Pave Your Own Driveway?

[Creamer]

I have about 1/4 mile long driveway and 2700 sq ft of parking area. The parking area is currently asphalt that needs replacing. The driveway is about half limestone rock and the other half is on the neighbor's property that they maintain and is asphalt. All of the base is in very good shape so there is virtually no preparation to be done except remove the old asphalt in the parking area and grade the driveway absolutely level. The neighbor (the County library) is having some patchwork paving done to their parking lot and driveway and so I asked the company that was doing it since they had the paving equipment there anyway what would it cost to do my driveway. (Note: We do have the garbage truck and other heavy trucks coming back to our house so he was estimated using 5.5" total depth of asphalt. the quote came back at almost $45k.

Doing some figures with the local price of concrete in my area It would be about $17k of concrete to do that area 5.5" thick. I am thinking that I would need to add mesh but that it would not need formed if they could put the concrete through a Paver rather than the old style of pouring concrete. I saw them do curbs this way near my work where they didn't set forms but the machine worked with stiff enough concrete that the machine kept moving slowly and after the curb came out of the machine the concrete did not need much finishing. that got me to thinking - Couldn"t I purchase or rent a paver and just get a couple of concrete guys and using the paver just pour the concrete? I found an old paver that is guaranteed to be fully functional for $7500 - I figured I could purchase it, use it, and resell it. the one problem I see with it is that it is only 8' wide while I was thinking 12' wide driveway - how would I do the extra 4'?

What am I missing?

 

[Dwellonroof]

You would probably be better off just to use 2 by lumber and stakes to form it then pour.

 

[Egon]

There are Proper Concrete screeds that will do what you want. “Slip Form pavers”

The area you mentioned for concrete is best left to a competent company with proper equipment. Three fellows and a paving machine is just to short on manpower, equipment designed for concrete and may leave a very unsatisfactory job.

 

[oosik]

I've seen driveway paving operations. It's a fairly labor intensive operation. Really not a DIY project.

 

[Oaktree]

How well does concrete stand up to freeze-thaw cycles compared to asphalt? Here, where the frost line can easily go 3-4' down, almost no one paves with concrete.

 

[dodge man]

Concrete if done correctly will hold up to cold weather fine. Like others have said, it sounds easy but unless you have a lot of experience, sounds like a disaster. The slump is very critical on slip forming, not to wet. But enough water to make a good mix.

 

[MossRoad]

I think you're severely underestimating the cost of enough concrete to do a 1/4 mile long driveway 12' wide by 5.5" thick.

 

[MossRoad]

1/4 mile = 1320'
12' width
5.5" thick

comes out to 269 cubic yards of concrete.

IF you could get it for $100 per yard that's $26,900 just for the concrete.

Average prices of concrete today are above $100 per yard. Depending on the mix, you could be looking at $100-150 per yard.

 

[ruffdog]

My family has always had concrete drives and it is not that hard to pour. We would pour in the morning when dad worked 2nd shift and I would prep the next pour before the next morning. To have edge support you need to be 12' wide and we use 6 bag mix with fiberglass. The house we own now we poured at 5.5" deep and Propane trucks drive on it.

With a very good base, a 4" paving job is quite strong.

 

[4570Man]

I calculate 315 yards of concrete to do a 1/4 mile 12 foot wide and the 2700 square foot pad. That’s way more than $17,000 of concrete. More like $40,000 worth. Aside from that attempting to DIY it especially through a paver is an awful idea. If the driveway is already asphalt why would you demo it? Just put down another 2” on top. You’d save the cost of demoing and hauling away which in itself would be expensive and you’d cut the material in half.

 

[Have tractor did travel]

If you decide to do asphalt, spec that minimum thickness to be 2" - NOT average thickness.
Old cracks in asphalt will telegraph through topcoat. Get a fabric liner to put over old asphalt.
If you decide to do concrete, don't take on the whole job at once. Break it up into sections. Think in terms of 12' x 12'. All would recognize that as a DIY size. If that goes well, following weekend, do a 12' x 24'. You get the idea.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

My family has always had concrete drives and it is not that hard to pour. We would pour in the morning when dad worked 2nd shift and I would prep the next pour before the next morning. To have edge support you need to be 12' wide and we use 6 bag mix with fiberglass. The house we own now we poured at 5.5" deep and Propane trucks drive on it.

With a very good base, a 4" paving job is quite strong.

I'd use wire instead of fiber mix. Or maybe wire and fiber. I have poured lots of concrete. Have two power towells now plus all the drags and bull floats. Pour it manual. That machine is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

My driveway is concrete, and is about 50 foot long and about 20 foot wide, with a decorative border. It was poured about 22 years ago; they removed the old concrete, hauled it off, built forms, with steel reinforcement, poured and finished it for $4500. It is still nice, with only a few small cracks. FWIW, it is much nicer, from an esthetic point of view, than my neighbor's asphalt drive.

The price was right; some of the estimates were as high as $7000. The contractor called me around Christmas, said the builders had shut down for the holidays, and that he need to keep his crew working so they would have some Christmas money.

 

[ponytug]

I'd use wire instead of fiber mix. Or maybe wire and fiber. I have poured lots of concrete. Have two power towells now plus all the drags and bull floats. Pour it manual. That machine is a disaster waiting to happen.

Yes, fiber and wire do different things.

Concrete is very strong in compression, but relatively weak in tension. Properly rebar reinforced concrete is twice as strong as unreinforced concrete. The compression happens when a heavy truck passes over a well compacted, deep base. The latter happens when there is a lack of support underneath, and the concrete flexes downward, like a beam in a building.

Glass or plastic fiber helps with surface cracking and spalling, especially during drying. It doesn't add much strength to the final concrete. There are spiral steel "fibers" that are sometimes used as a strength additive, but even more than glass or plastic, the steel fibers tend to clump during mixing, which does away with their strength. It is very technique driven, and dependent upon not having water on the surface, I.e. ok for a warehouse floor, but not for a driveway, especially one that gets salt.

Rebar, 3/4 of the way down on lots of supports (chairs, preferably plastic or concrete), wired together so that it does not get stepped on and pressed to the bottom, acts in tension to support the concrete and helps reduce cracking caused by heavy loads or a poor base, or, say ground squirrels.

Lots of information here; Concrete Rebar: Everything You Need To Know [plus 8 Main Types]

Steel Fibers and Rebar - Concrete Fiber Solutions

(You can click here to download a printable version of this article.) Steel fibers and rebar have some things in common. Both are made of steel. Both are used to reinforce concrete, and both can be found in floor slabs. Because of those common features, it is tempting to think of the two...

www.concretefibersolutions.com

@Creamer In answer to the original question, this doesn't sound like a DIY job to me, and as others have mentioned, I think that the pricing is off.

For DIY, in addition to pouring, concrete requires good surface work (floating) to milk more cement to the surface to make a harder, more water impervious layer at the top. You need to be doing that at the right time after pouring when the concrete has just set enough. Concrete waits for nobody.

As @Have tractor will travel mentions, you could break it up into small 12x12' chunks, but why demo out a reasonable asphalt base? I would level up the base, tar it, add fabric (geotextile), tar it again, and pave with 2+" of new asphalt. If you are worried about loads, talk to your asphalt supplier and get base asphalt put down which has a coarser mix of gravel, but is stronger. Repave with a second layer of finish asphalt in a year or two, if you want a super smooth driveway.

All the best,

Peter

 

[plowhog]

What am I missing?

I had a concrete company recently install a 3,600 sq ft concrete slab for my metal building. 60 feet by 60 feet. Just a fraction of the area you are considering, although a building slab is probably more complex to do than a driveway.

On the day of the pour, they had a crew of about 10 men working on it. Plus a pump truck. Plus "ride on" motorized trowel machines. And it goes on and on. I never saw any of them sit down until the job was finished, which took most of the day.

Did I mention all the prep work they did in advance of the day of the pour?

I can't imagine anyone trying to do that, or something larger, DIY.

I'm really pleased with the warranty offered by my contractor. When I asked about it, he said: "Lifetime warranty against fire and theft !!!"

 

[Fixastuff]

Sometimes the easier something looks the harder it is to do correctly....concrete falls into that category for me.

I do small concrete jobs from time to time and you are at the concrete's mercy, no breaks and if something goes wrong it's ALOT of work to correct.

 

[ponytug]

@plowhog LOL Love the warranty.

All the best,

Peter

 

[cqaigy2]

It would be interesting to see what kind of support would be required to feed the slip paver. Pumper, or can the truck drive along side and dump into the hopper?

 

[dodge man]

There are a couple different styles, some have a bin, some you just dump on the ground and the paver grabs it and spreads it out. Some are huge, will do more than 24 feet wide.

 

[4570Man]

If you decide to do asphalt, spec that minimum thickness to be 2" - NOT average thickness.
Old cracks in asphalt will telegraph through topcoat. Get a fabric liner to put over old asphalt.
If you decide to do concrete, don't take on the whole job at once. Break it up into sections. Think in terms of 12' x 12'. All would recognize that as a DIY size. If that goes well, following weekend, do a 12' x 24'. You get the idea.

A 12x12 slab is only a little over 2 yards which isn’t enough to get free delivery from most concrete plants so your slab needs to be bigger to get the best value but it definitely needs to be done in sections.