times the slab thickness (opens in a new tab), about 10 feet for a 4 inch slab, cut at least 1/4 of the slab’s depth, with panels close to square.
- Finish and curing: a broom finish outside, and the curing method.
- Drainage: slope away from the house and the garage door, and where runoff goes.
- Demolition, haul-off, permit and cleanup.
The Federal Trade Commission says a written home improvement estimate (opens in a new tab) should describe the work, the materials, the completion date and the price, and advises against automatically choosing the lowest bidder. Compare what each quote includes, not just its total.
How do you make a new concrete driveway last?
Keep salt off it the first winter, seal it once it’s 28 days old, and keep water draining away from it. New concrete is the most vulnerable; InterNACHI notes that concrete is most fragile in its first year (opens in a new tab).
- No de-icers the first winter. The NRMCA says to use clean sand for traction instead, and moderate amounts of calcium chloride or rock salt after that. Never use ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate or magnesium-based salts.
- Seal it. A breathable penetrating sealer slows water and salt getting into the surface. The sealer data sheets call for concrete ideally at least 28 days old, applied between 40°F and 95°F with no rain for 12 hours.
- Hose off road salt that cars drop on the slab during winter.
- Keep downspouts and runoff off the slab and out from under its edges.
- Fill cracks as they appear, while they’re still narrow enough for a kit.
The cold weather guide covers how cold is too cold for crack repair, and the concrete cracks guide covers every other slab problem.
Questions
How long does a concrete driveway last?
There's no single number from an independent source. InterNACHI's life expectancy chart has no concrete driveway row; it lists concrete walks at 40 to 50 years (opens in a new tab) and calls every figure a guideline that depends on use, weather, installation, maintenance and materials. The mix, joints and base it was built with matter more than the date it was poured.
Can you pour new concrete over an old driveway?
A thin bonded resurfacer can go over old concrete that's sound with surface damage. The NRMCA says such a repair is only as strong as the surface (opens in a new tab) it's bonded to, so it won't fix a slab that's broken, sunk or still moving. Anything thicker is a contractor's call about height at the garage, drainage and steps.
Should I seal a new concrete driveway?
Yes, once it has cured; the sealer data sheets say ideally at least 28 days old. Use a breathable penetrating sealer; the NRMCA recommends a silane or siloxane sealer (opens in a new tab) applied when the concrete is reasonably dry.
Do you need a permit to replace a driveway?
It depends on where you live. Some cities require one, especially for work at the curb or on a public sidewalk, so check with your city or county building department before work starts, and ask whether your contractor will pull the permit.