Sidewalks and walkways

Walks we pour

Sidewalks and walkways are the small jobs that make a house work. A front walk that heaved two inches is a trip hazard for every guest. A muddy path down the side yard is where the trash cans and the lawn mower go every week. Most of these are a day of work for us, sometimes less.

Our standard build is the same one we use everywhere: a compacted base, 4 inches of 3,500 PSI ready-mix, rebar on 18-inch centers set on chairs, control joints and a broom finish. Tear-out and haul-off are included, and we leave the site clean.

Front walks

The front walk runs from the driveway or the public sidewalk to your front door. It's the first concrete people walk on at your house, so it's worth getting it right.

• Width. A walk wide enough for two people side by side feels a lot better than a narrow one. If you're replacing a skinny walk anyway, it's a good time to widen it.
• Slope. Water should run off the walk, away from the house. Where the walk meets the porch or the foundation, we put an isolation joint.
• Joints. On narrow walks, control joints go closer together so each panel stays roughly square. That's where the cracks will go, in a straight line.
• Tie-ins. Where the new walk meets a porch, driveway or public sidewalk that's staying, we dowel into the old concrete and put an expansion joint between them so they stay level.

A broom finish is the standard and gives good grip when wet. Salt finish, exposed aggregate, integral color and stamped are all options. Our stamped and decorative page compares them.

Side-yard paths

Side yards in DFW tend to be narrow, shaded and wet. Grass doesn't grow well there, and the strip turns to mud. A concrete path fixes that, but drainage is the thing to watch. A side yard is often where the water from two roofs comes together, and a path in the wrong spot can trap water against the foundation.

We slope the path to move water toward the front or back of the lot, away from both houses. Blackland Prairie clay swells when it's wet and shrinks when it's dry, so keeping water from pooling next to the foundation matters for the house as much as the path. The soil section of the concrete guide explains why.

Side yards are also where access gets tight. If the truck chute (about 15 to 20 feet) can't reach, we bring buggies or a pump. A pump usually adds roughly $1,000 to $1,600. On a short path, buggies are often enough, and we'll price whichever makes sense.

Steps

Steps at the porch, at a grade change or down to a patio are priced as their own line on the estimate. They take more forming than a flat walk, and each one has to come out the same height so nobody misses a step. Tell us how many steps you need and send a photo from the side so we can see the total rise. If the existing steps are pulling away from the house or sinking, we'll look at whether they need to come out with the walk.

The public sidewalk

The public sidewalk along the street is usually in the city's right-of-way, but in many DFW cities the homeowner is responsible for keeping it in repair. Some cities run cost-share programs that cover part of the replacement. Programs and rules change, so check with your city before you assume either way.

If the public sidewalk needs to come out, it's often cheaper to do it alongside a driveway or front walk job. A permit is usually needed for work in the right-of-way. We pull permits, and city fees are billed at cost, usually $0 to about $300. Many cities also want the contractor registered or bonded with the city. Our driveway apron page covers how right-of-way work and permits go.

Why small jobs cost more per square foot

This is the question we get most on walkways. A 4-foot by 30-foot walk is 120 square feet. At 4 inches thick, a cubic yard of concrete covers about 80 square feet, so that walk needs around a yard and a half. Ready-mix suppliers add short-load charges on small orders like that.

The rest of the setup doesn't shrink much either. The crew still drives out, sets forms, places steel and finishes the concrete. Spread over fewer square feet, it adds up. Our numbers show it:

From 85 DFW driveway replacements we quoted in October 2026, 4-inch broom finish, tear-out included. New pours with no tear-out had a median of about $15.86 per sq ft, mostly small slabs. Walks and paths are their own jobs, so treat these as a guide.

The easy way to bring the per-foot price down is to bundle. If the driveway, the front walk and the public sidewalk all need work, one pour costs less than three separate trips. The cost calculator shows how size changes the number.

Send photos of the walk and the area around it, and start your estimate. We usually have a written, itemized number back within one business day.

Questions people ask