Brentwood Dirt Works · Brentwood, TN
Driveway and patio prep
Concrete driveways, aprons and patios, starting where they succeed or fail: with the grade and the base under them.
What does the prep actually include?
Taking out whatever’s there, cutting to depth, grading so water runs away from the house and off the slab, and compacting a base that won’t move. That’s the same thinking as a building pad on less ground. Concrete driveways and patios are on our residential list, along with hardscape and landscape prep, so the same crew can take you from dirt to finished slab.
Can you match a new driveway to the street?
Yes, and that’s often the hardest few feet of the whole drive. An apron has to meet the road without a lip and carry water to the right side, and that means shooting the elevations at both ends first. We finish aprons with cones up until the concrete can take a car, and you’ll get a realistic answer about when you can park on it.
How steep can my driveway be?
If it’s in Franklin, the 2025 zoning ordinance sets the limit: 14% for single-family and 10% for everything else. On a hillside lot, that number can reroute the driveway, and a new route may mean a retaining wall where the cut gets deep. In Brentwood, the Chapter 56 exemption for a residential driveway applies only on grades under 15%, so a steep one can pull a grading permit into the job.
Do you do sealing and smaller repairs?
We’ve sealed driveways, including a customer’s the week after we’d taken trees off the same property. Sealer protects a surface in good shape, but it won’t rescue one that’s sinking, because the trouble there is underneath. If yours has low spots that hold water, a picture taken after rain shows us whether it’s a sealing job or a base job.
The step pavers in the photo at the top of this page sit in gravel, leading out from a poured patio behind a new house. If you’re planning something similar, tell us the rough size and whether the area’s been graded, and we’ll give you a free estimate. Water often decides the layout, so have a look at our drainage work too.
Answers
Driveway and Patio Prep: common questions
How do you prepare the ground for a concrete driveway?
We grade out the footprint, compact the base and shape it so water runs off the finished surface. On a replacement, the old material comes out first. The base is what decides whether a slab stays flat, so it gets the same care as a building pad, only over less ground.
Do you pour concrete driveways and patios?
Yes, concrete driveways and patios are on our residential list, along with the prep underneath them. Recent work includes a driveway apron at the street, a patio behind a new house with large step pavers set in gravel, and a new driveway section curving beside the house.
How steep can a driveway be in Franklin, TN?
Franklin’s 2025 zoning ordinance caps driveways at 14% for single-family homes and 10% for everything else. That matters on a hillside lot, where the driveway route can decide how much cutting the rest of the site needs. We’d look at it before anything gets poured.
Do you seal driveways?
Yes, driveway sealing is something we’ve done, including for a customer the week after we took down several trees on the property. Send a picture of the surface. Cracks or low spots that hold water need attention first, since sealer won’t fix what’s happening underneath.
Do you do hardscape and landscape prep?
Yes, hardscape and landscape prep are part of our residential work. That means grading, base and drainage, ready for pavers, walls or sod. One job took up the sod, ran a 100-foot French drain with 2 added boxes under it, and then put the sod back.