Concrete Driveway Contractor in Spokane Valley, WA: New Driveways, Replacements & Approaches

Concrete driveway contractor in Spokane Valley, WA, pouring new driveways, replacements and street approaches built for freeze-thaw winters. Raven Buildings forms, pours and finishes driveways across Spokane Valley, from Opportunity and Greenacres to the neighborhoods off Sprague and Broadway, with compacted base, air-entrained concrete and control joints laid out before the pour. Approaches onto City streets are built to the City of Spokane Valley's Street Standards and standard plans.

Driveway work we do

• New driveways: for new homes, shops and garages, sized to your vehicles and drainage
• Driveway replacement: tear-out and re-pour of cracked, settled or scaling driveways, in full or panel by panel
• Approaches: the section between your property line and the street, built to the City's standard plans
• Widening and extensions: extra parking pads, RV and trailer parking, and side-yard access
• Walkways and steps: tie-ins to front walks, porches and garage slabs

Driveway approach permits in Spokane Valley

Spokane Valley is its own city, so its rules apply instead of Spokane's or Spokane County's. Per the City's Approach Permits page and application:

• Permit required: a driveway approach permit is required to build an approach onto a City street. Approaches on private streets don't need one. Approaches built as part of a commercial development or land division are handled under a right-of-way permit instead
• Width: residential approach throats run 16 to 30 feet wide; commercial approaches 30 to 40 feet
• Frontage limit: the total throat width of all approaches can't exceed 50 percent of the lot frontage
• How many: no more than 2 approaches per frontage, and only 1 on an arterial
• Spacing: residential approaches stay at least 5 feet from a side property line and at least 15 feet from the curb arc of an intersection (75 feet for commercial)
• In a subdivision: the approach has to match the approved lot plan
• Arterials: a traffic control plan is required
• Paperwork: a site sketch goes with the application, and the applicant has to be the owner or a contractor registered under RCW 18.27, with bond and insurance certification on file with the City. Fees are paid before the City processes the permit, and online or card payments carry a 2.5 percent fee
• Where to apply: online through the City's permit portal, or at City Hall, 10210 E. Sprague Ave. Development Engineering and the Permit Center: 509-720-5240, permitcenter@spokanevalley.org
• Inspections: inspection requests go to 509-720-5350. The City says requests received before 7 a.m. are generally inspected the same business day

What the Street Standards call for

Chapter 7 of the Spokane Valley Street Standards covers driveway approaches. Section 7.8 applies to new and altered approaches:

• Angle: approaches must meet the street perpendicular, or at no less than 75 degrees
• Grade: no steeper than 8 percent inside the right-of-way, and no more than 10 percent within the first 10 feet past it
• Drainage: an approach can't impound street drainage. On shouldered streets with ditches, a culvert is required
• Old curb cuts: when an approach is altered or abandoned, the unused part gets replaced with curb, gutter and sidewalk. Redevelopment has to fix nonconforming approaches
• Long driveways: private driveways of 75 to 150 feet have to meet private-street width and grade, driveways over 150 feet have to be engineered, and driveways over 750 feet need Fire Department approval

The City's standard plans for curbed streets

Spokane Valley's standard plans for approaches on curbed streets (for example R-110 and R-113) specify:

• Concrete: 6 inches of cement concrete, Class 4000 per WSDOT Section 6-02
• Base: at least 4 inches of crushed surfacing top course (CSTC), with subgrade and CSTC compacted to 95 percent
• Thickened edge at the curb: the first 2 feet at the curb is thickened to match the bottom of the curb
• Expansion joints: 3/8 inch, at least every 15 feet of width, and between the driveway slab, the sidewalk and the approach
• Control joints: no more than 10 feet apart, at least 1 inch deep, at every grade break, with panels no longer than 1.25 times their width
• Curb work: sawcutting the curb to make a curb drop isn't allowed, and the curb can't be poured monolithically with the approach
• Finish: edges tooled to a 3/8 to 1/2 inch radius, no more than 3/16 inch of level change at joints, and broken concrete replaced joint to joint
• Warranty: cracks that show up during the warranty period are the contractor's to repair

On rural streets without curb, standard plan R-116 calls for either at least 3 inches of asphalt over 6 inches of CSTC, or 6 inches of concrete over 4 inches of CSTC, with a ductile iron culvert where there's a swale or ditch. We check which plan applies to your street before we quote.

How we build a driveway for Spokane Valley winters

Spokane Valley's building code amendments (SVMC 24.40.040) set the frost line depth at 24 inches and rate weathering as severe. The Michigan Concrete Association's 2025 driveway guidelines, written for another freeze-thaw state, line up with how we build:

• Thickness: at least 4 inches, and 5 inches where delivery or heavier vehicles will drive. City approaches are 6 inches per the standard plans. See our driveway thickness guide
• Base: at least 4 inches of compacted sub-base
• Slope: at least 1/8 inch per foot so water drains off instead of sitting and freezing
• Mix: 4,000 psi at 28 days, a water-to-cementitious ratio of 0.45 or less, and 6.5 percent air content (plus or minus 1.5)
• Control joints: in both directions at no more than 2 times the slab thickness in feet (8 feet for a 4-inch slab), panels no more than 1.5 times as long as they are wide, cut to 1/4 of the slab depth. Isolation joints go full depth at fixed objects. See why driveways crack

Washington's residential code (IRC Table R402.2) also requires air-entrained concrete of at least 3,500 psi for garage floors, porches and carport slabs where weathering is severe, with 5 to 7 percent total air. Our concrete psi guide covers mix choices.

Curing and when you can drive on it

• Curing: the Michigan guidelines say curing should start immediately and last at least 3 days, and in cold weather the concrete should be kept at 50 degrees F or above for at least 3 days
• Cars: open to traffic after 7 days of curing, or sooner if testing confirms 3,000 psi. The Concrete Network puts normal driving at 7 to 10 days
• Heavy vehicles: the Concrete Network suggests waiting at least 28 days for RVs and heavy trucks, and keeping tires off the edges
• Sealer: the Michigan guidelines recommend a penetrating sealer at 30 days, reapplied every 3 to 5 years. See our driveway sealing guide

More detail in when you can drive on a new driveway.

Repair or replace?

The Indiana Ready Mixed Concrete Association's repair guide offers a simple rule of thumb:

• Usually repairable: narrow, stable cracks, localized chips, minor surface scaling, broken corners or edges, and damage that's cosmetic rather than structural
• Usually time to replace: large settled areas, multiple structural cracks that keep widening, badly exposed reinforcing steel, widespread deterioration, drainage problems repairs can't fix, and repairs that keep failing

A replacement is also the time to fix the base, drainage and joint layout that caused the problem, and to bring a nonconforming approach up to the City's standards. See our repair vs. replacement guide.

What it costs

Driveways and approaches are quoted per project after we see the site, since tear-out, base work, thickness, size and approach requirements change the price. Adding a patio? Raven's current patio pricing, including site prep and the pour:

• Broom finish: about $12 to $20 per sq ft
• Stamped: about $18 to $30 per sq ft
• What moves the price: the size of the patio and whether a pump truck is needed

Why Spokane Valley homeowners call Raven

• Concrete is our core trade: our own crew forms, pours and finishes. See our concrete flatwork services
• We know the paperwork: Spokane Valley approach permits, Street Standards and standard plans sorted before we quote
• More in the Valley: we also build retaining walls in Spokane Valley and PEMB metal shops in Spokane Valley
• Nearby: see our Spokane driveway page and Liberty Lake concrete page

Get a Spokane Valley driveway quote

Call 509-350-2016 or request a free quote with your project, rough size and address or parcel number.

Sources

• Patio pricing: Raven Buildings' current rates
• City of Spokane Valley, Approach Permits
• City of Spokane Valley, Approach Permit Application (PDF)
• City of Spokane Valley, Apply for a Permit
• City of Spokane Valley, Right-of-Way Permits
• City of Spokane Valley, Street Standards
• Spokane Valley Street Standards, Chapter 7: Street Elements (PDF)
• Spokane Valley Standard Plan R-110 (PDF)
• Spokane Valley Standard Plan R-113 (PDF)
• Spokane Valley Standard Plan R-116, Rural Approach (PDF)
• Spokane Valley Municipal Code 24.40.040
• Michigan Concrete Association, 2025 Driveway & Sidewalk Guidelines (PDF)
• Concrete Network: How Long Before You Can Drive on New Concrete?
• 2021 Washington Residential Code, Chapter 4 Foundations (Table R402.2)
• Indiana Ready Mixed Concrete Association: Steps for Repairing Concrete