Driveway paving cost in Ottawa

Paving a driveway in Ottawa costs $4 to $12 per square foot in asphalt and $9 to $18 in plain poured concrete, from three Ottawa companies’ published prices for each, checked 21 October 2026. WCI Paving and Concrete puts a two-car asphalt driveway at $2,400 to $9,600. Tearing out an old driveway first adds to either.

What paving costs per square foot in Ottawa

Each range below is one company’s own figure, from its own page. The headline range is the median of the three low ends to the median of the three high ends, so one company’s unusually high or low number cannot set it. These are published prices, not quotes and not our prices.

Asphalt

The low ends are $4, $5 and $4, so the median is $4. The high ends are $12, $12 and $8, so the median is $12. Most of the spread inside one company’s range is the base. WCI says paving over a suitable existing base lands near the bottom, while a full replacement with removal, excavation, grading and new base costs more.

Poured concrete

The low ends are $8, $9 and $12, a median of $9. The high ends are $18, $15 and $22, a median of $18. Only Ottawa Masonry splits concrete by finish, and on its figures the finish is the biggest swing: its stamped range tops out at three times its plain poured one.

What a whole driveway costs, by size

Four of these companies publish totals for a typical driveway. They do not agree on how big a two-car driveway is, so read the size before the price.

A 20 by 20 foot driveway is 400 square feet. At the medians above that works out to $1,600 to $4,800 in asphalt and $3,600 to $7,200 in plain concrete. That is our arithmetic, not a company’s price, and concrete rarely goes that low: Ottawa Masonry says most Ottawa contractors set a $5,500 minimum, because the crew and equipment cost the same for any pour.

The repave row is a removal job. Patch & Seal prices an asphalt repave that takes out the old surface at $8 to $14 per square foot. Ottawa Driveway Experts publishes the same $6,500 average and the same range exactly, so the table counts it once.

Asphalt or concrete: which is cheaper, and which lasts

Asphalt is cheaper on all three Ottawa price lists above. Concrete lasts longer. Ottawa Masonry gives a concrete driveway 25 to 40 years and asphalt 15 to 20, and says you would typically replace an asphalt driveway twice over 30 years. Ottawa Driveway Experts, an asphalt company, gives asphalt 15 to 25 years with regular sealing.

Winter is where the two camps argue. Ottawa Driveway Experts says asphalt flexes through freeze-thaw and is cheaper and easier to repair. Ottawa Masonry says concrete handles it if the mix is air-entrained, at least 32 MPa and poured 5 inches thick, and that a badly built slab can crack and scale within two winters. Each sells its own surface, so ask every bidder for those specifications in writing.

Interlock is the third surface people weigh for an Ottawa driveway, built from individual pavers on a compacted stone base. Ottawa Decking Solutions’ interlock driveway page sets out the base depth a driveway needs and which pavers can carry a car.

What moves the price

• Whether the old driveway comes out. An overlay on a sound base is the cheapest job WCI lists, at $2.50 to $6 per square foot. Removal, base work and new asphalt is its dearest.
• The base. Ottawa Driveway Experts describes a correct Ottawa base as 6 to 12 inches of topsoil dug out, then 8 to 12 inches of Granular A compacted in lifts, plus a Granular B levelling course. It says skipping that is where cheap driveways fail within a few winters.
• Grade and drainage. The Zoning By-law caps the slope of a driveway serving one to three cars at 8 per cent, and in a flood plain overlay it must fall toward the road. A lot that needs regrading to get there costs more.
• Size. Fixed costs spread over fewer square feet on a small driveway, so the rate climbs, and concrete often hits a minimum charge.
• Finish. Exposed aggregate and stamped concrete cost far more than plain poured, as Ottawa Masonry’s own ranges show.
• Widening. A wider driveway means an access permit, a road cut permit and work in the City’s right of way, covered in the next section.

The City of Ottawa rules for a driveway

The Access By-law (No. 2026-139) replaced the Private Approach By-law on 8 April 2026. Driveway widths and surfaces sit in Part 6 of the Zoning By-law (No. 2026-50). Both were read for this page on 21 October 2026.

When you need an access permit, and when you do not

The “access” is the part of the driveway inside the City’s right of way, between your property line and the road. Section 20 requires a permit to build, move, alter, close or remove one. The City’s access permit page puts the 2026 standard fee at $208, plus a $121 culvert approval where the access crosses a ditch without professional drawings.

It takes about six to eight weeks, including the road cut permit your contractor needs, and the City says seasonal demand can stretch that. The permit lapses if the work is not finished within a year (Section 25). A driveway never needs a building permit.

No permit is needed to resurface an access that keeps its location, size and grading. Section 16 also allows one extension of up to 1.8 metres beside an existing driveway without a permit, provided it is not asphalt, stays 0.3 metres from the property line and 1.5 metres from a hydrant, keeps out of a City tree’s root zone and changes no curb or sidewalk.

Three more rules surprise owners. You maintain the access, curbs included (Section 6). No curbing or decorative stonework may stand above the access in the right of way (Section 9). When the City rebuilds your street, it rebuilds a conforming access at no cost to you, and replaces a non-conforming one with one that conforms (Section 3).

How wide a driveway can be

• At least 2.6 metres wide (Zoning By-law, Section 606).
• At most 6 metres in the downtown, inner urban and outer urban areas, and 50 per cent of the lot width everywhere else.
• Walkways count. Driveways, parking spaces and walkways in a front yard together cannot pass 50 per cent of the lot width, and a walkway can be 1.8 metres at most.
• In those three central areas, a lot under 6 metres wide gets no driveway of its own and has to share one with the neighbour.
• Where it crosses the right of way, the access must be 2.4 to 9 metres wide and no more than half the frontage (Access By-law, Sections 7 and 14).

What a driveway can be made of

Section 601 says driveways in the downtown, urban and suburban areas must be paved with asphalt, cement, permeable pavement, honeycomb block, turf block, cobblestones or a similar stable, dust-preventing material. Gravel is not on that list. In the Greenbelt and rural areas the rule is only that the surface is usable in all seasons.

A cheaper paved option in a neighbourhood zone is a wheel strip driveway. Section 606(10) allows two parallel strips of concrete, asphalt or pavers, each no wider than 0.6 metres, with a permeable strip between them and a total width of 2.4 to 3 metres.

Front yard parking

Section 604 bars a parking space in a front yard, with exceptions that include some inner urban lots wider than 6 metres.

The City’s access permit page, last updated 29 July 2026, said those new front-yard permissions take effect only once the Ontario Land Tribunal declares them in force, expected by the end of September 2026. Until then it could not process a permit to widen an access to a front-yard space. If your plan depends on that, confirm the status with a Development Information Officer at 613-580-2424, extension 23434.

Parking in front of your own driveway

Section 7 of the Traffic and Parking By-law (No. 2017-301) bars parking on the street in front of or within 1.5 metres of a driveway, signed or not, and as published it names no exception for the owner.

The same section bars parking on a driveway within 0.5 metres of a sidewalk, or within 1.5 metres of the road where there is no sidewalk. On a short driveway, that rule can cost the last car space.

The contractor needs a City licence

The City states that any business that installs, alters or paves hard landscaping, driveway accesses included, must hold its hardscaping contractor licence. Check a bidder against the City’s list of licensed contractors, last updated 3 September 2026. Our landscaping cost guide covers what that licence includes.

Keeping a driveway through Ottawa winters

Ottawa Driveway Experts calls water the main enemy of asphalt here: it seeps into small cracks, freezes and widens them each winter. It recommends sealing every two to three years, says an unsealed driveway may last around 12 years against about 20 for a sealed one, and warns against sealing new asphalt before 6 to 12 months, while it is still curing.

It also says asphalt edges have no side support and crumble when driven on, so keep wheels at least six inches in. If a contractor clears your snow, our snow removal cost guide sets out what a season costs in Ottawa.

Concrete fails at the surface instead. Ottawa Masonry recommends a penetrating sealer 28 to 30 days after the pour, then every 3 to 5 years for plain or exposed aggregate and every 2 to 3 for stamped, to keep salt and water out. It says a new slab needs 7 days before foot traffic and 28 before a car.

When to book

Ottawa Driveway Experts puts the asphalt season at roughly May to September and calls late-fall paving risky, because cold ground will not compact properly. Ottawa Masonry puts concrete at May through October, as long as temperatures stay above 10C for at least seven days after the pour.

If the driveway is getting wider, the access permit sets the calendar at six to eight weeks. Apply in late winter for an early summer pour.

How to compare two quotes

1. Is the old surface removed, and is disposal in the price?
2. What depth of granular base goes down, and is it compacted in lifts?
3. What compacted thickness of asphalt, or of concrete, will be installed?
4. For concrete: is it air-entrained, what strength, and is it reinforced?
5. If the access changes, who applies for the access and road cut permits?
6. Is the company on the City’s hardscaping licence list?
7. Is HST included, and is the estimate written into the contract?

The concrete and paving contractors in Ottawa page lists local companies with each one’s Google rating, the review count behind it and the date it was checked. Our guide on how to vet a contractor covers references and contracts.