Driveways settle in patterns rather than at random. Two parallel ruts where the wheels sit, a dip at the garage threshold, or a dropped apron where the surface meets the road. Each one points at a different part of the base, which is why the fix starts with reading the pattern rather than with lifting stone.
Wheel ruts mean the base is intact but too shallow for the load, because the stone is compacting under repeated point pressure exactly where the tires track. A dip at the garage threshold usually means backfill against the foundation was never properly compacted and has been consolidating ever since the house was built.
A dropped apron at the road is the one most often caused by water, since that edge takes street runoff as well as your own. And a bowl in the middle with no pattern at all is a washout, where something has been putting water through the base for years.
We walk the surface and read which of these you have before quoting, because they are four different repairs at four different depths. See what a base repair involves, how pooling water is redirected, and what sunken pavers cost as a smaller spot repair.
Sunken Driveways
How It Runs
Four steps to a driveway that stops rutting
Read the pattern
Ruts, a threshold dip, a dropped apron and a centre bowl are four different failures. Which one you have decides how deep we go.
Open and measure
A test lift in the worst area shows the existing base depth, which is the number the rest of the price is built on.
Rebuild to vehicle depth
Base taken to the depth a car actually needs and compacted in layers, rather than topped up to whatever is already there.
Relay, tamp and re-sand
Pavers reset to the surrounding grade and the threshold, plate tamped, and the joints closed with fresh polymeric sand.
The Apron
The strip at the road is its own repair
The apron takes street runoff, the plow, and in some cases the weight of a delivery truck turning in. It is also the one section where the municipality may have an interest in what happens at the edge.
We treat it as a separate line on the quote for that reason, and we check the fall across it, because an apron that has dropped is now collecting road water and putting it into your base.
The base is intact but too shallow for the load, so it compacts under the tire tracks. It needs rebuilding deeper rather than levelling at the surface.
Backfill against the foundation is almost never compacted to the same standard as the rest, and it consolidates for years. That section gets re-based.
Yes, provided we can tie the new section into the old without leaving a vertical joint. On a driveway that usually means working to a full course line.
Most two car driveways land between $2,000 and $5,000 depending on access and how much base has to be replaced. Per square foot it runs $10 to $18.
Not if we size the base for that vehicle. Tell us on the visit if a truck or an RV uses the driveway, because it changes the depth we build to.
Foot traffic the same day. A car after the joint sand has cured, usually the next day in decent weather. We give you the actual time on the day rather than a rule, because it depends on what the weather did.
