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.

The apron, the curb and the city sidewalk

The part of your driveway between the sidewalk and the street is not yours. The approach, the curb cut and the sidewalk sit in the public right-of-way, and replacing them is a separate permit from anything on your property.

In the City of Los Angeles, that work is permitted by the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering, under what the City calls an A-Permit, which covers repair, construction or reconstruction of curbs, sidewalks, driveway approaches and gutters. The approach is built to the City’s standard plans and the Greenbook specification, its width is governed by the municipal code, and the City inspects it. This is separate from the Department of Building and Safety, which is why a driveway replacement in Los Angeles can involve two agencies even though the slab itself needs no building permit. Other cities have their own public works permit and standard drawings; we confirm before we quote.

Practically: if your apron is cracked, lifted or too narrow for the new driveway, replace it at the same time, with its own permit and inspection. The approach is poured to the City’s thickness and slope, not ours, and priced separately from the flatwork on your side of the line. And widening a driveway or moving it along the curb is a permit question before it is a construction question; on some streets the answer is no.

Thickness for heavy vehicles

Four inches of reinforced concrete over a compacted aggregate base is the standard residential driveway and handles cars, SUVs and pickups. If it will carry an RV, a boat trailer or a work truck, we pour 5 to 6 inches with #3 rebar on chairs at mid-depth. The upcharge is small next to a second replacement.

Two contractor notes. Wire mesh lying on the dirt, which is what we find in most failed driveways we open up, does nothing; reinforcement only works mid-slab. And a thicker slab does not fix a bad base. On the expansive clay across the San Fernando Valley we go deeper on base rock and moisten the subgrade before the pour, because a 6-inch slab on swelling clay still heaves.

Drainage toward the street

A driveway should fall toward the street at roughly a quarter inch per foot so rain leaves the garage door and the foundation. Where the garage sits below street level in the hills, or an older driveway has settled toward the house, a trench drain across the garage apron runs to the curb or a dry well. We set the finished grade at the garage slab first and work down to the street.

If the new driveway is pavers, the joints let some water through, but the base and slope still carry the rest. The paver driveway and side yard project in Anaheim shows the sequence on a lot that started as bare dirt: excavation, base, pavers with flush drains at the low points.

Concrete or pavers for the replacement

Concrete is cheaper and reads as one plane. Pavers cost more, can be lifted and reset if a root or a utility line needs attention, and shrug off an oil drip because one stained stone can be swapped. Our rule of thumb: a mature parkway tree with roots under the driveway, or a sewer lateral that has already had a repair, points to pavers. A flat lot with nothing beneath points to concrete, and we will say so. If you want the look of stone at a concrete price, read stamped concrete cost first; on a driveway in full sun the resealing schedule is part of the decision.

Timeline and when you can park

A replacement is 3 to 7 days on site: a day or two of demolition, a day of base, forms and reinforcement checked for fall, and a morning to pour, with joints cut the same day or the next. Then you wait: stay off it for 24 hours, keep cars off for 7 days, and keep RVs, boats and loaded trucks off until the 28-day cure. A paver driveway can take cars the day after the joints are sanded and compacted, a real advantage when the driveway is your only parking.

On a narrow street in Silver Lake or a permit-parking block in Long Beach, the days you cannot park are a genuine cost of the project, and we schedule the pour so the 7-day window does not land on a week you need the garage.

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.

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 labour listed separately.