Concrete Driveways in Eden Prairie, MN

Concrete driveways are usually the largest slab an Eden Prairie homeowner owns, and plenty of them are original to the house. An American Community Survey summary on Point2Homes puts the median Eden Prairie home at 1988, and HomeGuide's driveway cost guide lists a typical driveway life of 30 to 40 years. A drive poured with a 1970s or 1980s house has carried cars through every freeze, thaw, salting and plowing since. Once cracking, settling and scaling show up across much of the slab, replacing it is often the sensible move.

When a driveway is telling you

• Cracks that have opened wide, branched out or broken the slab into chunks
• Sections that have dropped or tilted, leaving a lip to trip on or a spot where water sits
• An apron that now sits lower than the garage floor
• Flaking or pitting, heaviest in the wheel tracks where salty slush lands
• Edges breaking down where the lawn meets the concrete
• Rain draining toward the garage door or the house

How we build one to last

Removal and digging. The old slab is broken up and trucked away, and the ground is excavated deep enough for the new base. Anything soft or organic comes out.

Gravel base. Crushed gravel goes in and is compacted in layers. It carries the slab evenly and gives water a way out, instead of letting it sit under the concrete and freeze.

Thickness. HomeGuide's guidance is 4 inches minimum for ordinary cars, 5 to 6 inches where an RV or heavier vehicles will park, and 6 to 8 inches at the edges. Driveways tend to fail at the edges first, so we pour them thick.

Steel. Rebar or wire mesh keeps the pieces on either side of a crack locked together so they stay level. Your quote names which one you are getting.

Mix. All of our driveway concrete is air-entrained. Those microscopic air pockets are what let the surface survive repeated freezing.

Joints. Joints are sawn or tooled at a spacing set by the slab's width and thickness, so shrinkage cracks run where we planned them.

Texture and pitch. A broom texture gives tires and boots grip on Eden Prairie's sloped drives, and the surface is graded to drain toward the street or lawn, never toward the garage.

Eden Prairie's driveway rules

Per the city's Planning Division, installing or replacing a driveway needs no permit unless a new curb cut is part of the job. In R1 residential districts the drive must be cement, asphalt or permeable pavers (crushed rock is not allowed), sit at least 3 feet off a side lot line, and measure no more than 30 feet wide at the curb. Thinking about a wider drive or an extra parking pad? We check the layout against those limits before we draw it. The city also notes that the public right-of-way usually reaches 10 to 12 feet back from the curb, which covers the stretch of driveway between the street and the walk or trail.

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Finish choices

Most replacements are plain gray concrete with a broom texture. Other options are a stamped or tinted border, an exposed aggregate surface, or a decorative band at the street. HomeGuide also prices heated driveways, with tubing or cable cast into the slab to melt snow, at about $13 to $28 or more per square foot. That has to be designed before the pour.

The first year and after

Keep foot traffic off for the days we give you, and vehicles off longer. HomeGuide's driveway guide says to let new concrete cure 28 to 30 days before the first coat of sealer and to reseal every 2 to 3 years. Through the first winter, use sand for traction instead of de-icer. In later winters, use plain rock salt lightly, and keep fertilizer-type products made with ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate off the driveway entirely. Hose off salty buildup in late winter, keep downspout extensions aimed away from the edges, and seal cracks before water gets underneath.