Would a new driveway increase the value of my home?
 

We are potentially looking at putting in a new driveway, do you think we would recover the cost when we come to sell the house or would it just make it more “appealing” but not impact the sale value?

Unless your driveway has the smoothness and appearance of a motocross course and has cracked concrete throughout, you will not recover your costs.. IMO after flipping numerous houses. If it is dirty or stained, a heavy bleached power washing might do the trick

What do you mean by putting in a new driveway? If you are just talking about covering a concrete slab with paint or pavers, it probably won't increase the value at all. To me, it would decrease the value because I wouldn't want to do the maintenance on it.

Might help a little, but most likely wouldn't get your full investment back.

If you're the only one between to "normal" driveways--no value

I had 2 neighbors that put pavers on their driveways and they made a huge difference in the selling price when both of them put them up for sale, both sold the same day they were listed. They do attract buyers. It costs about $800 every 4 years to clean and re-seal pavers, not all that bad.

IMHO, if you do a very neutral finish on the "new" driveway, you may get some of your investment back, if you do a highly personalized finish, it may be a detriment to the sale. When we had our driveway painted, the contractor strongly suggested that we NOT have the palm tree painted in, we took his suggestion and get a lot of compliments.

Would putting epoxy finish on the garage floor increase sales price?

You probably got a lot of thank you's for not having a painted palm tree LOL.

In my opinion, probably not.

We had epoxy put on our garage floor when we moved in four years ago and we love it. It is very easy to clean and it looks very nice.

Our driveway was terribly discolored because, from what we were told by those who are in the business, the cement was rained on right after it was poured. After looking at that discolored driveway for a few years, we had pavers installed. What a huge difference in the curb appeal of our home now. We don't mind the maintenance. It is worth every penny to us.

We had Matt Alums install Chattahoochee River Rock inside our garage. It was costly but looks absolutely gorgeous. It never looks dirty, leaves no tire marks and honestly.....when I sweepup a pile of debris, I can not find it if I walk away to get the dust pan and brush. I must put the broom in front of the pile of debris in order to find the debris. It really amazes me how this garage floor is the exact opposite of the garage floor I had in my NJ home.

I'm getting the impression from what I'm reading on this thread that doing improvements like this really does not add value to the home. What I do believe is the home will sell faster with these kinds of improvements. I would think installing pavers on our exterior lanai and pavers on the driveway would add some value to the home but what do I know?

Driveway
 

Doesn't the river rock fade if in direct sun?

Yes, River Rock will fade in direct sun. That is why River Rock needs to be sealed just like other applications which are in direct sun. Our River Rock is inside the garage. Matt said we will never need to seal it because it does not get direct sun. Win win for us.

It’s not about increasing value, it’s about not losing value. A new driveway might help sell the house at FMV but a poor driveway will definitely drive the final price downward. If the house is worth X, a new driveway will get you X but not necessarily X+. However, a driveway in poor condition will definitely get you X-. IMO.