Driveway construction in Ellensburg and Kittitas County

A driveway fails from underneath. The finish is the part you look at and the base is the part that decides how long you look at it, which is why we would rather spend the budget on six inches of compacted rock than on a broom pattern.

We build both kinds. Poured concrete for aprons, approaches, turnarounds and the stretch in front of a shop, and gravel for the long rural drives where concrete makes no sense. Either way the sequence is the same: strip the organics, cut to grade, crown it so water leaves, set culverts where the ditch crosses, build the base in lifts and compact each one.

Out here the loads are not cars. Farm drives carry loaded trucks, tractors, hay trailers and the occasional delivery semi that has to turn around, so we size the thickness and the base for what is actually going to drive on it and we build the turnaround wide enough that the driver does not take out your landscaping.

Winter is the test. Freeze and thaw works any water left under a slab, and a driveway that does not drain will tell you about it in March. We slope it, we joint it, and we tie it into the ditch or the culvert rather than letting it pond at the garage door.