New shell, base and millings driveways cut in from the road, culverts set at the ditch, and restoration of existing driveways that have rutted, washed out or disappeared into the grass. Quoted per job, because haul distance and what the ditch needs move the number more than the length does.
A driveway isn’t the material you can see. It’s what’s underneath it, how it’s compacted, and where the water goes.
Almost every failed driveway in this part of Florida failed for one of three reasons, and none of them is the surface material. The base was too thin. The surface was left flat instead of crowned, so water sat on it rather than running off. Or there was nowhere for the water to go at the road end, so the driveway became the drain.
Put shell over soft, uncompacted sand and it disappears into it within a season. Put the same shell over a properly cut, filled and compacted base with a crown on it, and it’s still a driveway in five years with nothing more than an occasional top-up.
If a driveway has failed once and only the surface gets replaced, it’ll fail again in the same place. Restoration that doesn’t touch the base isn’t restoration, it’s a delay. And it’s why the cheap quote is often the expensive one.
The width worth thinking about up front: twelve feet is comfortable for a car. If a truck, a boat trailer or a delivery is ever coming down it, fourteen to sixteen feet with a turnout is the difference between a driveway that works and one you spend years reversing out of.
Most of what we build is shell, base and millings. Those three cover almost every residential driveway around here. They wear differently, they cost differently, and the right one depends more on your slope and your traffic than on looks.
| Surface | How it behaves | Suits | Cost posture |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShellThe regional default | Packs down hard and pale, sheds water well, needs a top-up every few years. Ruts if the base under it was thin. | Most residential driveways, long rural approaches, anything you want to look tidy. | moderate |
| Crushed concreteRecycled, angular | Locks together harder than shell and takes heavy traffic better. Greyer, sharper underfoot. | Driveways that carry trucks, trailers or equipment regularly. | moderate |
| Asphalt millingsReclaimed asphalt | Compacts down dark and close to solid. Sheds water, holds a slope, and knits together tighter through the first summer instead of loosening up. | Sloped driveways, anything that keeps washing out, and anybody who wants something close to pavement without paying asphalt money. | higher |
| Native / dirtShaped, no import | Cheapest by a distance, and entirely dependent on the base and the crown. Fine on high dry sand, poor anywhere that holds water. | Field access, temporary construction access, back sections of a parcel. | lowest |
Millings are worth asking about if your driveway has washed on you before. They cost more up front than shell and they stay put better on a grade, so on the right piece of ground they are the cheaper driveway over ten years. Concrete and pavers are a different trade and we don’t do them. If that’s what you want, get the base right first. The concrete crew will thank you and the slab will last longer.
Restoring a driveway is usually a third to a half of building a new one, and the deciding factor is whether the base under it is still there.
Four steps, and it gets done in a day. We have never taken longer than that on a driveway.
Two things that affect your number more than the length of the driveway:
One day, start to finish. A thousand feet of driveway, cut, based, surfaced and compacted, is a single day of work. We show up loaded with the material already bought and we stay until it is done. Coming back a second day costs you money and it costs us money, so we do not plan for one.
Where the driveway meets a public road, anything inside the right of way is the road authority’s business and the property owner’s to arrange. We build up to that line and we’ll tell you where it is.
From properties in the service area.
Five Central Florida counties out of Titusville. Haul distance from the nearest pit’s part of every driveway quote, which is one reason the number is per job rather than per foot.
The line has to be cleared and grubbed before a base can be built on it. Same trip, one number.
See land clearing →If water is the real problemA driveway that floods usually has a drainage problem rather than a driveway problem. Worth fixing the cause.
See grading →If it leads somewhereAccess and a pad are commonly the same job. Get the machines out once and the trip splits across both.
See building pads →One day. We have never had a driveway take longer than that, and that includes thousand foot runs, cut, based, surfaced and compacted. A wooded route that has to be cleared first, or a culvert set at the ditch, is separate work and we tell you that up front when we quote.
Shell for most driveways: it packs pale and hard, it sheds water and it looks right. Millings if you have slope or a history of washing, because they bind into a firmer surface that stays put. Crushed concrete if trucks and trailers are on it regularly.
If your driveway crosses a ditch, yes. Otherwise the driveway dams water along your frontage and you become the reason your neighbor’s yard floods. The pipe has to be sized for what the ditch carries and set at the right elevation, which is a specific piece of work rather than a pipe dropped in a hole.
Twelve feet of usable travel width is comfortable for cars. Fourteen to sixteen with a turnout is what you want if a truck, a trailer, a boat or a delivery vehicle is ever using it. Widening later costs more than building it right, because the base has to be cut in again along both edges.
Sometimes, and we’ll say so if it’s the honest answer. If one stretch runs through low ground and the rest is fine, repairing that stretch properly is good value. If the whole driveway is sinking because there was never a base, patching it’s money you’ll spend again next year.
Not if the crown, the edges and the drainage are right. Water running off both sides into shaped edges is what keeps a driveway intact. Water running down the middle of a flat driveway is what takes it away, and that’s a shape problem, not a material problem.
Yes, with judgment about the specific property. Base material has to be compacted at something near the right moisture content, and a saturated route won’t take compaction no matter how many passes it gets. Sometimes the right answer is to wait a week.
No. That’s a different trade. What we can do is build and compact the base underneath one, which is the part that decides whether a slab cracks.
Most quotes come back the same day. No deposit on mulching or site work, and the price we agree on is the price you pay.
