Driveway paving...

[Armitage]

There were some big dumptrucks & paving equipment on our road today, so of course the kids wanted to see it. They are doing a few driveways on our street, and a church parking lot. Got to talking with one of the guys and he offered to give me a quick estimate. Came out to $2.05/ft^2 - but he could give me a "special deal" if I do it tomorrow or Wed. while they have the equipment up here. $1.75/ft^2

Now I'm not really considering it because I have to do some landscaping first, as well as run a new gas line across that area. But I'm curious if that's a decent deal, and what to look for in a paving contractor. I'm near Colorado Springs, the existing gravel driveway is very solid.

 

[Armitage]

Ok, this dropped off pretty quickly last night, so I'll give it one bump.

 

[woowoo]

I have had one quote
$1000 for 1600 sqft.
That was for paving, not sealing.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: woowoo
I have had one quote
$1000 for 1600 sqft.
That was for paving, not sealing.

So, even $1.75/ft^2 doesn't sound like much of a bargain - though it may be within the range of regional variations.

 

[DougK62]

Originally posted by: woowoo
I have had one quote
$1000 for 1600 sqft.
That was for paving, not sealing.

That's it? Seems really low. Is that black top over gravel?

 

[teckmaster]

its not so much the price you have to worry about, but rather how thick they will make it. If its not thick enough, it will break and crumble away rather quickly. 3 to 4 inches packed is nice.

 

[TStep]

What was being offered? Ususally paving contractors offer pavement on a square yard basis. $1.75/sf is $15.75/sy or rather expensive for a driveway. Being in the heavy construction business, I'd be leary right off if a paver offered a price in sf, just not the industry's jargon.

In any case, his first customer paid for his mobilization, now he's just drumming up some work. It's hard to estimate a long distance job, but I would imagine a small paving contractor would need about the following for a small job:

---Mobe in and out: $400 - $600 flat fee if they are reasonably close to their shop
---Regrade and recompact your driveway stone: ~$0.75 /sy
---Base course asphalt (called BCBC in PA): ~$2.00 to $2.50 / sy per 1" thickness. Depending on how stable your gravel and underlying soils are, I would venture to guess about 3" will suffice, so say $7.75/sy. About 5" if you have any future plans for heavy concrete trucks or the like crossing your drive.
---Wearing Couse or Top as it's sometimes called: ~$3.00 to $3.50 / sy @ 1 1/2" thickness. Sometimes these guys will use an inch, so it's your call. The resulting depth will highly depend on how good they laydown the BCBC and will likely vary.

So all in all about $11.50 - $12.00 / sy plus a few hundred in mobe. Make sure they seal the joints w/ AC-20 (tar) at all interfaces with concrete and asphalt so water doesn't get in the joint. Also make sure there is a milled square edge where they tie into the existing pavement.

These are typical PA prices.

 

[woowoo]

Originally posted by: DougK62

Originally posted by: woowoo
I have had one quote
$1000 for 1600 sqft.
That was for paving, not sealing.

That's it? Seems really low. Is that black top over gravel?

Repave existing blacktop driveway.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: TStep
What was being offered? Ususally paving contractors offer pavement on a square yard basis. $1.75/sf is $15.75/sy or rather expensive for a driveway. Being in the heavy construction business, I'd be leary right off if a paver offered a price in sf, just not the industry's jargon.

In any case, his first customer paid for his mobilization, now he's just drumming up some work. It's hard to estimate a long distance job, but I would imagine a small paving contractor would need about the following for a small job:

---Mobe in and out: $400 - $600 flat fee if they are reasonably close to their shop
---Regrade and recompact your driveway stone: ~$0.75 /sy
---Base course asphalt (called BCBC in PA): ~$2.00 to $2.50 / sy per 1" thickness. Depending on how stable your gravel and underlying soils are, I would venture to guess about 3" will suffice, so say $7.75/sy. About 5" if you have any future plans for heavy concrete trucks or the like crossing your drive.
---Wearing Couse or Top as it's sometimes called: ~$3.00 to $3.50 / sy @ 1 1/2" thickness. Sometimes these guys will use an inch, so it's your call. The resulting depth will highly depend on how good they laydown the BCBC and will likely vary.

So all in all about $11.50 - $12.00 / sy plus a few hundred in mobe. Make sure they seal the joints w/ AC-20 (tar) at all interfaces with concrete and asphalt so water doesn't get in the joint. Also make sure there is a milled square edge where they tie into the existing pavement.

These are typical PA prices.

Thanks - good information! I thought it was odd to specify it in ft^2 also - everything else like that - concrete, sod, landscaping, etc. is always done in yd^2

The measurements he took came out to 140 yd^2, so $1680 at the rates you described + the up-front transport. If you call it $500, that's about in the range of his "special offer" of $2200

I'm about 10 miles out of town - so probably 10-20 miles from any local contractor. Doesn't sound to huge. This guy was talking about 3", but sounded like only one course. Underlying soil is very stable - part of it is road-base fill, and the rest is the local clay/sand mix = hard as hell. I had to dig a 4' deep x 10' ' long ditch across part at one point. Couldn't get the backhoe into it. I ended up renting a jackhammer, because it took 3-4 swings with a pickaxe to break loose one shovel of dirt.

Good to know, but I'm not ready to do it yet anyway on several fronts. Maybe next year.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: TStep
What was being offered? Ususally paving contractors offer pavement on a square yard basis. $1.75/sf is $15.75/sy or rather expensive for a driveway. Being in the heavy construction business, I'd be leary right off if a paver offered a price in sf, just not the industry's jargon.

In any case, his first customer paid for his mobilization, now he's just drumming up some work. It's hard to estimate a long distance job, but I would imagine a small paving contractor would need about the following for a small job:

---Mobe in and out: $400 - $600 flat fee if they are reasonably close to their shop
---Regrade and recompact your driveway stone: ~$0.75 /sy
---Base course asphalt (called BCBC in PA): ~$2.00 to $2.50 / sy per 1" thickness. Depending on how stable your gravel and underlying soils are, I would venture to guess about 3" will suffice, so say $7.75/sy. About 5" if you have any future plans for heavy concrete trucks or the like crossing your drive.
---Wearing Couse or Top as it's sometimes called: ~$3.00 to $3.50 / sy @ 1 1/2" thickness. Sometimes these guys will use an inch, so it's your call. The resulting depth will highly depend on how good they laydown the BCBC and will likely vary.

So all in all about $11.50 - $12.00 / sy plus a few hundred in mobe. Make sure they seal the joints w/ AC-20 (tar) at all interfaces with concrete and asphalt so water doesn't get in the joint. Also make sure there is a milled square edge where they tie into the existing pavement.

These are typical PA prices.

actually, smart flooring and asphalt contractors know to convert to SF pricing when dealing with homeowners, because they are not used to seeing prices in SY format.

 

[TStep]

Mickey: yeah, I realized that was probably the case after I posted. I'm just so used to dealing in this crap everyday on a contractor-contractor basis, not contractor-homeowner basis, that my thought process gets polluted.

 

[Ornery]

Repave existing blacktop driveway.

Are they tearing up and hauling away the old drive? If not, why are you having it done?

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

I just had a quote today
remove existing asphalt & hual off site
prep expansion area
fine grade existing stone and add 21-A aggregate and roll for compaction
3" of type SM-2A high grage hot mix and roll for comaction
1 year warranty

$1600

 

[dartworth]

not a bad price...and most residental contractors go by the square foot...

 

[skyking]

Asphalt is also commonly bid on a ft. sq. basis. I can get a larger job done in WA for around 1.00, so 1.75 for a smaller job might just be in the ballpark for your area.