Hello, this is my first post, and I obviously need some help deciding on what way I should go with paving my drivway...
I live in Northeastern PA and we do get some pretty bad winters here... not so bad the past few year though....Our home was built in 2004, the lot was previously a wooded lot. The driveway is completely flat as well..When I had the driveway cut in,(about 4500 sq. ft) I had them excavate down 18" from the surface of the ground, and had it filled with shale to provide a good base. Once the house was complete, I had 40 ton of modified laid down. About 2 years after that when the modified was packed in, I had 40 ton of 2b gravel spread down, and thats whats on there now..Since I now have 2 small children, they need a place to ride their bike, so we decided to get some quotes on paving the driveway..So far I have gotten 3 quotes from reputable contractors in my area, but they gave me two choices...
1. 2 1/2" of binder , with 1 1/2" ID2 wearing surface
or
2. A single 3" layer ..(One contractor said he would use an ID3 compound, (which I assume has some larger rocks mixed with smaller rock) and the other contractor is going to use just ID2 surface for the 3"
Now, all of the contractors, didnt push one or the other, but it seemed like they favored the single 3" layer.. The Two layer is 25% more money than the single layer as well..For my application for a standard driveway, what is best route to take... I dont want to cheap out and have the driveway fall apart, but I dont want to overspend if I dont have to... Looks arent as important to me as durability... Any help would be great.
I live in Northeastern PA and we do get some pretty bad winters here... not so bad the past few year though....Our home was built in 2004, the lot was previously a wooded lot. The driveway is completely flat as well..When I had the driveway cut in,(about 4500 sq. ft) I had them excavate down 18" from the surface of the ground, and had it filled with shale to provide a good base. Once the house was complete, I had 40 ton of modified laid down. About 2 years after that when the modified was packed in, I had 40 ton of 2b gravel spread down, and thats whats on there now..Since I now have 2 small children, they need a place to ride their bike, so we decided to get some quotes on paving the driveway..So far I have gotten 3 quotes from reputable contractors in my area, but they gave me two choices...
1. 2 1/2" of binder , with 1 1/2" ID2 wearing surface
or
2. A single 3" layer ..(One contractor said he would use an ID3 compound, (which I assume has some larger rocks mixed with smaller rock) and the other contractor is going to use just ID2 surface for the 3"
Now, all of the contractors, didnt push one or the other, but it seemed like they favored the single 3" layer.. The Two layer is 25% more money than the single layer as well..For my application for a standard driveway, what is best route to take... I dont want to cheap out and have the driveway fall apart, but I dont want to overspend if I dont have to... Looks arent as important to me as durability... Any help would be great.