Driveway Replacement and New Driveways in Los Angeles and Across Southern California

A driveway is the first thing a visitor sees and the only part of your property a two-ton vehicle drives over every day. We replace failed driveways and build new ones in poured concrete, stamped and exposed-aggregate finishes, and interlocking pavers — including the apron, the curb cut and the city sidewalk where the job reaches into the public right of way.

Green Design and Build is a licensed general contractor (CSLB #1110975) that designs, permits and builds driveways for homeowners across Los Angeles County and the San Fernando Valley, Orange County, Ventura County, western Riverside County and western San Bernardino County. Because the apron, the curb cut and the sidewalk belong to the city, a driveway replacement is often two permits and two inspectors, and design-build means the demolition, the base, the reinforcement, the pour and the paperwork are all ours. For the rest of the hardscape, start at outdoor living.

What we build

Standard broom-finish concrete, stamped and exposed-aggregate finishes, and interlocking pavers. We also handle the removal and disposal of the old slab, any root pruning or root barrier the trees need, and the grading so water leaves the property instead of pooling at the garage door.

Permits, and why the apron is a separate job

Most of a driveway replacement needs no building permit: the slab on your side of the sidewalk normally needs nothing from the building department.

The apron is different. The strip between the sidewalk and the curb is public right-of-way, and in the City of Los Angeles a new, widened or replaced approach needs an A-Permit from the Bureau of Engineering, with a pre-inspection by the Bureau of Contract Administration before any concrete goes down. It is poured concrete built to the City’s standard plan, thickness and slope rather than ours, so we price it as its own line on the proposal. Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Long Beach and every Orange County city issue their own encroachment permit for the same work.

Widening the driveway or moving it along the curb is a permit question before it is a construction question, and on some streets the answer is no, so before we quote we confirm it with the City’s Bureau of Engineering or with the public works desk in whichever city you are in. In the Orange County master-planned communities the front hardscape also goes to the HOA architectural committee before the city permit, and we prepare that submittal, drainage plan included. If the apron is cracked, lifted or narrower than the new driveway, the time to replace it is on the same job, under its own permit and inspection.

How we build a concrete driveway

The order of work is what decides whether the new slab lasts, and it starts before any concrete is ordered. Finished elevations are set first so the driveway will shed water to a place that can take it. The old slab is broken up and hauled to a recycler, the subgrade is compacted, and crushed aggregate base goes down in lifts, each one compacted with a plate compactor before the next. Any conduit or sleeve that will ever need to cross the driveway goes in now, because cutting a finished slab for a sleeve later costs more than the sleeve. On the expansive clay across the San Fernando Valley the base gets deeper and the subgrade is wetted before the pour, because a thicker slab on swelling clay still heaves; the full sequence is on our concrete page.

The pour is four inches of reinforced concrete for cars, SUVs and pickups, or 5 to 6 inches with #3 rebar on chairs at mid-depth when an RV, a boat trailer or a work truck will use it; the thicker pour is a small upcharge next to a second replacement. The rebar sits on chairs because reinforcement only works in the middle of the slab, and the wire mesh we find lying on the dirt under most failed driveways is doing nothing. Forms are checked for fall before the truck arrives, and in summer we pour at first light with a retarder in the mix, because a surface that flash-sets on a 100-degree afternoon looks fine for a month and then dusts and crazes.

Control joints are cut the same day or the next morning, a quarter of the slab depth, spaced in feet at two to three times the thickness in inches, so a 4-inch driveway gets a joint every 8 to 12 feet and the shrinkage crack lands in the joint instead of across the middle. Curing compound goes on and nobody walks on it for 24 hours.

Where the water goes

Every driveway we pour falls away from the house, normally toward the street, at about a quarter inch per foot. We set the finished grade at the garage slab first and work down to the curb, so rain leaves the garage door and the foundation instead of collecting against them. A slab poured dead flat, or sloped toward the house, holds water at its edge, softens the base and starts the heaving cycle, which is why grade is the first thing we set on the job and not the last.

Where the garage sits below the street, as it can in the hills, or an older driveway has settled toward the house, a channel drain across the garage apron carries the water to the curb or to a dry well. On a paver driveway the joints take some of the rain, but the base and the fall still carry the rest, so the slope is built into the base rather than the bedding sand. Our paver driveway and side yard in Anaheim shows what that looks like on a lot whose side yard started as packed dirt with no drainage: excavation, an aggregate base compacted in lifts, an inch of bedding sand, gray concrete pavers in a mixed-size pattern and drains set flush at the low points.

Concrete or pavers: how we decide

We install both, so we have no reason to steer you either way. A broom-finish slab is the cheapest durable driveway surface there is and reads as one clean plane; on a flat lot with nothing under the driveway, concrete is the better value and we will say so. Pavers cost more and buy repairability. When a parkway tree root lifts a section or the sewer lateral under the driveway needs a repair, we lift the units along the trench, fix the base and relay the same stones without a visible patch, and we leave you spares from the same production run because concrete color varies between batches. A paver field also flexes with the clay and fill soils under much of the Valley and the Inland Empire, where a slab can only move by cracking. Stamped concrete buys the look of pavers and keeps the failure mode of concrete, so read stamped concrete cost before choosing it for a driveway in full sun, where the resealing schedule is part of the decision. For the numbers on each, see what a concrete driveway costs and our driveway replacement cost guide; the base depth and unit thickness a driveway needs are on our paver installation page.

How much does a driveway replacement cost in Los Angeles?

A 600 sq ft two-car driveway in Los Angeles typically costs $6,300 to $13,800 to replace in broom-finish concrete and $10,500 to $18,000 or more in pavers, all in: $1,500 to $3,000 to break out and haul away the old slab, plus $8 to $18 per square foot for new concrete or $15 to $25 or more for pavers. The approach apron at the street is a separate job under its own permit. These are typical Los Angeles budgeting estimates, not a quote; our driveway replacement cost guide works through 400, 600 and 900 sq ft driveways and the finish add-ons.

How long it takes, and when you can park

A concrete replacement is 3 to 7 days on site from tear-out to the end of the pour, depending on square footage, access and how much old slab has to come out: a day or two of demolition, a day for base, forms and reinforcement, and a morning to pour. Site work is measured in days; the approach permit and, in Orange County, the HOA review set the real calendar, and we handle both.

Then the concrete cures. You can walk on a broom finish after 24 hours and on a stamped finish a day later, park a car after 7 days, and keep RVs, boats and loaded trucks off until the slab reaches its design strength at 28 days, which is also when a decorative finish gets sealed. Pavers skip most of that wait: once the joint sand is compacted the driveway takes a car the next day, which matters when the driveway is your only parking. If the days you cannot park would land on a week you need the garage, tell us and we schedule the pour around it.

Where we build

In Los Angeles County and the San Fernando Valley, most driveways we replace sit on expansive clay, so base rock depth and a moistened subgrade matter more than slab thickness. In the hills — Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Silver Lake — the garage often sits below the street, which makes the job a drainage problem first and a concrete problem second. In Orange County, a driveway visible from the street usually goes through HOA architectural review before the city permit, and we prepare that package. In Ventura County, from Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley to Camarillo, wider lots mean longer runs and more control joints. In western Riverside County — Corona, Riverside and Murrieta — and in Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Upland, summer heat is the constraint: we pour early and cure wet, because a slab placed at 100 degrees cracks. Every city writes its own driveway approach permit, and we pull it. Full list on our service areas page.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a permit to replace a driveway in Los Angeles?

For the part on your own property, generally no. For the driveway approach — the apron across the parkway, the curb cut and the sidewalk — yes. In the City of Los Angeles that is an A-Permit issued by the Bureau of Engineering, built to City Standard Plan S-440-4. Driveways on designated Avenues and Boulevards also need an approved LADOT Driveway Approach Data Sheet before the permit is issued, and the municipal code restricts where an approach can go — not within a curb return at an intersection, and not within five feet of a street lighting standard. Other cities in our service area run their own version of the same process. We pull it.

Can you pour new concrete over the old driveway?

We do not recommend it and usually will not. An overlay bonded to a cracked slab cracks again along the same lines, and it raises the surface, which throws off the garage threshold and the drainage toward the street. Removal and a proper base cost more up front and are the reason the new slab lasts.

How much does it cost to replace a driveway in Los Angeles?

Demolition and haul-away of the old slab typically runs $1,500 to $3,000, then new concrete is $8 to $18 per square foot or pavers $15 to $25 or more, so a 600 sq ft two-car driveway lands at roughly $6,300 to $13,800 in concrete and $10,500 to $18,000 or more in pavers. These are typical Los Angeles budgeting estimates, not a quote.

Sources

• City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering, Driveway Construction, Modification or Replacement (A-Permit, Standard Plan S-440-4, LADOT Driveway Approach Data Sheet).
• Los Angeles Municipal Code Sec. 62.105.1, Locations of Driveway Approaches.

Start with a site visit

The right driveway depends on the soil, the slope and where the water goes — and on whether the apron, the curb cut and the sidewalk need their own permit from the city. The site visit is free, takes about two hours, and you will have a written proposal within 48 hours with the permits, the materials and the labor listed separately.