Milled Asphalt??

[El Wood]

I'm currently in the process of building a new house with a 450 foot drive. A buddy of mine bought a fix-er-up'er also recently with a 700 foot drive.

For his driveway, he decided to go with milled asphalt. He did some some looking around and found that a local hospital was redoing their parking lot. The construction company have him all the asphalt. The only stipulation was he take it all. He paid $1 a yard. He currently has 450 extra yards he has offered for my new driveway.

Has anyone used this stuff? In your opinion is this a good idea? I know nothing about milled asphalt. I was planning on doing just a regular gravel drive with concrete pad near the garage.

[paulharvey]

In the road building industry its called RAP (Recycled Asphalt Product) or millings and is very good. The most common mistake with it on driveways is placing too little, or too much in on lift. Unless you have a 4+ ton vibratory roller I would strip grass/top soil 5" deep, and place/tire roll 3" lifts till your ~1" above surrounding grade.

[crash325]

There are roads across the desert around here with milled asphalt on them that are well over 10 years old. They are still in good condition. Nice & smooth. If put down correctly it should last almost forever in a drive way. Even better than an asphalt paved road in some places.

If your neighbors is holding up well find out how he did his & do the same.

[dusty3030]

I'd love to have some. I have a good hard packed SB2 base that I want to put millings on top of.

[amarlow]

Good day, Paul!

What does "tire roll" mean?

How well does the RAP work if it goes down on top of an already existing gravel base that is roughly flush with, or slightly proud of, grade? I am also putting in about 1000 feet of driveway sometime in the next year. The first ~500[ft] was "established" by the fella who sold me this vacant parcel and is rather solid.

I have been thinking that for the second 500[ft], which covers softer loam (and is rather "bumpity"), I would excavate down some inches, lay in geotextile, then a base layer of fist size limestone, and finally top with a few inches of smaller (3/4 to 1.5 inch) limestone "with fines". I figure this will accommodate the construction traffic and delivery trucks, plus allow me to drive normal passenger vehicles. (If the drive is going to be seriously messed up by the delivery trucks and concrete mixers, then I may delay the smaller stone.)

Later, after the house and barn are complete, I had thought I might come back with a reasonable thickness of the milled asphalt as a final top coat.

Is this a correct use of the RAP? Would there be any real benefit, ie. performance difference of the milled asphalt over the limestone, vs. the limestone without RAP? Also, is $1 per yard, delivered, a typical price for a few hundred yards?


El Wood, how did your friend accomplish his task? I mean, did the paving company deliver load after load of the millings and dump them in a big pile over there, which he then had to move to and spread on his drive? or did they dump it along the drive itself, like gravel? Did he use a vibratory roller? If it's all in a big pile, will the pile eventually soften, then solidify into an impenetrable sticky, black mountain? I'll be very interested to know what you decide. And why!

~Allen

[the old grind]

Once leveled & compacted the millings are hard to beat for longevity here in MI, and for surviving spring thaws if it's put over a good, solid base. It patches/touches up nice, too. You might have to settle for having less dust, though.

Heck of it is, ... when the stuff is being given away, you're not always ready for it. When you are ready it can be scarce.

[Midniteoyl]

My BIL has about 250 foot drive with the stuff and its holding up great. Just wheelbarrow'd it down about 4"-5" thick and let the sun and cars pack it down..

He also did his separate garage with the stuff..

[paulharvey]

By tire roll I mean run it over repeatedly with tractor or truck, but not all in the same wheel path.

As for advantages.
1. Not dusty like crushed limerick
2. Doesn't wash/erode like limerick
3. If its fresher asphalt with a good AC content, then in the summer it will get hot and like of "set up" almost like real asphalt.

Price, around here its $10 per, plus trucking. So roughly $300 per 21.5 ton load.

If you top a hard compacted surface, like stone don't put a real thin layer, or it will want to slide on the top of the bottom material.

What I've seen that can work excellent if you don't have money for 4-6" of millings is to use 4-6" of sand-clay base ($3.00 per ton) capped with 2-3" of millings, which pack into the top of the clay base, kinda "keying" it all together.

[Midniteoyl]

I've heard of using kerosine sprayed on to help it 'set up'. The BIL's drive did it with just the summer sun.

[2458n]

Friend of mine got the millings off of a small towns street resurfacing program. At the same time he had been putting in a pond. The two barreled pan cut out 6inches for the drive and then filled it back in with every truck load of millings. When the bowl was loaded with dirt the pan was used to wheel roll in the new fill. Some people seem to live charmed lives. The pond took a while longer to finsh but the drive has held up great for 10 years.