Concrete Driveways & Patios · Mississauga & The GTA

Installed prices in the GTA range from $10–$30+ per square foot depending on finish and project size. A standard two-car broom-finish driveway (500–700 sq ft) typically runs $7,000–$14,000. Exposed aggregate adds 20–40% to that base. Stamped concrete is typically 60–100%+ above standard broom finish, plus ongoing resealing costs. Coloured concrete sits between the two. Per-square-foot pricing on smaller projects is always higher due to fixed mobilization and forming costs, never compare a 200 sq ft walkway with a 600 sq ft driveway on a per-foot basis. The number that separates a legitimate quote from a cheap one: ask every contractor to specify their mix, 32 MPa minimum and 5–7% air entrainment in writing. The ones who won't are telling you something.

Foot traffic at 24–48 hours. Vehicle traffic at 7 days minimum. Full design strength and sealing at 28 days. Concrete reaches approximately 70% of its strength at 7 days and 100% at 28 days, driving on it before the 7-day mark causes permanent surface indentation and edge cracking that can't be repaired without removing the affected area. We provide a written cure schedule with every installation. If a contractor tells you the driveway is ready for vehicles in 3–4 days, that's a red flag about the rest of their installation judgment.

Some cracking is normal, all concrete moves as it cures and experiences temperature cycles. The question is whether cracking is controlled or random. Properly placed control joints direct minor shrinkage cracking into planned, largely invisible lines. Random cracking across the surface is almost always a control joint failure, skipped, misplaced, or cut too shallow. Structural cracking with vertical displacement indicates subgrade failure. A properly installed concrete surface, correct mix, correct base, correctly placed joints, should show only minor cosmetic cracking over decades of service. We plan joint locations before the pour, not during or after.

Exposed aggregate is our most recommended finish for most residential driveways. It ages gracefully, provides genuine traction, hides surface marks and wear patterns, and looks better at year twenty than it did at year one. Broom finish is practical and the right call when budget is a priority and the architectural context supports it, it can be elevated significantly with an integral colour and exposed aggregate border. Stamped concrete has the most visual range but requires consistent resealing. Coloured concrete adds refinement without maintenance complexity. The right choice depends on your home's architecture and your honest maintenance preferences, we'll give you a specific recommendation at consultation, not a sales pitch for the most expensive option.

No, and this isn't a minor point. Rock salt (sodium chloride) accelerates surface scaling on concrete, particularly in the first several years before the surface fully matures. Combined with freeze-thaw cycling, salt on a concrete surface can cause significant spalling within 5–10 years, the failure rate accelerates sharply on concrete that wasn't properly air-entrained. Calcium chloride is less aggressive but still not recommended for regular use. Sand is the right answer for winter traction on concrete. We discuss this explicitly at consultation, you should hear it before the pour, not from a competitor when you're pricing a replacement at year ten.

On the right project, yes. Stamped concrete delivers genuine visual impact, pattern, texture, and colour contrast that no other surface replicates at the same price point. The conditions for it being worth it: you're committed to the resealing schedule (every 2–4 years), the pattern and colour actually suit your architecture (this requires seeing photos of comparable completed work, not brochures), and you understand that surface wear shows more visibly on stamped than on exposed aggregate over time. On a covered patio or a rear yard where maintenance is manageable, stamped concrete can be the right call. On a heavily trafficked driveway in a salt-heavy street environment, exposed aggregate will outperform it over the long term.

Broom finish: the surface cream is left in place and textured with a broom drag after the pour, creating parallel grooves. Clean, durable, practical, the standard workhorse finish. Exposed aggregate: the surface cream is washed away (either from seeded stone placed on top of the pour or from aggregate in the mix itself), revealing the stone beneath. The result is a richer, more textured surface with genuine visual character. Exposed aggregate hides wear and marks better, ages more gracefully, and looks noticeably better than broom finish after 10–15 years of use. The cost premium is real but modest relative to the long-term visual difference, and the performance advantage is meaningful.

Depends on the cracking type. Hairline shrinkage cracks (under 1/8" wide, no vertical displacement) are normal and stable, sealable for aesthetics, not structurally concerning. Wider cracks with vertical displacement, or cracking accompanied by settlement, indicate subgrade failure. These can sometimes be addressed by cutting out and repouring a section; if widespread, full replacement is usually more cost-effective. Overlay systems can improve the appearance of a sound slab but won't correct an unstable base, the new surface cracks along the same lines. We assess honestly at consultation. If your slab is genuinely salvageable, we'll tell you. If it isn't, we'll say that before you spend money on a repair that won't hold.

A properly installed concrete driveway, correct mix spec, correct base, correct control joint placement, properly cured and sealed, has a functional lifespan of 25–40 years. The variables that shorten it significantly: inadequate air entrainment (surface scaling begins within 5–10 years), rock salt use (accelerates surface degradation meaningfully), and subgrade failure (requires section or full replacement). The GTA driveways that get replaced at 12–15 years are almost universally the ones underspecified at installation. The ones still performing at 30+ years had the right spec from day one. The difference in cost between a properly specified pour and a cut-rate one is usually $1,500–$3,000. The difference in lifespan is often 15–20 years.

For passenger vehicles, 4 inches is the standard residential minimum. For driveways that regularly see heavier loads, pickup trucks with trailers, delivery trucks, RVs, 5–6 inches is appropriate and worth the modest additional cost. Thicker slabs also allow more forgiving control joint spacing without increasing cracking risk. Rebar or fibre mesh reinforcement is standard in our installations regardless of thickness, it's not a line-item upgrade. If a contractor quotes a residential driveway at less than 4 inches, that's below industry standard for Ontario. We specify slab thickness in every written quote. Ask your other quotes to do the same.