You can drive on a cracked driveway for the rest of your life. The question is not whether it works, it is whether the money you are about to spend fixes it or just delays the replacement.
Here is how we make that call on a first visit, and how you can make it yourself before anyone drives out.
When it is a repair
A repair is the right call when the problem is local. One section cracked where the gutter dumps on it. A corner near the street that has settled an inch. A panel lifted by a root. The rest of the slab is level, the surface is sound, and the driveway is not forty years old.
The guideline most of the industry uses is that if the damage covers less than about 25 to 30 percent of the driveway and the slab is under roughly fifteen years old, targeted repair restores it for far less than replacement.[1] We cut out the failed section on clean lines, fix whatever moved it, rebuild the base, and pour the section back to match. Most of those are one visit.
Hairline cracks on their own are not a repair problem at all. Cracks under about a quarter inch wide are normal shrinkage and do not affect how the driveway works.[1] Fill and seal them so water stays out, and move on.
When it is a replacement
A replacement is the right call when the problem is the whole slab, which almost always means the base under it has failed. The signs:[2]
- Cracks everywhere, not in one place. Several wide cracks across different parts of the driveway mean the sand underneath has shifted everywhere, not just at one edge.
- Settled or heaved sections. If panels sit at different heights, the base is gone under some of them. Patching one panel leaves the next one to drop.
- Spalling across most of the surface. Flaking and pitting over the whole slab is the concrete itself at the end of its life, not a surface problem.
- Standing water. A driveway that puddles was poured without fall, and water sitting on and under a slab is what keeps the base failing.
- Age. Concrete driveways last about 25 to 30 years with care.[1] A slab past that with any of the above is done.
Repairing a driveway in that state moves the problem. You fix the settled corner, and next year the panel beside it goes. The money is better spent on a slab with a real base under it.
The third option most people miss
There is a case between the two. The slab is level, there are no wide cracks and nothing has moved, but the surface is chalky, stained and pitted and it looks like it needs replacing. That is a resurfacing job, not a replacement. The old slab is cleaned, prepped and bonded with a new overlay, and it looks like a new pour for a fraction of the cost.
Resurfacing only works if the slab is sound. An overlay follows what the concrete under it does, so a moving slab means a cracked overlay. We check before we quote it, and we say no when it will not hold.
What each one costs in Orlando
Crack sealing runs about $1 to $4 per linear foot. A partial patch is roughly $3 to $10 per square foot, and a full-depth repair where the section is cut out and repoured is about $6 to $14 per square foot.[1] On a typical driveway that puts a single-section repair at a few hundred dollars to around two thousand.
A full replacement in Orlando runs roughly $6 to $10 per square foot for broom-finish concrete plus demolition of the old slab,[3] which lands most two-car driveways in the mid single-digit thousands. Our cost guide has the full breakdown.
