Where Your Driveway Apron Starts and Ends
Stand at the street and look back at your house. The concrete between the curb and your property line is the apron, and in most Plainfield subdivisions it crosses the public sidewalk on the way. Almost none of it sits on your lot. That one fact explains why the village sets its thickness, width and material, and why it is usually the first part of a driveway to look bad.
The Curb and Gutter
Whose rules: the village
The curb is part of the street, not the apron. Where a driveway meets it, the curb is lowered so cars can roll over it. We pour the new apron up to the existing curb and leave the curb in place. We do not cut, lower or replace curbs. If yours is broken or the gutter in front of it has sunk, report it to Plainfield Public Works at (815) 436-3577; the village replaces selected curb and public sidewalk through its annual Street Improvement Program.
The Apron Through the Parkway
Whose rules: the village's apron spec
The grass strip between the curb and the sidewalk is the parkway, and the apron runs through it. The village's driveway packet sets this section at 6 inches of concrete over 6 inches of compacted gravel, a thicker slab than it requires for the driveway itself, and caps the width at 20 feet where it meets the curb. Pavers are not allowed here. This is the part that takes the plow blade, the street's salty runoff and the full weight of every truck that turns in.
The Public Walk Crossing
Whose rules: the village; the walk stays public
Where the public sidewalk crosses your driveway, it is poured as part of the apron to the same 6-over-6 standard, and it has to be plain formed concrete, never pavers or a decorative stamp. It also has to stay a sidewalk: the village standard keeps the public walk sloped gently toward the curb, about a quarter inch per foot, so the crossing should not dip or tilt with the driveway. Neighbors walk across it every day, which is why the village requires a safe temporary walk around any public sidewalk that is torn out.
The Last Foot to Your Property Line
Whose rules: still the apron spec
Plainfield's subdivision code sets the public sidewalk one foot off your property line, so there is a short strip of apron between the back of the walk and your lot. It is easy to forget, and it matters: the thicker apron spec runs to the property line, not just to the walk. A bid that switches to driveway thickness right behind the sidewalk is a bid to question.
Your Driveway
Whose rules: yours, within the village minimums
From the property line in, the concrete is yours. The village minimum for the driveway is 5 inches of concrete over 5 inches of compacted gravel with welded wire reinforcing, and the finish is your call. Most of what there is to decide here, from tear-out to finishes, is on our concrete driveways page. On an apron job, the question for this zone is simply where the new concrete stops and how it joins the old.
Why Concrete Aprons Crack First
Drive through any Plainfield subdivision built in the 1990s and 2000s and you will see driveways that look fine from the garage to the sidewalk and rough from the sidewalk to the street. That is not bad luck. The apron gets the hardest use on the property:
- The plow. Street plows ride the gutter line, and a blade that catches the lip where the apron meets the curb chips the edge a little more every storm. The plow also leaves a ridge of packed, salty snow across the end of the driveway that sits there melting for days.
- Salt from the street. Every car that turns in drags slush off a salted road onto the apron first. It soaks the slab nearest the street more often than any other part of the driveway, and the freeze-thaw cycles do the rest.
- Water at the curb. Melt and rain run down the driveway toward the gutter. If the apron has settled even slightly below the curb, water sits in the low spot and works into the joint.
- Old utility trenches. Water, sewer and other service lines often cross under the parkway. Backfill in an old trench that was not compacted well keeps settling for years, and the apron sinks with it.
- A thinner original pour. Plenty of original aprons were poured thinner than today's 6-inch village spec, or poured as one slab with the driveway at the same thickness. Thin concrete under the heaviest loads cracks first.
- The joints at the curb and the walk. The apron meets the curb on one side and the sidewalk runs through it. Every one of those joints is a place for water to get under the slab.
Delivery trucks, moving vans and dumpsters add to all of it, since the apron carries every vehicle that pulls in, even the ones that stop there.
