Asphalt or concrete driveway?

[Darla]

Out where I live we have a lot of country roads that are what they call "chip and seal" or something like that. I wonder if that is something like rock and oil? Anyway, these old country roads done with chip and seal seem to be, well, not so great. How would you describe them...sort of humpy all over the place? I was kind of hoping for a nicer drive, but there again, we're not made of money as I admitted.

We have a lot of friends who are handy at doing all sorts of things like we are, but we'd be somewhat hesitant to do the concrete work all ourselves unless we just did like a couple 10 or 15' sections at one time. My other half seems to think that is the way to go; form up a section or two at a time and concrete a bit at a time as we can afford. Me, I'd just like to get it done, but I'm flexible and not afraid of getting my hands dirty either. I just don't want to spend all our available money on something that we wish would have been done another way at some point later in time. Make sense?

 

[jk96]

Darla,

Some of our chip and seal roads are great, some not so great. I think alot would depend on how level the starting surface was. Like I said, I don't know much about durability, but I would think it would be much cheaper than asphalt or concrete, and you could go the concrete route for around the house and parking.

If you have time, I would strongly suggest doing the concrete yourself if you have the time and manpower. The savings can be huge. I would suggest at a minimum pouring one full truck at a time, or two trucks (about 10 yards per truck I think) if you have the manpower. Just round up a few guys with experience for the first couple of pours. Two trucks at 10' wide x 6" thick would be around a 100' pour. This would take about 13 different pours for a 1/4 mile. At 15' per pour you'd be pouring a section at a time about 90 times. You'll get the hang of finishing the surface pretty quick. You could even contract out the area around the house where "looks" are a little more important.

 

[tglass]

Chip and seal durability depends almost completely on the subgrade. The grade of material under it must be completely compacted, usually primed,(a type of seal for the subgrade), then sprayed with an asphalt,(to add another layer of seal for the subgrade and make the rock adhere) and rock is put on top and rolled. A good job will be a pretty good investment and will still require some maint. at times.Sometimes oil sand, or oil dirt are used on county roads. It's made mostly of sand, some rock etc, and a softer type of asphalt oil than hot mix. There is good and bad. It will move if turned on when stopped or if stopping occurrs in the area. Advantage- it's easy to put down, patched, and in hot weather it can usually be bladed and compacted again to reform the road, (usually by adding a minimal amout of the product). I'm not saying any are good or bad. Just something to give thought.

 

[FL_Cracker]

Everyone is talking about the maintenance on asphalt and assuming concrete needs zero maintenance. It may be true that concrete needs minimal maintenance but it may not be zero. It's a very light color and many things stain it. In very shaded areas it will turn green and need pressure cleaning. Some trees drop flowers, seeds and leaves that stain it. Car & truck tires on turns leave black scuff marks. Over time it will also just plain get dark. Pressure washing is slow, dirty and NO FUN. Think about 12' wide, 1/4 mile long and having to pressure wash little thin strips. My back does not like that kind of work one bit. Even with a spay deck it's one big job.

At my store we poured a 2 1/2 acre parking area and it's held up very well for 25 years. It just look dirty all the time unless you pressure wash the green areas.

Nice part about asphalt, every time you reseal it, it looks new all over again. If you ever have a bad spot to repair in a concrete drive it will be very visible no matter what you do. Asphalt blends great, and after the annual top coat, it looks just like new....

There all kinds of ways to look at it.

Attached are some pictures showing how certain spots get black and stained from algae and trees.