The Best Concrete Contractors Near Me

Benefits of Professional High Quality Concrete Driveway Installation

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At Denver Decks, we believe in doing the highest quality of workmanship and building things that will last because they are done correctly and to code. Concrete does not require a permit, so you don't have any County or building department accountability when it comes to how driveways are getting poured.

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What is the best thickness for a concrete driveway?

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For the best results, a concrete driveway should be four inches thick. Non-reinforced pavement four inches thick is standard for everyday passenger cars. However, if you will be driving heavier vehicles, it is recommended to make the driveway five inches thick. Proper drainage can be achieved if the driveway is pitched towards the street at a minimum of one percent, or 1/8 inch per foot. This will ensure that standing water is eliminated.

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We start by tearing out the existing driveway and then we are going to mechanically tamp the existing soil and then we are going to bring in road-base as necessary, and both mechanically tamp and plate compact the area. The biggest difference for how we pour and install concrete driveways, is that we always put in rebar reinforcement. A #3 rebar reinforcement is the size of a Sharpie, maybe the size of my thumb, and we are going to install that at a 24 inch grid. This is a more costly process then the traditional process without rebar that's installed by many concrete companies, or even the wire mesh. The wire mesh comes in large sheets maybe 24 by 20 and generally it's just laid in and it doesn't take very long to install it. But we would compare a wire mesh to a wire coat hanger. As anybody would know, if you take a wire coat hanger and bend it a couple times, it’s going to snap.

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What is the highest quality concrete?

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Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is an incredibly strong, durable and flexible cementitious concrete material. It has a minimum specified compressive strength of 17,000 pounds per square inch (120 MPa), and often includes fibers to enhance performance and meet specified requirements. UHPC is designed to provide superior durability, tensile ductility, and toughness.

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When you use #3 rebar, it has to be cut with a mechanism and it has to be bent with a mechanism. So it’s mechanically cut and bent, so it does require a lot more effort to install it but most importantly with that the #3 rebar, when the concrete cracks, and we know it’s going to crack, we put in control joints to tell it where to crack. You can compare it to a graham cracker, it doesn’t always crack where it’s supposed to, so that's where the #3 rebar comes into play, so when that concrete does crack, that rebar is going to keep it from pulling apart and keep it from being able to shelf. That's why we always do this, this is not upon request, we do this in all of our concrete pours.

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What is the highest quality concrete?

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Your concrete driveway is a long-term investment and with proper care, can last for 25 to 30 years. Installation methods and environmental conditions such as temperature will affect its longevity. Therefore, it's important to be attentive to wear and tear each season to ensure maximum durability. Investing in regular maintenance will ensure your driveway stays strong and sturdy for years to come.

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Now the other thing is, that we always pour a 4000 psi concrete mix as opposed to the more popular industry-standard of 2500 PSI. We also use a quarried aggregate as opposed to river rock aggregate. When you have a concrete driveway and you see that it is starting to pit, or starting to flake or starting to spald in certain areas, what homeowners often say is they feel that they put in the wrong ice melt on it and it actually caused the concrete to disintegrate. But that’s actually not the case. The reason you will see your concrete driveway starting to spald or to flake, or pit, typically has to do with the fact that the concrete was poured on a warm day and then the concrete is starting to set up so what the installer will do will grab their bucket with their sponge and grabs some water and they will just disburse it on it so they can get that proper finish. The problem with this is that what they are doing is diluting that top layer of concrete. So if they are pouring it at 3500 PSI, once they put in that water, they decreased the actual PSI of that top surface so that it’s not able to molecularly bond properly so when the temperature starts to drop or we are dealing with different moisture conditions, that top layer starts to pop off.

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The remedy to this issue is that if the concrete is starting to set up and you’re pouring on a hot day, we actually use a chemical stabilizer. So this is installed in a powder form, it’s a very offensive color so that way we know that we’ve properly got it installed and it’s actually going to prevent the concrete from curing on a molecular level so we can get that proper finish. So that’s why we can say with confidence that our concrete driveways hold up the best for the long term. Now obviously you are going to pay more for a quality driveway but in the long run, our driveway is going to look better, longer and if you don’t have all of these components involved, then within a few years, your driveway can start to crack and depending on your soil condition, it may start to shelf and pull apart. So you will be replacing a driveway more often if you don’t include all of these additional steps.

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