Driveway removal typically runs $2 to $6 per square foot for tear-out and haul-away, with disposal charged at roughly $50 to $100 per cubic yard of material removed. A standard two-car residential driveway usually lands in the low thousands. Treat every figure on this page as a starting point rather than a quote: material type and thickness change this number substantially, and neither is obvious until someone cuts into it.
Removal is almost always the first stage of a replacement rather than a job on its own, and that matters for how you buy it. If the same operator is doing the new driveway, removal is often cheaper as part of the whole scope, because the machine is already on site and the base work runs straight on from the tear-out.
Recommended Equipment
Skid steer and excavator. A skid steer with a breaker or bucket handles most residential driveways and is easier to work with in a confined front yard; an excavator is what you bring for thick or heavily reinforced concrete, for a long or wide driveway where the extra breakout force and reach pay off, and for loading trucks efficiently once there is real tonnage to move.
Find operators by machine: Skid Steer operators · Excavator operators
What actually drives the price
Material and thickness set the effort. Asphalt breaks up quickly and is comparatively light. Plain concrete is slower. Reinforced concrete with rebar or heavy mesh is slower again, because the reinforcement has to be cut and separated rather than simply broken. Interlocking pavers are the outlier: slow to lift but often reusable, which can offset the labour.
Thickness is rarely what people assume. A driveway poured decades ago, or one that has been resurfaced more than once, can be well over the nominal depth, and asphalt laid over an older concrete slab is common enough that it is worth checking before pricing.
Disposal is priced by weight and it is the component most likely to surprise. Concrete and asphalt are dense. Clean concrete can often go to a recycler at a lower rate than mixed material to landfill, and clean asphalt is frequently recyclable as well, so keeping the two separated during removal can genuinely reduce the bill.
Access and staging determine how efficiently the work runs. A driveway with room for a truck alongside is quick. One on a narrow urban lot with no staging area means material is loaded directly as it is broken, which paces the whole job to truck turnaround time.
What the driveway is attached to needs care. Where it meets a garage slab, a municipal sidewalk, a curb cut or a neighbour's driveway, the edge has to be saw-cut cleanly rather than broken back, and damage to a municipal sidewalk or curb becomes your problem to repair.
What happens to the base underneath is worth deciding up front. Existing granular base is often reusable, which saves real money on the replacement. Removing it as well means more disposal and more imported material later.
A short checklist before you book
Measure the area and find out the material and, if you can, the thickness. Check whether there is an older surface underneath. Decide whether the granular base is staying or going. Confirm whether disposal is included and whether material will be separated for recycling. Identify the edges that need saw-cutting, especially anything municipal. Arrange locates, since services frequently run under a driveway. Confirm whether the site will be left rough or graded. If a new driveway is going in, price removal and installation together.
Costs vary by site conditions. Use the ranges here to sanity-check what you are quoted, then get a direct price for your own property.
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