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Driveway surfacing

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

Great Pumpkin
Bronze
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So - what's your driveway made of?

I want to improve my 500 foot gravel (pea stone) driveway. My ol' gravel driveway is solid, well compacted, level. But in winter a tractor blade or snow blower wreaks havoc by picking up the gravel and flinging it all over the place.

Contractors have given three options: aggregate stone chips, reclaimed asphalt ("RAP"), and new asphalt paving.

Total cost of the job using Reclaimed asphalt would be $2300. Aggregate would be $2600. New asphalt paving would be $6400.

Your experience and thoughts?

Thanks.
Tom
 
We put new Asphalt on ours. That was 8 years ago and it still looks good except where two trees have tried to claim the area under the driveway. I don't have snow, so no experience with that white stuff. My brother in law claims driveway sealer is mostly latex paint. Anything is better than gravel. When mine got wet, there were quite a few bumps in the winter.
Jerry
 
My understanding about reclaimed asphalt is this: It's not all created equally. Some producers make a fantastic product that you'd be happy with and other's don't. Apparently the good stuff is getting harder to find, so you have to do the research about who is supplying your guy.
 
I'm in the same fix Tom, My lane is a little longer and is covered with chip stone, (Granite quarry sweepings). Really packed tight, but once a year I have to level it off as the center rises up a little from traffic. I'd like to pave it with Asphalt, but don't want to spend upward to $10,000! I spray it with Round Up once early Summer down the center to keep the weeds at bay. If I paved it I would have to keep the equipment off of it. PJ
 
I have a 300' lane with a 40' x 100' pad between the house and the barn.

I started with a 2" rock bed with crushed rock laid over that.

After a year or so of settling, I had about 3" of recycled asphalt laid and rolled.

Three years ago I had 3" of asphalt installed and I just had it resealed this year.

I'm very pleased with the results, although it was not inexpensive. The original asphalt set me back about $8k. The resealing this year was about $1500.

Asphalt 7-1-11_a.jpg
 
Not familiar with reclaimed asphalt
Somebody explain please
 
For reprocessed asphalt to bind properly for a top surface, a hot binder of a tar base must be mixed in with it prior to laying. It is then laid hot as is new asphalt. Dry, it makes a good base for whatever type of top coat is used and must be rolled well, we always used a vibratory roller for this. For a dry top coat, it doesn't hold up well and is highly susceptible to weather conditions, simply because it is very porous, a lot like chip stone quarry sweepings, but softer. PJ
 
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