Homeowners searching for a concrete driveway in San Antonio want a number. Fair. The honest range for a new broom-finish residential driveway in the metro, installed, is usually $8 to $14 per square foot in 2026. Stamped or heavily colored work, steep Hill Country access, and full tear-out of a failed slab push it higher. A phone quote without a site visit is almost always wrong.
What you are actually buying
The line item is not “concrete.” It is demolition if something is already there, haul-off, grading, a compacted crushed-limestone base, reinforcement, the mix (thickness and PSI), forming, pouring, jointing, finishing, and curing. Skip the base and you saved money until the first wet winter. That is why two driveways of the same square footage can land thousands apart.
San Antonio vs Boerne and Bulverde
A short suburban drive in Stone Oak or Cibolo is the simpler version of this job: access is easy, the truck can chute, and the lot is relatively flat. A 150-foot ranch drive in Bulverde or a sloped Boerne approach may need a pump, more base, thicker sections at the garage, and more days on site. Those are not “gotchas.” They are the job. We price them in the estimate.
Demo changes the math
Replacing a heaved driveway means saw-cutting, breaking, loading, dump fees, and then building the new one. If the old slab was poured on dirt, we are also correcting grade. If it is holding water against the house, we are correcting pitch. Those are the replacements we do most often in older San Antonio neighborhoods, and they cost more than a first pour on a clean pad.
How to compare bids without getting burned
Ask every contractor for thickness, base, reinforcement, PSI, joint plan, and whether haul-off is included. If one bid is thousands cheaper, it is usually thinner concrete, no base, or no demo. SATEX puts those specs on the written estimate. If you want a number for your lot, request a free on-site estimate — that is the only quote we will stand behind.