Widening Driveway Choices

I need to widen the driveway of the house I live in. The existing driveway of the house built in the early 70’s is too narrow to comfortably fit the two vehicles that I want to park there (Tundra pick-up and Dodge Challenger).

The existing concrete driveway is not in too bad of shape. Some cracks but no movement.

I’ve gotten quotes for just adding a 7’ wide concrete strip on one side. ~$2500-3000.

A whole new concrete driveway that is 7’ wider for ~$6500-7000.

A whole new 2-color stamped concrete that is 7’ wider for ~$9000.

While I normally go with the most expensive option that would look better, in this case I’m really tempted to just add the strip for the minimal $2500. The upcharge for the whole new driveway is a lot and the money could go toward other things I need to do to the house.

The ONLY reason I could see to do the expensive stamped concrete upgrade, aside from it looking better, would be if it added more in value to the house than I’m paying. Any ideas of whether it would really be worth it to fork out the extra $$ (3x) for the stamped whole new driveway?

If you will have two cars parked all the time why worry about the look?

The only comments/considerations I have on this subject (because I did a whole concrete side from sidewalk along the whole side of the house to the backyard recently) would be:

  1. Is there any need to put in drainage from the house that would carry water safely away from the house/foundation all the way to the curb that would involve that driveway or extended area of driveway? If so, then I might want to include that or address it while you are doing this job. If you have rain gutters that don’t have downspouts and say water literally dumps right there by the house into the soil like my house did before I came along you could encounter foundation issues later

  2. My guys used rebar with gravel underlayment on the whole stretch of concrete, so it seems quite sturdy and hopefully will last way beyond my time there. I wonder if rebar were used by then in the 70s on your existing driveway or not? If the plan is to park heavy trucks on there, is it best to have rebar installed underneath or not really a necessity?

  3. I might post a picture or two of the current situation so that we could maybe visually see what is going on there.

Good luck!!!

1 Like

Is this pavers you are talking about? If so, go for Pavers option as they look nice. I did mine 10 years before changing 2 car driveway to 25x25 feet concrete Pavers. It was $5400 during year 2006 for entire 25x25, it may high now.

Thanks all. No drainage issues that I’m aware of. I HAD been parking my truck on the driveway the past three years with no issue. The existing cracks were already there. But my GF moved in with me 4 months ago and I’ve been parking in the street since then as her car is a lot nicer than mine. But I want to get off the street too hence the widening…

I’ll post pics tonight. Existing is 16’x28’. Not a long run. The only real reason I’d want it looking nicer is if it helped resale value more than what I put in to it. Probably planning on selling when I retire/move in 4-6 years.

Not pavers. Stamped is a prettier version of concrete. They can put a pattern in it to look like pavers. They can also do some basic colors. Looks really nice and less upkeep than pavers. Usually less expensive. My neighbor just had is whole driveway redone (widened) and walkways in stamped. It looks good. But more $$ than regular concrete.

1 Like

In 6 years your driveway will be stained and cracked. Not worth the $9k you would spend

1 Like