Driveways
Concrete driveways in Fort Myers, finished in shell
Shellcrete by SRQ Modern pours concrete driveways in Fort Myers with the shell showing in the finished surface. The finish is the part you choose. The strip between your property line and the road is the part the government chooses, and around Fort Myers that means one of two rulebooks: the City of Fort Myers for an address inside the city limits, or Lee County for the much larger area around it that also carries a Fort Myers address.
So a Fort Myers driveway starts with three questions in order: which office owns the street in front of the house, what the swale needs, and only then the slab. The slab itself, its base and where the joints go, is on the Shellcrete driveways page. What follows is the part that only applies here.
The City's apron, drawn on one sheet
Inside the city limits, the Engineering Division of the City's Public Works Department issues a right-of-way permit for a single-family or duplex driveway, and its standard drawing fixes the apron. It is six inches of concrete with no mesh, at least 3,000 psi, and between 12 and 24 feet wide. The sidewalk is four inches thick along the street and six inches where it crosses the drive, with a light broom finish and no reinforcing in the right-of-way.
The same drawing keeps the face of the house at least 20 feet behind the back of the sidewalk. On a street with curb and gutter, a new drive starts at least five feet from the property line and ten feet from the right-of-way line, unless it replaces a drive already there. A drive onto a state road is permitted by FDOT instead, and one onto a Lee County road by the County's Department of Transportation.
Three visits before the drive is finished
The City inspects a driveway three times. First a stake-out, to set the grades so water runs where it should. Then a form inspection, once the apron and sidewalk are formed and before anything is poured. Then a final, once every disturbed patch of ground beside the work has been put back.
The drawing also says no patching of any kind is allowed in the concrete, so a section that goes wrong is broken out and poured again rather than skimmed over. We build our schedule around those three visits rather than asking the inspector to fit ours.
Lee County's rules for the rest of Fort Myers
Outside the city, a residential driveway permit comes from Lee County's Community Development, and the County's Department of Transportation stakes the drive to set its grade and decide what the swale needs. A concrete driveway in the County's right-of-way is at least six inches thick, has its forms inspected before the pour, and finishes no more than three-quarters of an inch above the edge of the road.
The street sets the width. On a local street a house may have two drives, together no wider than 24 feet and no more than 30 percent of the frontage. A corner lot gets one per street, each no wider than 16 feet. No part of the drive between the road and the right-of-way line comes closer than five feet to the side lot line, extended to the road.
Swales, culverts and where the water goes
Much of Fort Myers drains along grassed swales at the edge of the road, and a driveway that crosses one has to keep the water moving. In unincorporated Lee County a County representative decides on site whether that means a swale crossing with no pipe or a culvert under the drive. Inside the city, any culvert the engineer requires is at least a 15-inch concrete pipe with mitered end sections.
Either way the drive is sloped so water off it and off the road does not run along the pavement edge. The exposed shell finish changes nothing about that. Drainage is settled by the grade, which is why the stake-out comes before the formwork.
A decorative apron is yours to put back
Both offices say this plainly. The City's drawing says that pavers, imprinted concrete or a special coating in the right-of-way, if the City removes it for utility, drainage or street work, is replaced by the owner at the owner's expense. Lee County's policy says every driveway in its right-of-way is concrete or asphalt unless the County approves another material, which takes a recorded hold-harmless agreement, and that after County or State work a permitted drive is put back in concrete or asphalt.
So we draw a Fort Myers driveway two ways: shell all the way to the road, or shell to the property line with a plain broom-finished apron beyond it. The plain apron is the cheaper thing to lose if the street is ever dug up. If you are weighing shell against pavers for the same reason, the comparison covers it.
Eighty-three miles from the yard
Our yard and showroom are on 14th Street West in Bradenton, about 83 miles from Fort Myers City Hall, a little under two hours by I-75 in light traffic. There is no Fort Myers yard, so a driveway here is planned as one whole job from the first visit, and the crew stays on it until it is finished.
Behind the house, pool decks in Fort Myers covers what the 2022 surge left in Lee County's slabs and how to tell whether a deck can take a new surface.
Further down I-75, Naples driveways answer to that city's own apron rules.
Driveways questions we get in Fort Myers
Who issues a driveway permit in Fort Myers, the City or Lee County?
It depends on the address, not the mailing city. Inside the city limits, the City of Fort Myers Engineering Division issues a right-of-way permit for the drive. In unincorporated Lee County, which carries many Fort Myers addresses, the County's Community Development issues a residential driveway permit and its Department of Transportation stakes the grade. A drive onto a state road is FDOT's. We check which before we draw anything.
Can the apron at the street be finished in shell?
Sometimes, with a catch. The City's drawing makes the owner replace a non-standard apron the City removes for street or utility work, and Lee County wants a recorded hold-harmless agreement for any material other than plain concrete or asphalt in its right-of-way. Whether a shell finish counts as plain concrete or as a decorative finish is the office's call, so we ask before we quote and price it both ways.
Does my driveway need a culvert pipe?
Only if the swale in front of your house needs one to keep flowing. In unincorporated Lee County a County representative decides on site; inside the city, any culvert the engineer requires is at least a 15-inch concrete pipe with mitered ends. The drive is then graded so water off it and off the road does not run along the pavement edge. Pool deck drainage explains the same idea on the other side of the house.
Worth reading first
- Concrete pool deck ideas for Florida: colour, grip, joints and edgesConcrete pool deck ideas sorted by the decisions that matter in Florida: colour for heat, texture for grip, joints as pattern, the coping edge, borders, turf and what goes in before the pour.
- Exposed aggregate concrete vs exposed shell in Florida: how they differExposed aggregate and exposed shell are the same technique with a different stone. How they differ barefoot, in colour, and in cleaning and sealing on a Florida driveway or pool deck.
- Pool deck drainage in Florida: why water sits and what fixes itWhy water sits on a pool deck, how to tell a fall problem from a clogged drain or a settled slab, and what a new surface can correct once the drains are sound.
- Pool coping in Florida: which material belongs on the edge of your poolWhat pool coping does, how travertine, pavers, poured cantilever and precast edges compare on grip and heat, and how the coping has to meet the tile and the deck.
