Building Roads

[W5FL]

Any idea how much the reground asphalt costs. I don't see it listed for any of the local material places in Fort Worth, but I may not have found the right one yet.

I have a guy come around every once in a while with a story that he has some hot (not stolen /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif)asphalt left over from a job and will put it down cheap, but the price varies all over the place.

Don't know much about the cold asphalt products or how to use them.

Guess roadbuilding is still a terrible compromise between cost and quality.

 

[gordon]

I paid $100 for twenty tons for the material plus hauling.
Wen get in touch with some construction companies that do road work. I got mine from a large road construction company. The only bad thing is some loads have some large chunks of asphalt that you will need a rake to sift out.
It comes from where they grind up an existing roadway in order to lay down new asphalt. But I said all this in my above post it worked great on my drive. Hope this helps
Gordon

 

[Cowboy]

Wen:
First of all, If the guy drives a flashy color chevy 1 ton with the "Hot" stuff....BEWARE! The ride is rough, the material is junk.
No sir, I shut the excavation side of my company down over a year ago. I still have a lot of the equipment and, 90% of it is For Sale./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
On some new property my wife and I purchased a few years back, we were faced with the same problem, just not as severe as your son's sounds. I had a 5000 sq. foot shop built on the property and had to have a good drive to access it (in any weather condition). I used the clay base method I spoke of and then topped it with aprox 6" of #2 base material. the drive is 12' wide and aprox. 1000 feet in total length, also constructed a 30' wide entrance, in a ditch that was about 4 1/2 feet deep and, 14' wide, wherein I installed an 18"x 32' culvert pipe. It took a great deal of material to construct all of the above. (somewhere around 500 tons). The drive has now been in heavy service for 4 years, and has only required maintance (blade work) one time. The pulverized hot top that has been mentioned works well for an under layment. but can be very difficult to maintain as a surface material. If you choose this method, have a good dozer operator do the finish work. any chunks that are in it can be broken up by the dozer. The best use I have found for it is, filler around a culvert pipe then topped with a quality material. Vulcan sells this stuff (if they have any) for about 2.00 a ton (thats an old price est.) plus trucking.and it does have a lower dust factor than base in most cases.
If you would like for me to, I would be glad to meet with you and your son and look at the site. We can set up the T.- level and check out the grades, I can make some suggestions and point you in a, "whats worked for me" direction.
I have built or re-built several miles of drives over the years and, no one method applies to the same task. Whatever your decision. a big beefy crown is the first step to having a near maintance free driveway, unfortunately, a maintance free is expensive in the beginning.
Drop me an e-mail if I can be of assistance.
Thanks

Cowboy
BigBoyz Toyz

 

[gordon]

Cowboy I agree with you about the one ton hot stuff its the oldest trick in the book to get jobs. They always say the same line--I'm doing a drive down the street and will have alittle left over that I could give you a good deal on---RIP OFF. They also do basement waterproofing and apply sealer to drives as well--they are gypsies we sell a couple trailers a year to them they work up north in the summer then come winter they head south. They always pay cash for a new traveltrailer and we never see them again.

About the ground ashpalt I've had very good luck using it as a top coat maybe the stuff in your area is a different grade or something? But around here if its done right from the get go it turns out just like a paved drive once its packed in and requires no maintance for a few years at worst and that is only if its put down to thin or has a poor base. After I did my own I also did a few others much shorter in lengh only a few hundred feet in lengh and they have held up just as well. The key is to do it when its warm out so it packs in well. Guess what works for one wont work so well for another./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Gordon

 

[W5FL]

Thanks for the information on the road. I wonder if you can find a used water filled roller that you could pull behind a tractor to roll the base. That is the part that I never got right. Haven't tried to pack with the loader yet. The box blade when dragging with the rear blade leaves a nice surface, but I am sure rolling it would help.

 

[PBMAX]

Wen, good post I have a similar question far ya'll...I need to build a drive from scratch.The land is good rich and rolling. It will be down hill from the house to the road in a fairly straight line..Over all about Just a guestimate but I say about a 8-12' gradual drop,300' to 400' at most from were the house will be to the road. My biggist question is should I move most of the top soil and bring in chirt or somthing before I put down gravel.The topsoil has a fair amount of clay and is sandy as well...I have pushed some down over a 12" x 20' galvinised colvert (just so it won't wander off) and it has stayed packed pretty well even after a few heavy rains but it also hasn't been driven on much...The reason I don't wont to move the soil is it is any were from 8" to 16" deep and that is a lot of fill to bring in to get the drive back up close to level or better with the grass..Plus the few inches of gravel...And it will be at least 300ft..Not to mention I still don't own a tractor so it's either rent one or pay some one to do it.Right now except for the colvert it is all grass covered and it hasn't been farmed in a few years.....Any ideas???Would be nice if I were as far along as WEN..course his probably been there a while and I havn't even starded the foundation.Maybe if I can do it right from the out set I can reduce future head aches...A well good evening or rather mornin all..it bed time...

Lil' Paul