Curb appeal that survives Florida sun, tire heat and afternoon storms.
A driveway is usually the largest piece of visible concrete on a property and the first thing anyone sees. It is also the hardest surface to coat well, because it combines every difficulty of exterior work with two more that no other slab faces: the full weight of vehicles and the heat coming off tires that have just driven in from the interstate.
When a car pulls in after a highway run, the tires are hot and the rubber is soft. Park it, and that hot tire sits pressed against the coating and slowly cools. On a coating that has not fully cross-linked or that never bonded properly to the slab, the tire lifts the finish straight off the concrete when the car pulls away. The result is a pair of curved patches exactly where the wheels sit.
This is the single most common driveway coating failure in Florida, and it is why a product rated for garage floors is not automatically appropriate for a driveway. The answer is a system with genuine chemical resistance and, more importantly, a bond into a properly ground slab that no amount of tire adhesion can beat.
Ask any driveway contractor how their system handles hot tire pickup. It is the question that separates people who have coated driveways in this climate from people who are quoting one for the first time.
Driveways get a broadcast system with a UV stable polyaspartic top coat and a textured finish. Texture matters here for the same reason it matters on a pool deck, since a driveway is wet several times a week for half the year and is often on a slope toward the street.
Finish options run from a full flake broadcast, which reads as a decorative surface, through to a lighter aggregate broadcast that produces a cleaner, more architectural look closer to the concrete itself. Solid colors are possible but show tire marking and traffic patterns more readily than a broadcast does, which is a practical argument for texture beyond the safety one.
Driveways are the dirtiest slabs we work on. Years of oil drips, transmission fluid, tire rubber, irrigation staining and organic growth in the shaded margins. Contamination has to be removed rather than sealed under, and oil that has soaked into the concrete has to be drawn out before anything can bond over it.
After cleaning, the slab is diamond ground the same as any interior floor. Control joints get evaluated, because a driveway moves more than a garage slab does, and joints that are actively working need to be honored in the finished surface rather than coated across and left to crack through.
Older driveways in this region frequently have settlement cracking near the apron where the slab meets the street. We can fill and coat over stable cracking. Active differential settlement is a different problem and we will tell you if that is what you have rather than take the job and let it telegraph through in a year.
A coated driveway is a real improvement in appearance and in how easily the surface cleans. It is not a structural repair, and it does not stop a slab that is moving from continuing to move. Where the concrete is sound, a properly installed coating will hold color and integrity for many years in full Florida sun. Where it is not, the honest answer is usually replacement rather than a coating.
We would rather turn down a driveway than install a finish over concrete that cannot support it.
The connecting concrete around a house often gets ignored and then looks obviously untouched next to a freshly coated driveway or deck. Front walks, side paths, the run from the deck to the side gate and the entry landing all take the same system and are inexpensive to add while a crew is already on site with the tooling out.
Doing them together also means the color and texture match, which is difficult to achieve later from a separate batch on a separate day.
Bare, sound concrete runs $8 per square foot with a $2,400 minimum, the same as a garage. A typical two car driveway is 600 to 900 square feet, so most land between $4,800 and $7,200. Ten percent books the date.
Removing an existing coating adds $2 to $4 per square foot. Heavy oil saturation that has to be drawn out of the concrete before anything will bond adds prep time as well, and we quote that as a line item rather than burying it.
Driveways vary more than any other slab we work on, so we look at yours before giving you a firm number. What does not change is that the number we give you is the number you pay unless you change the scope.
Not on a properly bonded, fully cured system. Hot tire pickup happens when a coating was laid over an unground slab or never reached full cure. Diamond grinding and correct cure time are the entire answer.
Stable cracking gets filled and coated. Active settlement cracking is a structural issue and a coating will not hold it together. We will tell you which one you have.
Driveways get a textured broadcast finish, so they have grip wet. This matters here since many South Florida driveways slope toward the street.
Most residential driveways are a one day install, weather permitting. Heavy contamination or removal of an old coating can add a day.
Tell us your garage size and we will call back the same day. Ten percent books your install date.
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