Concrete Driveways

Pros and Cons of a Concrete Driveway

Westmount Concrete 2003 LTD – production of concrete driveway at a bargain price!

We will manufacture quality driveways. Turning to us, you can use the service that you offer cheaper than our competitors.

Our company has been operating since 2003 and our experience allows us to make the highest quality concrete driveway for you!

Concrete Driveway is a reliable roadway that is highly durable. The use of concrete for the construction of roads is popular because it is a durable material. Permanent concrete driveway resurfacing is not required.

Concrete roads are being constructed in many places. These are not only entrances to private houses, but also car parks, roads for moving vehicles, race tracks, runways for aircraft and playgrounds. Concrete Driveway can be found almost everywhere.

Asphalt vs concrete driveway – asphalt is less often chosen to cover roads. It is impossible to give beauty. Concrete coating can be decorated using various technologies, for example, it can be stamped concrete, resembling stone, brick, etc. Due to the ability to give concrete a beautiful appearance that will appeal to, concreting technology continues to attract increased attention and is in great demand.

This technology allows you to give originality to the site surrounding a specific property, give an opportunity to show your creative approach to arranging the area around the house and add more attractiveness to it.

Our company is professionally engaged in the laying of concrete pavements. Our masters will be able to build a road that will not only be of high quality and durable, and outwardly beautiful, capable of causing envy and admiration among your neighbors. Even if you already have a road, we will help you redo it with the least cash outlay for your budget.

Concrete driveway specs – for cars

The automobile road is one of the constructions that is not easy in its design features. During its construction, a certain set of requirements should be met. For such roads, more durable concrete is chosen. It must be remembered that the thickness of the concrete coating should be greater compared to the driveways to the houses. It is required to use reinforcement using a rod made of metal, the diameter of which will be at least 8 mm.

The fittings should not be fastened together by welding. If you apply welding, you will not be able to give the road flexibility. In the future, this will lead to the destruction of the road, because automobile wheels pass only along a certain part of the road.

Where the wheels are in contact with the roadway, the road experiences enormous loads. To soften the pressure, the coating must be flexible, for which reinforcement is used.

For light vehicles, driveways are made of a monolithic coating, the thickness of which reaches 15 cm. If the road will be used to move heavier cars, then the concrete coating should be at least 20 cm in thickness. The best solution is concrete grade M300. You can select stamped concrete driveway.

Pedestrian concrete driveway is laid out of concrete with a thickness of 10 cm. The solution itself can be chosen cheaper, for example, the M200 brand. The strength of this brand is enough to support the weight of a person. Some masters recommend mixing the mortar in the proportions of cement / sand / gravel as 1/2/3. However, this proportion has significant drawbacks:

Manual mixing of the solution is impossible, since it will not be homogeneous, and the composition of the solution will vary from one batch to the next.

• A lot of time and more effort will be spent, if we take into account delivery, measuring and mixing.
• Concrete Driveways will come out different in appearance in color and texture on the surface.
• The prepared solution by hand cannot be made uniform and smooth.

A standard mortar made of concrete M200 will be sufficient to create beautiful paths, playgrounds and walking areas for many years. You can apply forms to fill. Then it will turn out to issue a surface with patterns.

Concrete driveway – Comparison with Other Materials

Do you want access to your home to be attractive? It is worth thinking about paving a beautiful road. You can choose:

• Driveways – the most popular option, which can be seen next to many houses of our time. Such roads fit perfectly into landscape design, because it can be made in such a way that it will imitate other coatings, but it will significantly surpass it in quality characteristics. They do not require constant repair.
• Concrete driveway vs asphalt driveway. Roads made of asphalt – This is a very inexpensive material, but it has many disadvantages. One of the minuses is the need for periodic repairs. In addition, at high temperatures, asphalt tends to deform. Its service life is much shorter than that of concrete roads.
• Roads made of masonry or cobblestone – These are very expensive roads for the price. Brick can serve for many years, but over time, the brick coating changes its appearance and loses smooth lines.

Concrete driveway – how to make it

To build a concrete road, it is necessary to perform several types of work. It all starts with soil preparation. Land work is being carried out with a mandatory study of the condition and characteristics of the site where the road will be laid. Fertile soil should be removed approximately 20 cm if road construction is planned for a private home. Soil removal is considered one of the most critical stages of work, since the degree of rigidity and integrity of the pavement during the operation of the pavement, will depend on the quality of the work performed. At the same stage, if necessary, a drainage system is constructed to drain water: ground and rain.

How is pouring concrete over existing concrete driveway done next? Then crushed stone and sand are poured onto compacted soil. They serve as load balancers and water drainage. The thickness of the layers of the backfill depends on the type of relief and the properties of the bases and varies around 20-40 cm. On foundations with a high level of groundwater, it is rational to make the crushed stone mound thicker – it does not wash out and drains the water well. Sand must be laid under concrete layers – it forms a dense pillow.

Both sandy and crushed stone layers are necessarily compacted with a roller to achieve high durability of the “cushion.” The layer of crushed stone and sand is sometimes closed with a thin concrete screed up to 5 cm thick, and a waterproofing sheet is laid on top.

Concrete is weak to bending loads, so the use of reinforcement is never superfluous – the choice of its type again depends on the characteristics of the base. In some cases, reinforcement may not be used at all. The diameter of the reinforcement for a concrete sheet is only taken constructively according to calculations. Usually, these are 8-10 mm rods. Reinforcing products are laid in a concrete layer at a height of at least 4 cm from the bottom plane. It is important that the grid is in the lower part of the plate, since it is in it that the breaking load is concentrated and cracks form.

The easiest way to make formwork is to use thick boards with a cross section of 50 × 150 mm (the choice of height depends on the design layer of the concrete base and coating). Thick plywood is also suitable. Boards and plywood are fixed with reinforcing pegs stuck in the ground from the outside of the canvas. When laying paths for pedestrians and parking for cars, formwork can be replaced by a curbstone installed at the stage of preparation for pouring.

Laying the top cover occurs in 2 stages: first, fill the substrate 30-40 mm, lay the reinforcing mesh on it and fill in the remaining thickness. The total thickness of the layer is about 12 cm, sometimes more or less. Concrete is poured onto the preparation without interruption and immediately level the surface. Material is constantly being brought in, work goes on without interruptions.

After laying, the concrete must be compacted by vibropressing. The procedure expels air bubbles and condenses the structure of the finished coating.

Seams are needed to compensate for thermal expansion, to which concrete stone is thrown to varying degrees. With seasonal changes in the volume of slabs in the road surface, cracks do not form. Sawing is carried out with a special tool – a joint.

Temperature joints are made at a distance determined by the calculations. One of the formulas for determination is the coating thickness × 30. To prevent water from entering the plate through the seams, they are filled with bitumen-polymer sealants.

To prevent the destruction of the canvas, it is protected by polymer impregnations, which form a waterproof film on the surface. True, these reduce the roughness of the road and its adhesion to the wheels. If the soil preparation and installation technology has been followed and the seams are cut correctly, nothing threatens the integrity of the plates for a long time.

When cracks appear, measures must be taken to eliminate them. Special fillings are used to repair minor violations, and concrete mortar is used to repair deeper damage. In all cases, the crack is cleaned and moistened before introducing the aggregate.

If a fault occurs, you will have to remove the entire section of the canvas. The reason for such deformations is insufficient compaction of the soil base or embankment.

Benefits of concrete driveway finishes

Concreting has its advantages. It surpasses asphalting in many respects. The advantages of such roads:

• Strong enough and do not need repair. Concrete pavement has been in service for over forty years and does not need frequent repairs. However, asphalt can last a maximum of ten years, and every year it needs to be repaired.
• They are characterized by high strength, because concrete is one of the most durable materials. Concrete strength for driveway is very high.
• Concrete easily tolerates temperature changes; it does not deform in hot or very cold weather. Rains, even very frequent and heavy, are not able to harm the concrete surface.
• Environmentally friendly. Concrete, in comparison with asphalt, does not harm the environment, since with increasing ambient temperature it does not emit harmful substances.
• Variety of concrete driveway designs. You can experiment with your design choices to blend in with the overall landscape.

Concrete pavement costs $5 or more per square foot. Several factors influence the concrete driveway cost:

• The area of ​​the road surface. To understand how much money you have to spend on the construction of the road, you should calculate the area that the road will occupy.
• Thickness. As we have said, concrete roads can be of different thicknesses. The thickness parameter is affected by the conditions under which the road will be used. If cars are heavy in weight, then the thickness of the road surface should be greater than in cases where lighter cars begin to move along the road.
• Design features. Plain gray concrete is the cheapest option. But if there is a desire to give it a decorative effect, for example, to color or imitate other materials, then for the application of technologies that will achieve this goal, you will have to pay extra.
• Features of the land. The soil on which the concrete road will be laid may have irregularities. They will need to be eliminated. You may need to build a special drainage. Additional work contributes to the increase in the cost of laying concrete pavement.
• The cost is influenced by concrete driveway resurfacing options.

Concrete driveway is an excellent solution if you consider all the features of concrete and the possibilities of decorating it. The appearance of such objects, as well as the construction features, may be different. A nice aggregate concrete driveway can be made. But in order for the pavement to turn out to be of the highest quality, it is necessary that the construction work is performed by professional craftsmen. Concrete paving specialists will be able to make the road what the client wants to see.

In addition, with the participation of experienced craftsmen, it can be guaranteed that the road will last a long time, it will be able to withstand constant loads, and will not lose its external attractiveness. Our company employs professionals. They will be able to build a concrete road that will delight you with their beauty and durability for a long time. Optionally, they will build for you a printed concrete driveway that will surprise you with its characteristics.

How much will it cost to pour a concrete driveway?

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Westmount Concrete 2003 LTD serves the regions: Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, New Westminster, Burnaby, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Vancouver, North Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Delta, Burnaby. Abbotsford, Langley!

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