Columbia County, GA
Site Work, Concrete & Paving in Martinez, Georgia
Driveway replacement, drainage correction and paving across Martinez. Older established neighbourhoods where most drives are original to the house.
Martinez is older than the newer Columbia County development further out, and the work reflects it. Most of what we are called to look at here is a driveway that has been in the ground for decades and has finally reached the end, drainage that has changed as the neighbourhood matured, or roots that have got under something.
Our Augusta office on Gordon Highway covers Martinez.
Established neighbourhoods, original driveways
The useful thing about an older area is that failures here have had time to tell you what caused them.
A drive that is cracking after thirty years is not failing because the concrete or the asphalt was bad. It is failing because of one of three things, and it is usually possible to tell which by looking.
The base has lost its fines. Water working in through cracks and edges over decades gradually carries the fine material out of the base, and what is left does not hold together. The surface above ends up spanning voids it was never meant to span, and it breaks. This is the most common one.
Roots. Trees planted when the neighbourhood was built are now mature, and their roots have gone where there was moisture and space — frequently under a driveway or a walkway. A lifted panel is a trip hazard and a root problem, not a surface problem. Grinding it flat leaves the root where it is.
The grading no longer works. The fall that was set when the house was built is often not the fall that exists now, after decades of landscaping, raised beds, fences, hardscaping added next door and general settlement. Water that used to leave the property now collects somewhere.
We replace, we don’t repair
On property of this age that distinction is the whole conversation.
Resurfacing a decades-old drive puts new material over a base that has already demonstrated it cannot hold, and it will crack in the same places within a couple of winters. It is not that the work was done badly — it is that the work did not address anything that was actually wrong.
What we do instead is take the old surface out, look at what is under it, correct the cause, rebuild the base properly, and pour or lay new. Where a failure is genuinely confined to one section and the rest is sound and draining, we will replace just that section. What we will not do is cover a base we already know is bad in order to keep a number down.
Red clay and mature landscaping
Martinez sits in Piedmont country north and west of the Fall Line, so the subgrade is red clay. Clay holds water rather than passing it, and it changes volume as its moisture content changes.
On a new lot that is a base-preparation problem. On an established lot it is usually a drainage problem, because forty years of landscaping has quietly rearranged where water goes — and clay is unforgiving about water with nowhere to leave.
We look at where water enters, where it collects and where it can legally discharge before proposing anything.
Columbia County permitting
Columbia County requires a Land Disturbance Permit application for all projects involving land disturbing activity, and building permits with any associated soil disturbance need an approved LDP first. That is a lower bar than most neighbouring jurisdictions and it does apply to replacing a driveway.
The county permits office for this area is at 253 Stonington Drive in Martinez; land disturbance is handled by the Engineering Services Division on (706) 447-7645. We manage the application on our own jobs.
What we do most of in Martinez
Concrete driveway replacement · asphalt driveway replacement and resurfacing · sidewalk and walkway replacement where roots have lifted panels · drainage correction on established lots · grading · land clearing on wooded parcels
Free estimates from either office, no obligation.
Common questions — Martinez, GA
- My driveway is original to the house and finally failing. Replace or resurface?
- On a drive that has been down for decades, resurfacing is usually money spent twice. The reason it is failing now is almost never the surface — it is that the base has slowly lost its fine material to water, or that roots have got under it, or that the original grading no longer sheds water the way it did before the yard matured around it. Putting new material over that hides the cause for a season. We take the old surface out, find what actually caused it, correct the base and drainage, and lay new. It costs more up front and it is the version that is still there in twenty years.
- A tree root has lifted my driveway. What are the options?
- Grinding or patching the lifted section leaves the root exactly where it is, so it lifts again. Realistically the options are removing the tree, or removing the affected section of drive, dealing with the root, rebuilding the base and pouring or laying new. Which makes sense depends on the tree, how close it is and whether it is going to keep growing into the same space. We will tell you straight rather than selling you a repair that will not hold.
- Do I need a permit to replace a driveway in Martinez?
- Very likely. Columbia County requires a Land Disturbance Permit application for all projects involving land disturbing activity, which is a lower threshold than most neighbouring jurisdictions, and building permits with any associated soil disturbance require an approved LDP first. Replacing a driveway involves disturbing ground. The county permits office for this area is at 253 Stonington Drive in Martinez, and the Engineering Services Division handles land disturbance on (706) 447-7645. We manage the application on our jobs.
- Water runs off my neighbour's property onto mine. Can that be fixed?
- Usually something can be done, though the sensible fix depends on the specifics and sometimes on a conversation with the neighbour. Options range from intercepting water before it reaches the area you care about, to regrading to create fall toward somewhere it can leave, to installing collection and piping to carry it out. What we would not do is simply push the water onto somebody else, which tends to create a different problem and occasionally a legal one. We look at where it enters, where it collects and where it can legally go.
Free estimates in Martinez
Tell us about the site and we’ll come look at it. No obligation, and no charge for the estimate.