Driveway Replacement--Westbury Area (Houston: house, neighborhood, contractors)

[DrFood]

I am looking for a driveway contractor to replace the cracked and broken driveway at my house in Westbury in SW Houston. I have a specific concept I want to use, but so far all of the contractors I have talked to want to do a quick and dirty slab driveway. I am not interested in a solid slab driveway because of the runoff during storms. Plus solid slab driveways are just flat out ugly in my opinion. Nothing like a light gray runway in front of your house to brighten up the appearance. I am also wanting to have the sidewalk running

If anyone has had experience with a contractor who wants to do what the customer wants done I would like some recommendations.

Thanks.

[houston-nomad]

Would you be willing to share your concept? I'm curious. Do you have a photo of the type of thing you want to do?

[sonic0boom]

Yeah, i'm curious what you are thinking, too. I'm in the process of having my patio replaced and will be putting a concrete stamp on top. Is that what you are talking about? In doing my research to find a company to do the work, there was no shortage of places that do concrete stamping of some sort or pavers, all of which could be done for a driveway.

[DrFood]

Not interested in stamped concrete, in my opinion that is just a waste of money. Looks nice until it needs cleaning.

Not interested in pavers. There are a number of driveways in the area where they tried them and they look like crap. Might have been level and nice in the beginning, but they end up with ruts, low spots, broken pavers, etc. Just not my thing either.

I want the tread type driveways like they used to do in the Heights etc. 4 lanes of concrete w/ground cover between the lanes. This way the ground cover absorbs some of the run off. I like the appearance as opposed to a slab of concrete in front of the house. The contractors I've had out all say that this style is too much work to lay out correctly. One guy came out and said, I can do a slab driveway for ~$10K. I can do the tread type for $18K. He said he needed to bring in extra workers and build in extra $$ in case he didn't get the tread perfectly straight and parallel and needed to rip it out.

Even a slab driveway for $10K is absolutely freaking ridiculous.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by DrFood

Not interested in stamped concrete, in my opinion that is just a waste of money. Looks nice until it needs cleaning.

Not interested in pavers. There are a number of driveways in the area where they tried them and they look like crap. Might have been level and nice in the beginning, but they end up with ruts, low spots, broken pavers, etc. Just not my thing either.

I want the tread type driveways like they used to do in the Heights etc. 4 lanes of concrete w/ground cover between the lanes. This way the ground cover absorbs some of the run off. I like the appearance as opposed to a slab of concrete in front of the house. The contractors I've had out all say that this style is too much work to lay out correctly. One guy came out and said, I can do a slab driveway for ~$10K. I can do the tread type for $18K. He said he needed to bring in extra workers and build in extra $$ in case he didn't get the tread perfectly straight and parallel and needed to rip it out.

Even a slab driveway for $10K is absolutely freaking ridiculous.

That depends on how long the driveway is. It cost us $10k to replace our 110 foot long driveway in 2010.

[travelguy_73]

We are in Meyerland and will likely replace our driveway in the next few years, and do either ribbon strips or the permeable grid. I can second the claim that once you introduce any sort of customization, the price goes way up. We just finished a pool, and did a custom poured concrete paver design for the deck and front walkway, in order to keep as much permeable surface as we could. The labor upcharge basically doubled the cost of the deck. It took the guys an entire day just to lay the forms, and they were quick too. We shudder to think what a matching driveway will cost.

Also check to make sure the neighborhood will allow anything that deviates from the standard. Ours will only allow certain deviations.