Concrete & Driveway Removal

Exterior concrete removal in York Region typically costs $2–$6 per square foot, covering breaking, loading, haul-away, and disposal. As lump sums, a small patio or walkway usually runs $500–$1,500 and a single-car driveway $1,500–$3,500. Interior slabs cost more, $4–$8 per square foot because they require smaller equipment, dust control, and hand carrying.

Concrete driveway removal for a single-car driveway typically costs $1,500–$3,500 in York Region; a double runs proportionally more by area at $2–$6 per square foot. Thickness is the main variable, standard driveways are 4–5 inches, but older pours can be much thicker, which increases both breaking time and disposal tonnage.

A concrete patio removal typically costs $500–$1,500 as a lump sum, or $2–$5 per square foot for larger footprints, less than driveway removal at the same size, since patios are thinner and easier to reach. Walkways price the same way; a patio hand-poured tight to a deck or fence line runs toward the top of the range.

Five things, thickness (billed weight rises fast with every extra inch), rebar or wire mesh reinforcement (adds cutting labour of roughly $1–$3 per square foot), equipment access (machine-accessible areas cost less than hand-demolition zones), disposal tonnage, and whether clean saw-cut edges are needed against concrete that stays.

Removing flat-work like a driveway, patio or walkway often doesn't require a demolition permit on its own, but curb, grading and structural changes can trigger municipal or conservation requirements. We can flag the common issues; the property owner must confirm requirements and file any application with the appropriate authority.

A thin, unreinforced pad can be a DIY job with a rented breaker and a strong back. The reasons most people hire it out are real, though, silica dust from breaking concrete is a genuine health hazard requiring proper protection, buried utilities can sit inches below a slab (locates are legally required before breaking ground in Ontario), and a driveway produces many tonnes of debris that still has to be hauled and tipped. By the time equipment and disposal are priced, professional removal is often close to the same cost.

Yes. Removed concrete goes to an aggregate recycler, where it's crushed and reused as road base and fill rather than landfilled. Recycling is our default on every job. It's the responsible route and it keeps disposal costs down, which shows up in your quote.

Once utility locates are complete, most driveways are broken, loaded, and gone in a single day, with the base graded before we leave. Patios and walkways often take just a few hours; large pool decks and interior slabs run one to three days. Locates add a few days of lead time, so plan for one to two weeks door to door.

Yes, partial removal is routine. We saw-cut a clean line wherever removal meets concrete that stays, so cracks can't travel into the section you're keeping. Common examples include trenching a basement floor for new plumbing, removing the damaged half of a double driveway, and taking a patio out up to the porch footing.

Not when it's done with the right equipment at the right distance. Anything within about a metre of a foundation is broken with smaller tools rather than dropped hammers, saw-cut relief lines keep vibration from travelling, and the access route is protected. We're fully insured and WSIB-compliant, and we walk the site with you before work starts.

An overlay only makes sense when the existing slab is sound, drains properly, and has height clearance to spare. If the concrete is cracked through, heaving each spring, or settling toward the house, an overlay inherits every one of those problems. Removal and a rebuilt base cost more upfront and are almost always cheaper over ten years.

A basement floor is just the interior concrete slab, 4 to 6 inches thick, cut out with smaller equipment and dust control, priced as a standard concrete slab removal job. A foundation is the structural wall the house sits on; taking that out means the building is coming down too, which is a house demolition project, not concrete removal. Trenching or breaking out a basement floor during a renovation usually happens as part of an interior demolition scope, our house demolition and interior demolition pages cover those ranges.