Not sure why the picture of my house isn’t showing up, but here it is

So you are sure you want to give up the magic driveway that automatically clears itself after minor snowfalls? Black macadam heats up enough during the day to totally clear the driveway. Concrete doesn't, so snow and ice only melt off if temperatures are above freezing.

Northeast stick with blacktop, we have concrete down here in FL but don't have snow.

I think with the paver detailing, the concrete doesn't look cheap at all. It will crack in freeze/thaw climates. I'm in Michigan and have a cracked concrete driveway.

What is your contractor advising you to do? Blacktop again? With your shingle-style home, would you consider doing crushed granite? I think it would look lovely.

Absolutely do asphalt again.

@arch13 we have gravel in the rest of the driveway (it is a long driveway), but the kids can’t ride bikes/scooters on the gravel and it is difficult to plow snow on the gravel, so we wanted to stick to hardtop in the area by the garage.

will it crack if it is broken into smaller squares and has plenty of joints? Or just if it is a big expense of concrete? There aren’t any big trees near it with roots, so I don’t think that will be an issue like it would be with a sidewalk.

Does concrete with lots of joints crack more than a big asphalt driveway? Our asphalt has cracks in it too, so I’m just wondering if the cracking is worse with concrete?

Ah, okay understood.

Ours has joints and still cracked. Granted, it's very old. We live in a nicer neighborhood and nearly all of the homes have either concrete or asphalt driveways.

The huge waterfront mansions in our city all have either all-paver driveways, or asphalt with detailing like your inspiration.

Google street view of our house with cracked driveway:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3784689,-82.9324304,3a,18.9y,59.66h,84.39t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1scFSgJZ5FKDiQvA0sWbHj6Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Google street view of a waterfront palace with asphalt/paving:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3649655,-82.925337,3a,60y,117.26h,83.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8Qi3HiS7j9VEx34KGruAhw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

We have concrete in mn.

I love it no sealing ever year like all the neighbors do. That expense has to add up.

We have a 30x50 concrete drivay and only 1 small crack after 16 years.

The key is good drainage under the

Concret or asphalt and no clay to expand.

I would go concrete last driveway you will install.

It costs more and the thawing of snow is something to consider.

Ours melt off everywhere the sun hits just not the shade.

Hope this helps.

@arch13 we were considering an all paver driveway for this section, but everyone keeps telling me that weeds will grow up in it and things will shift and it won't be good for kids to ride bikes, etc. So I don't know what to think at this point! I guess my thought is if a section of the concrete cracks, maybe we can just replace that section if we line the joints with brick pavers like in the example photo? I am thinking that it is fairly inexpensive to replace a square of concrete if one cracks (although it will look different for a while until it ages again).

@redbird2010 interesting you say that - my husband just sent me a picture of his parents' driveway in Wisconsin and they have concrete and no cracks. We get a lot of sun on this section of the driveway. I am going to ask them what they think - I didn't realize that his parents had something similar to what we were considering, and in a cold climate!

I'm in Ohio and we have a concrete driveway. It's considered an upgrade to have one!

I have concrete, I think the asphalt looks cheap. And when we redid our driveway (old was concrete too) we went with concrete again. Many neighbors have asphalt, I don’t like the way it looks. Adding the brick to the concrete looks great.

Heh, is concrete less expensive than asphalt in your area? Your contractor might just be trying to get you to spend more money... and not necessarily because you need to.

If you like and want the concrete more... do it. After all, your contractor isn't going to be looking at and using your driveway after it's done, so their opinion of looks don't matter as much as your opinion does.

Re pavers ... I have pavers in both of my homes & have yet to have a weed pop through. Also , if you install ADA compliant pavers ( flat surface ) there would be no issues regarding riding a bike or whatever on them.

We are in Michigan and our drive is concrete. The original (1954) drive was replaced due to annoying minor heaving, not cracking. Cheap? It’s a driveway... Cheap is not having one.

Concrete does not look cheap, and is an upgrade from asphalt. But in an area with snow, the asphalt gives you better traction and the snow melts more quickly. That would be my first consideration.

I had concrete in the northeast and never had a cracking issue. Neither did my father-in-law. IMO, asphalt always looks less expensive than concrete. If you don't like the color of concrete in its natural state, you can have colorant added to it to change it. I had mine done in a taupe color to match my mortar in my brick.

The concrete driveway at my parents' home is 53 years old. No cracks. Near Niagara Falls Ontario so plenty of winter.

Your garage is beautiful as is the cobble stone. Were you not looking for a smooth kid friendly surface, I would suggest cobble stone all the way. I think asphalt does look cheap. Will you be keeping the cobblestone? If so, and you do the brick and concrete, would you consider having the brick compliment the color of the cobblestones?

I’ll chime in with the same: at our last house we had asphalt and it looked cheap, ragged and unkempt. We had it resurfaced and it looked good for a week.

At our new house we have concrete. No cracking (I think it’s 12 years old) and no raggedness.

I love the idea of concrete mixed with stonework. Are you sure your contractor isn’t just wanting to sell you asphalt?

I live in Syracuse, NY and barely anyone here has concrete driveways, even on million $ homes. Preparation of the base is really important to prevent cracking. So the contractor would need to remove all of your asphalt and pavers. Then they’d have to excavate to install 4-8” of compacted base, possibly regrading your yard to ensure proper drainage.

Have You driven around your area looking at concrete driveways?

Iowa. Very few people that I know..if I can even think of one, have an asphalt driveway. It's either pea gravel for part of it and then the parking in front of the garage is concrete, like pretty much everyone who lives in the country, or it's all concrete, like pretty much everyone who lives in town. My parents did asphalt part of their pea gravel some years ago and I think it looks cheap-I'm not sure how happy they are with it now. I don't know anyone w/pavers and prettiness like those pictures. I don't think even the retired NFL player that lives on a compound outside of town has that. But, we're not in a well-off area, either.

We live in Fargo ND, hot summers and bitterly cold (sub zero) winters and just about every driveway is concrete. Asphalt gets more cracks than concrete and needs to be resurfaced. You may get a crack or two but it is no big deal. Pavers are a hassle - weeds pop up between the pavers unless you spray weed killer.

Wisconsin - concrete is the preference here

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I live in an upscale neighborhood in a large city in the Midwest, and our neighborhood has a wide variety of driveways... asphalt, concrete, pavers, mixed concrete and pavers, brick borders on concrete or asphalt... some flat driveways, many sloped and curving driveways... no gravel though. I can find both fantastic and horrible examples of each kind in our neighborhood... heck, even on my own street for half of them! It all depends on the base and the skill of the crew. We recently had our own driveway redone, including rebuilding the large retaining wall supporting it (ours is curved and sloped). We knew pavers were out of our budget and we went back and forth between asphalt and concrete. We actually prefer concrete (having had it for other homes in the south) but we personally decided upon asphalt because, in our area, it was much less expensive, and because we felt it was easier to DIY repairs or to find good crews if we wanted to hire out repairs or resealing because it IS the more common choice in our climate. I feel any of the driveway options can look cheap if they’re not done well or maintained well. I still prefer concrete over asphalt, and we hope our next home will have concrete... but if I didn’t feel like I could find a good concrete crew in the area I would be very nervous to choose that option.

Some people can make a fabulous cake but others, with the exact same ingredients, can't make anything you'd want to put in your mouth. Concrete is like that. One needs and experienced installer. Also, the majority of residential concrete is 3.5 inches thick and can crack fairly easily if certain conditions are not payed attention to. For certain areas, people might want to make it 5.5" thick as a crack preventative.

As far as looks, I must use the cake analogy again. Most inexperienced bakers cannot make a decent looking layer cake, but a pro can make one that looks superb. Concrete can look like it belongs at the farm yard .... or it can look at home in front of a palace. It's all in the hands of the designer and installer.

To my thinking, concrete is an upgrade material vs. asphalt. It can look much better much longer. It is compatible with a number of decorative techniques.

The one downside of concrete is that, like car fenders, its surface can be profoundly damaged by salt or other de-icing chemicals. It doesn't rust, but it can spall severely and turn its surface back into gravel if too much of those chemicals are used.

concrete looks cheap. i live in ny never really seen it other than photos

@beesneeds and @littlebug zone 5 Missouri - the asphalt is cheaper than concrete, so I don't think it's a financial thing for him. He does think we should do exposed aggregate concrete (the kind wth the little bumpy rocks at the top) as he thinks that looks nicer than asphalt and is more common in our area. That is more expensive than the regular concrete, but I am not a huge fan of the look.

Exposed aggregate lookl (can look) absolutely fantastic when it is new. But it has a downside in that, as concrete particulates wear away, eventually the surface begins to let go of the aggregate. (This would happen at a much faster rate if sno-melt chemicals are used.) The drive becomes rough and looks like it has mange.

We just replaced gravel with asphalt. Concrete does often crack, and it is more costly. We also love pavers. Too costly for us to do the entire driveway? We used them to line the edge of our driveway and think it looks pretty good. Best of luck.

It's so interesting to read these comments and hear how regional the differences are in what looks high-end and what doesn't. Gravel is usually considered an inexpensive option, yet all of the high-end homes in the Hamptons have gravel driveways. I've seen $50 million dollar homes there with gravel driveways! Most houses in our area, even homes upwards of $2 million, have asphalt driveways. After hearing everyone's feedback, it seems like as long as it looks well-maintained, any surface can look nice and they all have their pros/cons!

@12358w I've driven around looking at them, but there's very few in our town. My contractor is correct in that nobody really has them in our area! I've seen a few that looked pretty bad, but the houses don't look maintained and the driveways looked very old, so I think that they would have looked bad with asphalt or any other surface. It's just interesting that they're not common in my area of NY, but are common in other areas that have a similar climate.

I think you summed it up pretty well, Heather.

Aside from from its weakness to de-icing chemicals, I think concrete would win out, generally, as the most durable. It is the material that most airport runways are made of because of its strength and durability. In the hands of an expert installer, it can be made to look great, or to mimic a host of other natural materials.

@Kendrah I love the look of the cobblestone, but it would be extremely expensive to do the whole driveway with it. It's also not great to walk across in heels or for the kids to play on.

My friend had mentioned bringing more brick into the landscape because she thought the color would look nicer against the house than cobblestone, and I after playing around with some bricks, I have to agree - the warm brick sets off the cream house color better than the gray cobblestone with cooler tones. So our current plan is to keep the cobblestone border around the entire driveway (we have another big section that will be cream gravel) and change out the aprons to be a faded brick color and add the brick detail inlaid in the concrete by the garage. We will then use the leftover cobblestone to create a curb by the street, since right now the grass just goes right up to the road.

I personally love old antique brick driveways that you see at hundred-year-old homes, but they seem to be expensive and not durable, so that idea was quickly vetoed!

Concrete can be stained any color too.

IMO it is all dependant on the install I will mention they tried concrete road in Calgary and it was a total disaster with all the frost heaves it is just one big lumpy bumby mess.

It's asphalt that looks cheap, not concrete. Neither looks as good as pavers, but of the 2, concrete is better looking.

Cobblestone and pavers only look good on a solid colored house such as a stucco house or maybe a Harde board house with vertical paneing and not lap siding. It looks too busy with brick and houses with mixed materials.