Installed cost for a new concrete driveway — or a full replacement with tear-out — with the material split out.
Concrete Driveway Cost Calculator
Inputs
5 in is the residential standard. Use 6 in where trucks park.
Results
Estimated installed cost
$2,880 – $5,760
area × $6–$12/ft² installed
Calculated with BuildCalculators.com
A driveway estimate is a slab estimate with three things turned up: thickness, base and edge cases. The calculator prices the finished job per square foot — the way contractors quote it — and shows the ready-mix material separately, so you can see how much of the bill is concrete and how much is everything around it.
Replacement mode adds the line new-driveway quotes conveniently omit: tearing out and disposing of the old slab before anything new happens.
area × $6–$12 per ft²+ area × $2–$6 per ft² tear-outyd³ = ft² × (thickness ÷ 12) ÷ 27, × 1.1 wasteA patio carries feet; a driveway carries a two-ton vehicle making the same turn every day. The extra inch over a 4 inch slab raises the driveway’s load capacity by roughly half again, for about a dollar per square foot of concrete. It is the cheapest durability money in the whole job. Where pickups, RVs or delivery trucks stand, go to 6.
Excavation, 4 inches of compacted gravel base, forms, reinforcement, the concrete, placing, a broom finish and control joints. The bottom of the range is a simple rectangle with easy truck access; the top is slopes, curves, pump trucks and city labour rates. Decorative finishes sit above this range entirely — see the slab cost calculator for stamped and exposed aggregate.
Breaking, loading and dumping a 5 inch reinforced slab runs $2–$6 per square foot — on a 480 ft² driveway, potentially more than a fifth of the whole project. Quotes that bury it make comparison impossible; quotes that omit it produce the classic mid-job surprise.
Concrete cracks where its support moves. Four inches of compacted gravel over well-drained subgrade is what keeps a driveway flat through winters; the concrete only bridges what the base carries. A low quote that skips or thins the base is not the same product at a better price.
New construction at 5 inches on a prepared base.
$2,880–$5,760 installed
Material is roughly a quarter to a third of the total — labour, base and forming carry the rest. That split is normal, not padding.
The same build, twice the width.
$4,800–$9,600 installed
Per square foot this usually lands lower than the single — mobilisation spreads over more area. Big drives get the bottom of the range more easily.
Tear out the cracked original, pour new.
$3,840–$8,640 all-in
If the old drive failed young, find out why before pouring — a bad subgrade cracks the replacement on the same schedule.
5 in broom finish on a compacted base; new construction.
| Driveway | Area | Installed range |
|---|---|---|
| Short single, 20 × 10 ft | 200 ft² | $1,200–$2,400 |
| Single car, 40 × 12 ft | 480 ft² | $2,880–$5,760 |
| Double car, 40 × 20 ft | 800 ft² | $4,800–$9,600 |
| Long double, 60 × 20 ft | 1,200 ft² | $7,200–$14,400 |
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Straight, flat rectangle | Bottom of range |
| Slopes, curves, steps | Upper half |
| Pump truck needed | +$800–$1,500 flat |
| 6 in thickness | + roughly $1/ft² |
| Tear-out of old drive | +$2–$6/ft² |
| Decorative finish | Leaves this range — see slab cost |
Concrete driveways are quoted per square foot because every line of the job scales with area. The useful move is making quotes comparable: same thickness, same base, tear-out separated, reinforcement named.
Five numbers make two quotes comparable: thickness in inches, base depth and material, reinforcement (mesh or bar), the per-square-foot rate, and the tear-out line if replacing. A quote missing thickness or base is not low — it is incomplete.
Thickness and base. Dropping 5 inches to 4 saves roughly $500 on a single-car drive and shortens its life by years; skipping base compaction is invisible on day one and cracks by year three. Save instead on finish (broom is the durable default) and timing — shoulder-season pours quote cheaper than peak summer.
Control joints at 10–12 ft spacing tell the inevitable shrinkage cracks where to happen — in the joint, invisibly. A driveway poured without a joint plan cracks anyway, wherever it likes. Ask to see the joint layout; a crew that has one is a crew that does this properly.
Seven days before cars, and ideally a curing compound or wet cure in hot weather. Concrete that dries too fast finishes weak at the surface — the powdery, flaking driveways you have seen are usually a curing failure, not a material one.
A $6/ft² quote at 4 inches with no mesh against an $8/ft² quote at 5 inches with bar is not a $2 difference — it is two different driveways. Fix the spec first, then compare the money.
The flare where the driveway meets the road, and any sidewalk crossing, are part of the area — and sometimes part of a municipal permit. Measure to the street, not to the property line, and ask who owns the apron rules.
A thin topping over old concrete bonds poorly and mirrors every existing crack. Unlike asphalt, concrete has no honest overlay at driveway thickness — replacement means removal.
The first week sets the driveway’s whole life. Cars at day three leave edge cracks that show up at year five. Park on the street; it is the cheapest quality control in the project.
Water standing against or under a driveway is the base-killer. The pour should leave a 1–2% fall away from the garage, and downspouts should discharge clear of the slab. Drainage decisions cost little during the build and a replacement after it.
Typically $6–$12 per square foot installed for a 5 inch driveway on a proper base — $2,880–$5,760 for a 40 × 12 single-car drive. Replacement adds $2–$6 per square foot for tear-out and disposal.
5 inches is the residential standard, over 4 inches of compacted gravel base. Go to 6 inches where pickups, RVs or delivery trucks will stand. A 4 inch driveway saves one inch of concrete and usually cracks years earlier.
Asphalt installs cheaper — $4–$7 per square foot against $6–$12 — but needs sealing every 3–5 years and typically an overlay by year 15–20, while concrete runs 30–40 years. Over 20 years the totals converge; our asphalt vs concrete guide does the arithmetic in the open.
Seven days is the standard guidance for cars. Concrete reaches roughly 70% of its strength in that first week; parking on it sooner risks edge cracking that no repair fully undoes.
Installed cost by finish, material shown separately
Slabs, footings and columns in cubic yards and bags
Grid bar counts, length and weight by size
New, overlay or replace — with base priced separately
Tons and cubic yards for gravel, stone, base and sand
Embed the Concrete Driveway Cost Calculator anywhere — it is free, stays in sync with this page, and sizes itself to fit. The only condition is the credit line in the snippet, which links your readers to the full version with the formulas and worked examples.
This calculator uses published constants from named industry sources, each asserted in an automated test that runs on every build. The formula is printed with the result above, and any correction we make is logged on the changelog.
It is a planning estimate. It does not replace an engineer, a site visit or a written quote — confirm quantities with your supplier before ordering.