Driveway price

[jbos333]

Hi everyone,

Just got a price on a new driveway- some minor tree clearing involved- but no hauling of stumps or anything, it's all just going to be pushed to the side.

Anyhow, 475 feet of 12' wide roadway with fabric and 8" of screened bank run, compacted - $5375.00 - that's around 300 ton of bank run.

Or, same with 12" of compacted screened bank run- $6300.00

Does this sound like a decent price? I guess I'm kind of in sticker shock right now.....

He says about 1/2 of the 5375 price is the dozer work, rest is his cost on materials.

 

[Carl_NH]

The way I see this is materials are about $10 a ton given the $1000 difference and 1/3 more material in the 12" base.

Thats a decent price for materials - I paid $14 a ton for a small quantity (50 tons) 3 years ago and the cost of fuel and everything else has gone up.

TO decide between the 8 and 12" depth is more a site decision - if you have good drainage already a decent sub soil structure 8" should be good, if not 12".

I take that you have saplings and small trees so no 20-30" stumps and trees to cut? Does this include cutting the trees or do you plan to just push whole trees into a pile and burn?

Personally I would clear and chip the trees so to deal with only stumps - makes a smaller and more manageable pile.

Overall $5300 is a fair price - probably 2 maybe 3 days I would say depending on the distance and number of trucks hauling the gravel.

 

[jbos333]

Carl NH, thanks for the info....

As for the trees, I dont think there are any over, say 10". Mostly poplar/aspen. That price included all tree work, I was not going to cut anything. I told him he could make 2-3 piles of slash wherever as well as 2-3 piles of topsoil.

He did say he wasn't making a penny on the gravel. It was the same price I could buy it for. I have a pit about 3 miles away.

Still, I hadn't expected a cost quite that high.....makes me want to just cut trees myself and just try driving on what's there! It seems pretty well drained at all times of year. Now I know I can't expect to get concrete trucks, etc. in there without a proper road, but that might sway my decision on whether this will be a more primitive post frame cabin or a full stick framed place on a poured basement.

 

[dave1949]

It sounds within reason to me. $2700 in dozer and stone hauling work for 475' could be fair if you figure $1000/day for the dozer and $700 for the hauling.

I don't think you will get rid of the tree piles without burning them once a dozer piles them up with roots attached. On the other hand, if you don't mind looking at them, they make decent wildlife cover. They will be yard 'ornaments' for a long time.

Dave.

 

[Jay4200]

Still, I hadn't expected a cost quite that high.....makes me want to just cut trees myself and just try driving on what's there! It seems pretty well drained at all times of year. Now I know I can't expect to get concrete trucks, etc. in there without a proper road, but that might sway my decision on whether this will be a more primitive post frame cabin or a full stick framed place on a poured basement.

You're not being totally realistic. Ever hear the term "cheap as dirt"? The guy that came up with that never bought dirt.

Your 8" cover job is 3800 cu ft, or 140 yards, or about 185 tons (not 300 - the 12" job is ~275 tons). It should cost ~$2000 for material for the thinner job - if you don't want to pay the 3 grand for dozer work, I recommend going out and finding a little old dozer for similar money and do it yourself. Now THAT sounds like fun. That same job with a TLB will take a half season and probably kill the tractor - trust me, I know.

I re-did my drive this past summer. It's about 1000' of drive plus ~5000 sq ft of parking area. I used 20 tri-axle loads of nit-pack gravel (crushed stone with stone dust - no dirt), or 480 tons. I seem to remember paying a little less than $300 per 24 ton load, so I paid close to $6000 for the material. My project involved grading out what was there, then covering everything with ~6" of new material. I did it myself with many (150-ish) tractor hours, but got a rough quote for that job from a driveway contractor at $15,000 + materials. Your job is 1/3 the area that mine is, but cutting a new drive for all of $3000 + materials is cheap-cheap-cheap. Your material cost is cheaper than mine was too.

JayC

 

[jbos333]

Thanks for the voice of reason, guys. I may have to just suck it up, pay and get it over with.

 

[atgreene]

I just did an estimate for a customer that entailed stumping 900' of road, installing 60' of 15" culvert (two pipes @ 30' ea), screening some gravel on-site to use as the primary base, haul in 60 yards of 3" crushed gravel for a soft area and surface a steep hill with 60 yards of 3/4 crushed. All stumps disposed of on-site. Total was about $13k.

He said he had gotten bids from 10k to 60k, guess I was too high, he hasn't called back.:thumbsup:

 

[randy41]

Still, I hadn't expected a cost quite that high.....makes me want to just cut trees myself and just try driving on what's there! It seems pretty well drained at all times of year. Now I know I can't expect to get concrete trucks, etc. in there without a proper road, but that might sway my decision on whether this will be a more primitive post frame cabin or a full stick framed place on a poured basement.

i would do this first and see if its livable. and if not there may be places on your driveway that need work and others that don't.

 

[Rustyiron]

Not sure about you're local prices but it seems everyone here says go for it and they only talk about dozer time, hauling, and material. jbos333 also mentioned that it included fabric and compaction! Go for it.

 

[MarkV]

Not sure about you're local prices but it seems everyone here says go for it and they only talk about dozer time, hauling, and material. jbos333 also mentioned that it included fabric and compaction! Go for it.

Exactly what I was thinking Rusty. With fabric, not cheap, and compaction that sounds like a deal to me. I could not have the same done here for that price.

MarkV