Concrete driveway cost in Kennewick, WA

Kennewick: what basic, standard and premium work costs

Three bands are cut from the same cited range and localized for Kennewick wages and prices. They overlap on purpose: a good standard job and a modest premium job can cost the same. The grid below prices the same bands at 4 common sizes.

Concrete driveway: what moves the price in Kennewick

• Grading and drainage

  Professional grading runs $3-$8 per sq ft or $700-$2,500 for a typical job. A sloped lot or poor soil raises it.

• Finish

  Decorative driveways run $10-$25 per sq ft installed: colors and borders at $10-$15, stamped patterns at $15-$20, and high-end finishes at $20-$25+ (HomeGuide).

• Permits and the apron

  A driveway permit is typically $50-$200 and is often required for new work. The apron where the driveway meets the street can need a separate right-of-way permit.

Local wages behind the labor line

Wages are the part of this estimate that changes most from town to town. 4 trades carry the job here, and each is compared with its US median. The weighted result for Kennewick is 1.27 times the national level.

For cement masons and concrete finishers (47-2051, weighted 50%) the local median is $37.23 an hour, which is 36% above the national $27.41. The middle half of them earn between $28.25 and $43.89 an hour. BLS counts 290 of them working in the area, 22.4 for every 10,000 jobs (US: 13.3), so the local bench is deeper than average.

Construction laborers (47-2061), 30% of the weighting: a median of $26.32 an hour, 16% above the US median of $22.66. The middle half of them earn between $21.79 and $33.92 an hour. About 1,110 work in the metro. That is 85.7 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 70.5 nationally, which suggests plenty of local crews to bid.

For operating engineers and other construction equipment operators (47-2073, weighted 10%) the local median is $38.39 an hour, which is 33% above the national $28.78. The middle half of them earn between $33.53 and $48.81 an hour. BLS counts 460 of them working in the area, 35.5 for every 10,000 jobs (US: 30.7), so the local bench is deeper than average.

For carpenters (47-2031, weighted 10%) the local median is $30.92 an hour, which is 6% above the national $29.12. The middle half of them earn between $29.03 and $48.19 an hour. BLS counts 1,310 of them working in the area, 101.2 for every 10,000 jobs (US: 43.1), so the local bench is deeper than average.

Quotes come from real crews, not medians. If the cement masons and concrete finishers on your job are paid at the 75th percentile ($43.89 an hour) instead of the median, the labor line grows by about $540. At the 25th percentile ($28.25) it shrinks by about $720. The total moves by 7.0% or 9.4%, so wages alone rarely explain a quote that is far outside our range.

For context on the local economy, BLS counts 129,490 jobs in the Kennewick-Richland area. That makes it the 169th largest of the 300 metros we cover, with 0.08% of US employment.

Add-ons priced for Kennewick

Extras are quoted nationally and then scaled to Kennewick by the average of the local wage index (1.27) and goods index (1.05), a factor of 1.16. Tick any of them in the estimator above to add them to your total. Treat these as planning figures: an add-on touches different trades than the main job, so the scaling is an approximation.

What nearby projects cost in Kennewick

Because every project leans on different trades, Kennewick's wage level does not move all prices equally. Against the US midpoint, asphalt driveway runs +20% and concrete slab +14%.

When to schedule concrete driveway in Kennewick

We use NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals for Pasco Tri Cities Ap (5 miles from the city center). These are 30-year monthly averages, not forecasts.

May through June and September are the stretches where pouring concrete runs into the fewest weather problems in Kennewick (3 of 12 months). January, February, March, April, October, November and December have an average overnight low of 40°F or below; July and August have an average daytime high of 90°F or more.

The 40°F line is a deliberately cautious stand-in. The American Concrete Institute's cold-weather guide (ACI 306R-16) defines cold-weather concreting around an average daily air temperature below 40°F, which is colder than our test of an average overnight low at or below 40°F, so we flag a few extra shoulder months. In cold weather crews may need heated enclosures, insulating blankets or accelerated mixes, and those measures can raise a quote.

Heat matters for concrete as well. With average highs of 90°F or more in July and August, crews often start early, wet the base and plan for faster set times.

Kennewick gets about 8 inches of precipitation in a normal year. The wettest months are January, November and December (1.0 inches in January). Inside the workable window, June and September are the driest, at 0.6 and 0.3 inches. The station averages about 55 days a year at 90°F or above.

Does the season change the price? Probably, but we do not have a sourced seasonal price curve, so the estimator shows a year-round figure and does not adjust by month. When you collect quotes, ask whether scheduling in a slower month gets a better rate.

Kennewick against nearby metros and the rest of Washington

Of the five closest metros, 3 are cheaper than Kennewick. Coeur d'Alene is the lowest at about $6,500 (midpoint, 600 sq ft), 150 miles away.

Across 300 US metros, Kennewick comes in at #17 from the top. The priciest is Kahului, HI at $10,000; the cheapest is McAllen, TX at $4,950 (midpoints, 600 sq ft). Statewide, Kennewick is 2% below the Washington figure.

Other Washington metros

Cities with a workforce like Kennewick's

Big cities and small ones price differently, so here is Kennewick against the 4 metros with the closest total employment.