Concrete driveway cost in Yakima, WA

Concrete driveway: what moves the price in Yakima

• 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.

• Thickness

  HomeGuide prices a standard 4-inch driveway at $6-$15/sq ft and a 6-inch one, recommended for heavy vehicles, at $8-$20/sq ft.

• Old driveway removal

  Tearing out the old surface adds about $2-$6 per sq ft, and some cities want the haul-off documented.

Who does the work: Yakima trade wages

The labor line is built from BLS wage data, one trade at a time. This job draws on 4 trades. We compare each trade's local median with the US median, weight the ratios by how much of the job each trade does, and apply the blend to the national labor cost. For Yakima the blend is 1.31.

Cement masons and concrete finishers (47-2051), 50% of the weighting: a median of $42.23 an hour, 54% above the US median of $27.41. The middle half of them earn between $30.27 and $56.59 an hour. About 130 work in the metro. That is 13.4 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 13.3 nationally, so the supply of crews looks typical.

For construction laborers (47-2061, weighted 30%) the local median is $23.47 an hour, which is 4% above the national $22.66. The middle half of them earn between $21.25 and $29.70 an hour. BLS counts 590 of them working in the area, 60.8 for every 10,000 jobs (US: 70.5), so the local bench is about average.

Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators (47-2073), 10% of the weighting: a median of $34.52 an hour, 20% above the US median of $28.78. The middle half of them earn between $29.42 and $39.41 an hour. About 190 work in the metro. That is 19.6 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 30.7 nationally, so expect fewer local crews to bid.

Carpenters (47-2031), 10% of the weighting: a median of $30.43 an hour, 4% above the US median of $29.12. The middle half of them earn between $27.61 and $44.37 an hour. About 480 work in the metro. That is 49.5 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 43.1 nationally, so the supply of crews looks typical.

A quick sensitivity check: moving the lead trade (cement masons and concrete finishers) from the median to the 75th percentile wage adds about $1,150 to the midpoint estimate; the 25th percentile takes off about $960. That is a swing of roughly 12.2% to 14.7% of the total, which is useful for judging whether a bid reflects wages or something else, such as scope or margin.

Yakima has 97,010 jobs in total (BLS, May 2025), ranking 208th by size among the 300 metros on this site.

Optional extras in Yakima

Add-ons start from national price ranges and are scaled by 1.18 for Yakima, which is the average of the area's wage index (1.31) and goods price index (1.05). The estimator above can add them to your total.

Yakima: what basic, standard and premium work costs

The cited range is split into basic, standard and premium bands, then scaled to Yakima. Bands overlap, because plenty of standard jobs cost as much as a light premium one. Sizes run from 1-car (12x20), 240 sq ft to 3-car (900 sq ft).

Is Yakima cheap or dear? The local comparison

Same job, same size (600 sq ft), priced for the nearest metros. Seattle is the priciest of the group at $8,150. Portland is the cheapest at $7,650.

Out of the 300 metros we cover, Yakima ranks #11 for the cost of this job (#1 is the most expensive). Statewide, Yakima is 0% below the Washington figure.

Elsewhere in Washington

Metros of a similar size

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

Related projects, priced for Yakima

Jobs that often go together with concrete driveway are priced below at their usual sizes, using the same Yakima wage and price inputs. Compared with national midpoints, stamped concrete comes out highest (+19%) and gravel driveway lowest (+8%); the gap comes from the trades each job uses.

The best months for concrete driveway in Yakima

Climate numbers on this page come from NOAA's 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals at the nearest suitable station, Yakima Air Terminal (5 miles from the city center). They are 30-year averages, so any one year can run hotter, colder or wetter.

For pouring concrete, the comfortable months in Yakima are May through June and August through September: 4 of 12. Outside them, January, February, March, April, October, November and December have an average overnight low of 40°F or below, and July has 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, crews often start early, wet the base and plan for faster set times.

Yakima gets about 8 inches of precipitation in a normal year, including roughly 20 inches of snow. The wettest months are January, November and December (1.4 inches in December). Inside the workable window, August and September are the driest, at 0.2 and 0.2 inches. The station averages about 40 days a year at 90°F or above.

We do not adjust the estimate by month, because we have no reliable published data on seasonal pricing. It is still worth asking contractors whether an off-peak start date changes their bid.