Driveway Paving Questions
 

Hi,

I posted this some time ago, but received only one reply with a suggested
Link, which doesn't work.

Thought I'd try again, as really hoping to get some info on.
It's such a big expense.
Thanks.
-------------------

Hello,

Have a home driveway that has to be repaved.

It's been so many years since it was last, I really don't remember any of
the details.

I believe a bed of crushed stone was put down first.

Questions:

a. Assuming there is a bed of crushed stones there now, do I want the
contractor to remove all this old stone, and put down a new stone bed before
putting
down the new asphalt ? Why ?

Or, can he just remove the old asphalt, and leave the stones in place ?
(seems almost impossible to do, I would think, but am not sure ?)

b. What should the stone bed thickness be ?

c. What should the asphalt thickness be ?

d. What's a "typical" price (per square foot, I guess) for a complete job
including the new stone bed ?
(live outside of Boston)

Not too sure what else to really ask.

Any other thoughts on would be most appreciated.

Driveway Paving Questions
 

ideally replace stone its likely contaminated with dirt from below and
stone provdes drainage.

go figure here they are paving driveways over mud:( of course they fail
fast so the do them again. some have grass growing in them after just a
few years.

saves digging, gravel, and rolling its cheap but not recommended.

like repaving your driveway sure they can top coat it but dont expect a
long life.

dig out well correct drainage issues, 3 or 4 inches of large gravel, a
inch of choke fine so asphalt doesnt migrate too much into gravel, 2
inches of rough and a inch of fine each layer rolled before the next
goes down.

had a friend cheap out he redid his driveway 3 times in 8 years.

original driveway damaged by heavy truck, against the advice of his
paving company re had it resurfaced after they said it would crack at
damage and it did:(

so he had it ripped up with low bid didnt replace gravel bed, it
lookedv ok but failed withing a couple years. he noted damage where mud
was in gravel... poor drainage.

so he finally had the whole thing ripped up and removed, with all new
gravel etc. that was over 10 years ago he seals it every 2 years its
still fine.

Driveway Paving Questions
 

Your local municipal zoning and engineering departments
should be able to answer a few of your questions. They
certainly can comment on zoning specs. They may also
offer advice on whether you should "over-engineer" some
of the specs for your driveway.

Around here, it is very typical for the contractor to skim
off the old asphalt, topdress new aggregate in a few spots,
recompact the aggregrate, and lay down the new asphalt.

Often the original base wasn't up to spec and the inspectors
sometimes do a rather poor job of inspecting the crushed
stone before the new asphalt is applied. There seems to
be an attitude which assumes that "specs for the old base
and the new base haven't changed, we inspected it originally,
so we don't need to exert much effort inspecting the base
now." Whenever possible, I like to examine any new driveway
installation in our neighborhood, and I have observed many which
had as little as 1" of gravel in some portions of the base.

Price? You've got to get some folks out for estimates. The
cost is going to vary by local market. You may be able to
find some general guidelines on the Internet. There are free
construction cost estimators available online.

Advice? Get this work done during the hottest part of the
summer. You want that new asphalt to stay hot during
delivery, when being dumped, and during the entire rolling
process. The hotter the mix at the end of the job, the better
the driveway you will wind up with.

If you are skeptical, then try an experiment working with some
repair material (plaster, Bondo, fiberglass resin, etc.) which
starts off "plastic" and eventually sets up. Apply some to
a work surface, wait until it is nearly set up, and then continue
working (eg: smoothing) the material while it is finally setting up.
You will notice a very poor result in which there are many small,
localized areas of well bonded material. But those areas are
bonded to one another very poorly and the overall intergrity of
the work is severely compromised. The same thing happens
with asphalt which is allowed to cool too much while it is still
being worked. The driveway may look good, but it will have a
much shorter life.

More advice: Try to be around when the work is being performed.
You want to examine the bed of crushed stone and the compaction.
You'll want to confirm the thickness of the aggregate bed at multiple
spots prior to final compaction. You are doing that prior to compaction
so that you aren't disturbing the final gravel bed.

It is also helpful to watch the asphalt being applied and rolled. I
would seriously consider using a non-contact, laser-aimed thermometer
to monitor the surface temp of the asphalt as it is being applied
and rolled.

Observing other driveways being replaced gives you a lot of input,
and certainly you'll want to get references. It is obviously wise to
walk through the neighborhood and look at driveways which were
replaced 5-10 years ago, check out their condition now, and get the
names of the contractors.

Final advice: When getting estimates, check on the extra cost
of having an additional 2" of asphalt applied. Of course, this may not
always be practical if you are reusing the current gravel base. But,
in my opinion, it is a worthwhile option to consider in northern
climates, which are particularly rough on driveways.

Good luck,
Gideon

=============

Robert11 wrote

I posted this some time ago, but received only one reply with a suggested
Link, which doesn't work.

Thought I'd try again, as really hoping to get some info on.
It's such a big expense.
Thanks.
-------------------

Hello,

Have a home driveway that has to be repaved.

It's been so many years since it was last, I really don't remember any of
the details.

I believe a bed of crushed stone was put down first.

Questions:

a. Assuming there is a bed of crushed stones there now, do I want the
contractor to remove all this old stone, and put down a new stone bed before
putting
down the new asphalt ? Why ?

Or, can he just remove the old asphalt, and leave the stones in place ?
(seems almost impossible to do, I would think, but am not sure ?)

b. What should the stone bed thickness be ?

c. What should the asphalt thickness be ?

d. What's a "typical" price (per square foot, I guess) for a complete job
including the new stone bed ?
(live outside of Boston)

Not too sure what else to really ask.

Any other thoughts on would be most appreciated.

Driveway Paving Questions
 

Robert11 wrote:
Hi,

I posted this some time ago, but received only one reply with a
suggested Link, which doesn't work.

Thought I'd try again, as really hoping to get some info on.
It's such a big expense.
Thanks.
-------------------

Hello,

Have a home driveway that has to be repaved.

It's been so many years since it was last, I really don't remember
any of the details.

I believe a bed of crushed stone was put down first.

Questions:

a. Assuming there is a bed of crushed stones there now, do I want the
contractor to remove all this old stone, and put down a new stone bed
before putting
down the new asphalt ? Why ?

Or, can he just remove the old asphalt, and leave the stones in place
? (seems almost impossible to do, I would think, but am not sure ?)

b. What should the stone bed thickness be ?

c. What should the asphalt thickness be ?

d. What's a "typical" price (per square foot, I guess) for a
complete job including the new stone bed ?
(live outside of Boston)

Not too sure what else to really ask.

Any other thoughts on would be most appreciated.

No one easy answer for those question. The local codes, soil
conditions, expected loads, grade (compared to the ground around) etc. It
may even be acceptable or desirable to just put down a new layer of asphalt.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Driveway Paving Questions
 

Robert11 writes:

d. What's a "typical" price (per square foot, I guess) for a complete
job including the new stone bed ?

Not a good time to be buying an asphalt driveway. Asphalt that was 80 some
cents per gallon last year is up to 1.73:

http://www.dot.state.fl.us/Construct...t/fuel&bit.htm

Driveway Paving Questions
 

Concrete is easier to offer suggestions. Even with it, the
choices are endless.

Asphalt can be excellent pavement. Many state highways are paved
with asphalt. Most shopping centers and large parking lots are
done with asphalt. There are many different levels of asphalt
work. I would suggest that their specifications are more
stringent than what you would use for a residential driveway.
Asphalt work usually costs less than concrete, so it is used
usually as a cost saving choice.

Water is the death of asphalt. Rain and surface water wash out
the oils, but water in the subsoil spell early doom. In areas
that have clay, asphaltic paving often uses lime stabilization (or
fly ash) to waterproof the subsoil. Petromat is another method of
reinforcing asphalt paving. See these choices:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1 &q=petromat&spell=1
Compacted gravel to an appropriate depth provides another way of
getting water away from the asphalt and providing a stable base.
You may want to consider multiple
options. You have never said what was wrong with your asphalt.
If it is disintegrating and losing the stones, it has lost the
oils. If it is breaking up in chunks, it is overloaded - think
about the condition of asphalt at the dumpster where the trash
trucks stop to lift the trash. If it has potholes and sunken
areas, it is suffering from water problems in the subsoil. If it
has ruts and dents where you always park it was either too thin,
not compacted well, wrong type, or a combination of several
things. For a residential driveway I would think that 2" of class
C on a stabilized or well compacted base would be minimally
adequate. I would think your gravel base should be about 6"
thick. There is no reason to disturb whatever base you have now
unless you have had water failure. If you have major subsoil
moisture problems ask about lime, fly ash, geotextile.

Very few people on this forum will be able to answer your question
about prices in Boston. Asphalt is usually priced by the square
yard (9 SF per SY). All prices are crazy - remember asphalt is a
petroleum product, fuel charges are up, work is plentiful; your
job is quite small; all of which work against you. If you get
someone for $10/SY plus removal and haul off, thank your lucky
stars and make your deal. Concrete will be about triple. I'm
sure your prices will be much higher, but it gives you a starting
figure. Ask friends, neighbors, church goers who they may have
had do small asphalt work. There are many companies that don't
even want to talk to you about such a small job. That's not
fair - your driveway may be a half mile long, two lanes wide. A
typical twenty foot drive drives the other comments. It's hard to
even turn a skidsteer, tractor, or laydown machine around in a
normal driveway space. If you have a putting green lawn, the
price just doubled.

______________________________
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I posted this some time ago, but received only one reply with a
suggested Link, which doesn't work.

Thought I'd try again, as really hoping to get some info on.
It's such a big expense.
Thanks.
-------------------

Hello,

Have a home driveway that has to be repaved.

It's been so many years since it was last, I really don't
remember any of
the details.

I believe a bed of crushed stone was put down first.

Questions:

a. Assuming there is a bed of crushed stones there now, do I
want the
contractor to remove all this old stone, and put down a new
stone bed before putting
down the new asphalt ? Why ?

Or, can he just remove the old asphalt, and leave the stones in
place ?
(seems almost impossible to do, I would think, but am not sure
?)

b. What should the stone bed thickness be ?

c. What should the asphalt thickness be ?

d. What's a "typical" price (per square foot, I guess) for a
complete job
including the new stone bed ?
(live outside of Boston)

Not too sure what else to really ask.

Any other thoughts on would be most appreciated.

Driveway Paving Questions
 

Richard J Kinch wrote:
Robert11 writes:

d. What's a "typical" price (per square foot, I guess) for a
complete job including the new stone bed ?

Not a good time to be buying an asphalt driveway. Asphalt that was
80 some cents per gallon last year is up to 1.73:

http://www.dot.state.fl.us/Construct...t/fuel&bit.htm

And it is expected to go up more.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Driveway Paving Questions
 

price concrete too, sometimes its less expensive than asphalt, which is
used so much since it costs less for placement.

just spread and roll while concrete requires forms and hand finishing.

realtives of mine went with concrete having tired of sealing asphalt
driveways in their first home

note sealed asphalt driveways really look great newly coated concrete
ones get discolored by oil leaks but are highly resistant to gasoline
leaks.

gasoline just melts asphalt