Ogden Dunes Indiana Concrete Driveways – Sand Grade

You need to decide if a patch will hold on this sloping sandy driveway, or if the slab has to come out. When the grade runs from the house toward the road, water follows that line in every rain. So a crack that looks small in fall is often wider by spring. Concrete Driveways in Ogden Dunes sit on sand that crews graded so a house could stand there. We’ve pulled up slabs that sounded solid and then broke into loose sand a few inches down.

After a few winters, owners call about the same pattern. The surface scales where salt sat all season. Then a long crack opens along the slope, often near the middle or at the street edge. But a patch only covers the open face. Because the sand under it has already moved, the new material has little to bond to. For example, we’ve seen a neat patch split along the old crack before the next thaw finished.

Sand Grade and Concrete Driveways in Ogden Dunes

Ogden Dunes lots sit on old dune sand along Lake Michigan. Builders cut and filled those dunes so a driveway could meet the road. When crews didn’t pack that fill in thin lifts, the sand keeps shifting under a car. Then the slab bridges a soft spot until it cracks. After that, the break tracks the weak line in the base.

We check the grade before we talk about a new pour. A driveway on a slope has to shed water away from the house. So we look at where meltwater sits in early spring, and where sand has washed out at the edges. If the old slab has dropped on one side, the base needs more than a thin layer of stone. Concrete Driveways in Ogden Dunes need that stone when the old base is only sand. We’ve dug out edges and found sand with no crushed stone under the concrete at all. Our photo gallery shows a few finished driveways with a clean edge on the sand.

Concrete Driveways in Ogden Dunes After Winter Salt

Driveways on graded dune sand take lake-effect freeze-thaw and winter salt. That is the wear that brings owners to a driveway contractor. Lake Michigan sits at the north edge of Ogden Dunes, Indiana, so winters stay wet. Temperatures pass through freezing in those wet months. Water gets into the surface and into open cracks. When it freezes, the face scales and those cracks get wider. Road salt and a bag of ice melt sit on the face. Then the paste flakes off in thin sheets.

People have called us after a plow caught a raised edge on the slope. The concrete had lifted just enough to grab the blade. We’ve pulled sections where the sand washed out at the low corner and left a void.

We replace Concrete Driveways in Ogden Dunes when salt scaling and a soft base show up together. We cut the old driveway out and dig until we reach sand that will pack. Then we place crushed stone in lifts and compact each one. After that, we set the forms so water leaves the slab and stays off the foundation.

The same visit can cover concrete removal and a full replacement. We also reset a service walk when it has heaved. A heaved curb at the street can go in on that same pour. When the apron has to meet the garage, we pour that floor too. Since our doors opened in 2006, Cabe’s Concrete has been a family owned crew in northwest Indiana. You can read more about our crew and see our driveway and flatwork services. We write each scope out line by line. So you can see tear-out hours apart from the stone and the pour. We put a packed stone base under Concrete Driveways in Ogden Dunes before we call for the truck.