Driveway overlays
Concrete Overlay for Pitting Concrete Driveways
A new surface over a pitted driveway, finished in a stamped plank pattern, instead of tearing the slab out.
Chapter 01
A pitted driveway does not have to come out
Freeze-thaw cycles, de-icers and plain age pit and flake the surface of a concrete driveway. The slab underneath is often still sound, but the top looks tired and rough, and the usual answer on offer is to break it out and pour new. That is the expensive answer, and it also means weeks of a torn-up front yard, a skip full of broken slab and a new pour that still has to be finished.
Craig McConathy resurfaces them instead. A new surface goes over the old slab and is finished in a stamped plank pattern, so the driveway is renewed rather than replaced. The old slab stays where it is and does the structural job it was already doing, while the new surface takes the wear and the weather.
He works in Pasco and across the Columbia Basin, and the name of the service is his own wording: concrete overlay for pitting concrete driveways.
Dark stamped-plank overlay on a residential driveway in front of a two-car garage
Patch the damage, lay the overlay, tape the edges, cut the pattern
The sequence matters. Damaged areas are patched first, because an overlay is only as good as the slab it sits on. Then the overlay is laid across the old surface so the whole drive reads as one piece instead of a patchwork of repairs. Patching and overlaying are two different steps, and skipping the first shows up in the second.
Edges are taped off clean wherever the driveway meets the siding, the garage or the lawn, which is why blue tape shows up in so many of the photos below. Once the surface is down, the pattern goes in. On the finished driveways here that pattern is a stamped plank.
Craig does every step himself, from the first consultation to the final coat, so the person who looks at your driveway is the person who resurfaces it. There is no crew to brief and nobody to hand the job to halfway through.
Chapter 03
Keeping a resurfaced driveway looking resurfaced
A driveway that has been resurfaced rather than replaced should be looked after like the surface it now is. Keep the sealer maintained, and avoid harsh de-icers on the new surface, since de-icers are part of what pitted the old one.
Sweep grit off now and then, and rinse oil and road grime away when the weather allows. Craig can tell you at the consultation what upkeep suits your driveway and your winters, including which products to keep off the surface.
Call (509) 492-8403 to book it. He is a licensed, bonded and insured Washington contractor, licence COLUMRC781K6, based in Pasco.
Laid by Craig McConathy, owner and installer. Licensed, bonded and insured, WA #COLUMRC781K6.
Taped, patterned, finished to the lawn
Three frames from Craig's driveway work, each one showing a stage rather than a single start-to-finish job. The same overlay carries indoors as a hardwood-look floor, and a garage slab is a job for garage floor epoxy. Read about Craig or send photos of your driveway.
Dark overlay across the drive in front of a two-car garage, blue tape still along the garage edge.
Plank pattern laid into the overlay, with blue tape still on the edges against the siding.
A narrow strip of dark textured overlay running along the lawn, pale concrete beside it.