300' stone drive to be completed - concrete or asphalt?

[Unregistered2013]

okay, i have a 300' drive that is stone now, and it SUCKS --

-- it's impossible to snow-blow, etc. and i was looking at getting it paved or concreted --

-- i am in buffalo, so am concerned about cracking --

-- the concrete guy quoted me 300 x 10 = 300 sq-ft at $3/sf -- so $9K -- with a year-guarantee at no spider-cracking -- 4,000 PSI -- 4" slab --

-- thoughts??

thank you!

eric

 

[AlanB]

I would go concrete, and it will be usable, practically forever. If you Pave it, might as well start planning on the sealing, patching and maintenance it will come up quicker then you can imagine.

 

[Unregistered2013]

I would go concrete, and it will be usable, practically forever. If you Pave it, might as well start planning on the sealing, patching and maintenance it will come up quicker then you can imagine.

thank you for this -- i am somewhat concerned about cracking -- the guy said he puts flex lines every 8' --

-- 4" slab -- sounds pretty though --

 

[WVBill]

Preparation, preparation, preparation...

I had my 325 foot gravel/stone driveway paved with asphalt about two years ago (ran about $4,800 as I recall). It's "hanging in there" but I can already see the areas where it's going to fail (they're sinking). Those are the same areas where my gravel/stone driveway was sinking before. Clearly it had an inadequate base and the guy who paved it was supposed to correct that before he paved. It looked good for the first year - the one year warranty period...

If you have "issues" with areas of your stone driveway - make sure your paving contract, whether concerte or asphalt, specifically includes putting in a proper base. Also, try to get more than a year guarantee.

WVBill

 

[Unregistered2013]

Preparation, preparation, preparation...

I had my 325 foot gravel/stone driveway paved with asphalt about two years ago (ran about $4,800 as I recall). It's "hanging in there" but I can already see the areas where it's going to fail (they're sinking). Those are the same areas where my gravel/stone driveway was sinking before. Clearly it had an inadequate base and the guy who paved it was supposed to correct that before he paved. It looked good for the first year - the one year warranty period...

If you have "issues" with areas of your stone driveway - make sure your paving contract, whether concerte or asphalt, specifically includes putting in a proper base. Also, try to get more than a year guarantee.

WVBill

thanks very much for this, bill - i am really scared of what you're talking about --

i will keep an eye on the foundation work when getting quotes -- thanks!

eric

 

[jdgreg]

Or you could have a portion that's closed to your house paved, and the remainder chip and tarred. You dont want to do the chip/tar all the way to the house cause you'll always be tracking in the small stones. Our driveway is paved and the common drive is chip/tarred. It works very well here.

I would think asphalt would be cheaper and easier to mainain over the long run over concrete, but I have no experience with concrete driveways.

 

[1bush2hog]

Concrete will be more durable, not sure 4" will be thick enough if you have any heavy trucks on it. You may want to consider 5-6" if you have any heavy trucks that will use the drive.

All Concrete WILL crack eventually, however you can minimize any structural cracks with adequately spaced expansion joints.

The best system is a concrete paver system or cobblestone, however they are very expensive, but if one of the pavers cracks it is a simple job to replace individual pavers. They are also very nice looking.

 

[rdln]

do you have oil, propane delivery? even the ups drivers like to back in with these 8' trucks and they arent always careful specially with an 10' drive.

I would suggest wider

I would sugesst thicker crete

and a well done asphalt drive is as durable plus neither will look new after awhile but you can seal an asphalt and get that new look back.

 

[bigtiller]

There are only two guarantees with ready mix concrete. It will get hard and it will crack. You can attempt to control the cracks with plenty of re-rod and expansion joints. The next thing is, if it is only 4 inches thick, in 10 years the cracks will become large and unsightly with grass and weeds growing in them. Driveways need to be 6 inches thick or more, depending on traffic, to stand up to heaving. If you have heavy trucks on a monthly biases coming in I would worry if I had less than 8 inches.

 

[Kendall69]

...It will get hard and it will crack.

You beat me to the punch. Anyone guaranteeing concrete not to crack - IS CRACKED in the head.

The guarantee is the easy part, it’s the taking care of the guarantee that’s the hard part.