When is it too cold to pave a driveway?

[WilliamBos]

As long as asphalt plant is running, it is never too cold. A playground was paved at a local school 5 years ago. It was -45C when they did it. Ground was all packed and ready before the cold snap hit.

 

[USNative]

As long as asphalt plant is running, it is never too cold. A playground was paved at a local school 5 years ago. It was -45C when they did it. Ground was all packed and ready before the cold snap hit.

Yeah, well packed ground is another must I forgot to mention. We had to tear out a job once because it settled on us and cracked. Man, Ol' Dave was livid... :laughing: I can see why though, he ended up losing money on that one. I agree that you can lay asphalt in very cold weather but the preferred temps are usually 40 and above where we did it (Oregon).

 

[WilliamBos]

Yeah, well packed ground is another must I forgot to mention. We had to tear out a job once because it settled on us and cracked. Man, Ol' Dave was livid... :laughing: I can see why though, he ended up losing money on that one. I agree that you can lay asphalt in very cold weather but the preferred temps are usually 40 and above where we did it (Oregon).

Yeah, that was a sudden cold snap that hit us. The lot was all prepped and ready to go. Although, it was not a surprise to anyone, as it was the frst week of December.

 

[tglass]

Yeah, that was a sudden cold snap that hit us. The lot was all prepped and ready to go. Although, it was not a surprise to anyone, as it was the frst week of December.

subgrade is one of the most important factors, and the type of mix being put down is also important. depending on where you live and the type of mix is extreemly important. there are alot of different surface mixes and temp of that depends on that type of mix. there is even a warm mix now made under lower temps that will give longer working times. a 76-?? type of a.c. used at the plant takes alot more temp to work properly. main thing I've seen for years in hot mix failure is improper subgrade. wet, cold weather, moisture in or poor subgrade will make a good surface turn bad and only get worse.

 

[Craig Clayton]

Several years ago at the plant a small scale contractor was hired to resurface and repair the parking lots. I knew from the first day that he had bit off far more than he could chew. He fell way behind and we are located on the north shore of Lake Ontario.
Now it was starting to snow at night and we were staying below freezing. A few more weeks went by and one day a Real paving company showed up and we heard they had paid a extra price to start up the asphalt plant. They slammed down a base coat at a speed I have not seen before. It was only a base coat and we had to wait until spring for the top coat.

Craig Clayton

 

[Soundguy]

It's been quite a while now but I worked on a small paving crew for about 5 years back in the 80's. Mainly I shoveled & raked it and ran the wacker & roller . On the cold days my boss always kept a good hot screed and would spray a small amount of diesel on it from time to time to keep the mix from sticking to the screed. That screed he had was made in the 40's with hand depth adjustment cranks. He wouldn't pave around below 40ish degrees if I remember right.

On bigger jobs he would hire more trucks so we could keep the mix coming in steady. He didn't like joints either. All the information here is very good and getting a good quality job does depend pretty strongly on the weather. The mix needs to be good and hot. I remember Ol' Dave would be sweating it sometimes when we were working a long ways from the plant and waiting for the trucks. :laughing:

yep.. smae here.. most of the paving I worked on, helped with or oversaw used them same old hand adjustment machines.. ditto on the diesel too.. or some other thin oil or oil emulsion mix.. mineral spirits even.

I can remember working a hand loop many times and getting essentially a sunburn from radiant heat of that 450' asphalt rolling out the back of a truck and whatnot.

for small patch jobs we had a propane heated bed truck.. was a converted 5ys dump as I recall.

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Another fun one when working in an area where alot of subgrade prep can't be done is black base.

especially when time is limited, in many cases black base can financially pay off.

soundguy

 

[Egon]

I can remember working a hand loop many times and getting essentially a sunburn from radiant heat of that 450' asphalt rolling out the back of a truck and whatnot./QUOTE]

And ain't it fun when the trucker manages to dump a load just in front of the Paver Hopper!

 

[JimRB]

I have been riding my bicycle in the Colorado mountains in June when they were paving. I guess they reheat the blacktop just before they apply it. Flames shooting out and a lot of heat from the equipment in those 30-40F degrees mountains. I guess no way to deliver hot blacktop when it is a long drive from the plant to the road repairs. Only place I have seen that done but I don't travel much. I guess that is not helpful but a good crew knows how to apply blacktop even in the warmth of June.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I saw one up in the canadian rockies once that had a train of equipment redoing the highway. First they had an asphalt "chewer" removing the old road base and dumping it in a reheater, then came a long trailer with propane burners that heated up the road base that was left after most of the asphalt was removed. The the reheater put the same asphalt back down and it was rolled in. I think they added some fresh asphalt to the mix but the whole train just keep moving at walking speed. They looked to be able to do more than 10 miles per day of one lane as when we came back thru in the afternoon that was about how much more was completed. It was smooth as a baby's behind too.