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AsphaltPavingIndex

Heated driveway cost calculator

Two numbers, because a snow-melt system has two prices and quotes usually mention one. What it costs to put in, and what it costs every winter it runs afterwards.

Last updated: By The Pavement Desk

$10–$55

per square foot installed, across electric and hydronic

4

published Ontario sources, and they do not agree

Size of the driveway
Which system
Everything a heated driveway also needs

Installed, HST included

$7,345 to $22,939

heating 600 sq ft of a 600 sq ft surface. Published Ontario bands for this work are unusually wide, so treat the spread as real rather than as a rounding.

Electric cable, new build
$6,000–$16,800
Automatic snow sensor and controller
$500–$3,500
Installed, before tax
$6,500–$20,300
Ontario HST at 13%
$845–$2,639
Then, every winter it runs
$72–$420

Install rate from The Art of Concrete and Nice Guy Concrete, two published Ontario ranges widened

Running cost from O Plus Plumbing and Floor Heating Systems Inc., two published Toronto figures widened

Automatic snow sensor and controller from O Plus Plumbing (Toronto)

Why this band is so much wider than the others on this site

Every other calculator here lands on a fairly tight range because the Ontario sources broadly agree. This one does not, and the disagreement is the most useful thing on the page. For hydronic heating alone, O Plus Plumbing publishes $12 to $28 per square foot, The Art of Concrete publishes $15 to $30, and Nice Guy Concrete publishes $28 to $55. The top of one source’s range is below the bottom of another’s. The rule this site follows when sources disagree is to widen the band rather than average it, so the published figure here is $12 to $55 and every source behind it is named.

The reason the spread is real is that the phrase "heated driveway" covers several different objects. Sometimes it means the heating system dropped into a surface somebody else is paying for. Sometimes it means the system plus a new asphalt or concrete driveway above it. Sometimes it includes a boiler, a controller, an in-pavement sensor and a new drain, and sometimes it silently does not. Until each bid is itemized against the same list, comparing them is guesswork.

One published Ontario source was left out of every install figure on this page. Action Home Services states electric at $24 to $55 per square foot in one place and $20 to $60 in another, and hydronic at $81 to $106 in one place and $60 to $95 in another, for the same scope on the same page. A source that gives two answers to one question cannot carry an attributed number, so none of its rates are used. It is still listed in the sources below, marked as examined and not used, because a reader deserves to see what was looked at as well as what was published.

The running cost is the figure worth arguing over. A snow-melt system is a heating appliance that runs outdoors in an Ontario winter, and its seasonal draw depends almost entirely on how the controller is set. An automatic sensor that fires the system only when moisture and temperature both say snow is the difference between a system that runs during storms and one that idles through February. Floor Heating Systems Inc. also notes that Ontario’s Ultra-Low Overnight electricity plan can bring a 600 square foot driveway to about $80 for the season against its standard $160 to $420 figure, which is a scheduling saving rather than an efficiency one.

Drainage is a cost, not an upgrade. Melt water that cannot leave the surface refreezes at the bottom of the slope, which produces a sheet of black ice where there would otherwise have been snow across the whole driveway. If a bid has no drainage line and the driveway slopes toward the house, that is the first question to ask.

For what the surface itself costs without any heating in it, see the asphalt driveway cost calculator.

Sources, including the one that was not used

Canadian dollars, August 2026. Where two or more of these disagreed, the band was widened and every source behind it named, rather than one being chosen or an average taken.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a heated driveway cost in Toronto?

Floor Heating Systems Inc., a Toronto installer, publishes $16 to $37 per square foot installed for the GTA in 2026, with the heating system and the new surface both included, working out to $9,600 to $22,200 on a standard 600 square foot two-car driveway. Split by system type the published Ontario bands are wider still: roughly $10 to $28 per square foot for electric across two sources, and $12 to $55 for hydronic across three. Add 13% HST to all of them.

Is electric or hydronic cheaper?

Electric is cheaper to put in and hydronic is generally cheaper to run, which is why the answer turns on how much of the winter the system will actually be on. Electric published Ontario rates run about $10 to $28 per square foot installed against $12 to $55 for hydronic, and a hydronic system additionally needs its own boiler at $3,200 to $9,000 that cannot be shared with the house's existing one. On a small residential driveway that boiler alone often decides it.

What does it cost to run a heated driveway for a winter?

Between about $0.12 and $0.70 per square foot for the season, which is a wide band because the two Toronto sources genuinely disagree. O Plus Plumbing puts a 1,000 square foot driveway at $120 to $600 a winter, and a hydronic system specifically at $120 to $250. Floor Heating Systems Inc. puts 600 square feet at $160 to $420, and says the Ultra-Low Overnight rate plan can bring that to about $80. Snowfall, how the controller is set and which rate plan you are on move it more than the system type does.

Can only the tire tracks be heated?

Yes, and it is the single biggest lever on both numbers. Floor Heating Systems Inc. states that heating only the tire tracks rather than the whole driveway roughly halves both the install and the running cost. This calculator models that as heating half the measured area. The trade-off is that the unheated strip between and beside the tracks still needs clearing, so it suits a straight two-car driveway better than a wide turning area.

Can heating be retrofitted into a driveway I already have?

If the pavement is sound, yes. Floor Heating Systems Inc. publishes $9 to $22 per square foot for retrofitting sound pavement, and the work involves cutting grooves into the surface to embed the cable and then resurfacing. Two Canadian sources make the same warning: a retrofit often costs more than putting the heating in during new construction, so if the surface is near the end of its life anyway, price both routes before choosing.

Why is drainage listed as a cost rather than an option?

Because melt water that cannot leave refreezes. O Plus Plumbing states plainly that melted snow with nowhere to go refreezes on the surface as black ice, that the driveway should slope away from the house, and that extra run-off trenches may be needed, at $1,000 to $4,000 for a new drainage system. A heated driveway with bad drainage produces a sheet of ice at the bottom of the slope instead of snow across the whole of it.

Who lays the surface it goes under

A snow-melt system is installed by a heating or electrical trade, but somebody still has to take out the old driveway and lay the new one over the top of it, and that part is ordinary paving work. AsphaltPavingIndex tracks 181 asphalt paving contractors across the Greater Toronto Area. Ask any of them whether they have coordinated with a snow-melt installer before, and who owned the drainage detail when they did.

Browse all 181 ranked asphalt paving contractors