Blacktop or Concrete driveway?

[flusher]

Looking at purchasing a home in Ohio with a fairly sloped gravel driveway. Would like to get it surfaced, always liked blacktop more, but looking for recommendations, pros/cons for either....

thanks in advance!

I also have a fairly sloped gravel driveway 20ft wide x 330 ft long. It was installed in Apr05, 6" thick road base installed in 2" thick lifts, watered and rolled between lifts. Now that surface is hard as concrete. Haven't had to do any maintenance on it.

I've had several salespeople drive by my place, see that driveway and proceed to tell me how nice it would look blacktopped. I say no thanks, I like the gravel look.

 

[JB4310]

I also have a fairly sloped gravel driveway 20ft wide x 330 ft long. It was installed in Apr05, 6" thick road base installed in 2" thick lifts, watered and rolled between lifts. Now that surface is hard as concrete. Haven't had to do any maintenance on it.

I've had several salespeople drive by my place, see that driveway and proceed to tell me how nice it would look blacktopped. I say no thanks, I like the gravel look.

Absolutely many high end homes have gravel drives, not because they can't afford to hard surface them but strictly for the looks.
PITA for snow removal though, since a nice looking gravel drive is gonna be the loose pea stone or other smaller chips, not a packed road base type material that's a little easier to plow.

JB.

 

[Pops15]

There was a thread last winter of a guy that had a long concrete drive with some steep grade, he was parking at the bottom and walking up with ice shoes cause his driveway froze and he couldn't or wouldn't put sand/salt on it.

Around here in New England you will not find many concrete drives, their OK for down South but not where the ground heaves 4 inches or more in the winter. There were some areas of my driveway that looked like a roller coaster this year, but they are going back down.

Freezing and thawing is brutal on concrete, even with a Govt project base and heavy steel reinforcement, where the structure is not compromised, there's not much that's looks worse than a concrete surface all spalled and chipped.
JB.

Concrete drives are common here in northern Illinois and we have pretty severe weather extremes. Most of the high end developments require concrete because it holds up longer than asphalt. The heaving you described can be kept to a minimum with a good base and proper drainage. Heaving is caused by the moisture in the ground freezing. As hard as that is on concrete its harder on asphalt.
The surface problems you described are usually caused by improper finishing (adding water, working the finish after the concrete has set too much), or road salt. Proper finishing and a one time application of sealer will prevent nearly all of the problems with the finish popping off.

BTW Most of my drive is gravel. Part is asphalt. I highly recommend concrete.

 

[WBWI]

There was a thread last winter of a guy that had a long concrete drive with some steep grade, he was parking at the bottom and walking up with ice shoes cause his driveway froze and he couldn't or wouldn't put sand/salt on it.

That would be me. We had the drive installed the year gas was $4/gallon and oil was $100+/barrel. Concrete wasn't that much more than asphalt and given the length of our drive and the maintenace asphalt would require over 30 years it was an "easy" decision. 13 truck loads of concrete, half a dozen guys and about 8 work days and the job was done. As far as issues... yes we had an ice storm last winter that deposited a nice layer on the entire drive. There was no way I was putting salt on a brand new drive and I could not get enough sand down (a 60# bag at a time) to make a difference. We did use ice creepers to walk up and dpwn for a week. We generally don't get a lot of ice so this was a minor inconvenience. As stated, snow would melt faster on an asphalt drive. The tractor/blower does a decent job with snow so we really haven't had problems since the ice storm.

 

[JB4310]

Concrete drives are common here in northern Illinois and we have pretty severe weather extremes. Most of the high end developments require concrete because it holds up longer than asphalt. The heaving you described can be kept to a minimum with a good base and proper drainage. Heaving is caused by the moisture in the ground freezing. As hard as that is on concrete its harder on asphalt.
The surface problems you described are usually caused by improper finishing (adding water, working the finish after the concrete has set too much), or road salt. Proper finishing and a one time application of sealer will prevent nearly all of the problems with the finish popping off.

BTW Most of my drive is gravel. Part is asphalt. I highly recommend concrete.

Well I'm surprised you have many concrete drives in your area.

Like I said I can only think of a handful of residential concrete drives that I know of and those have all been replaced at least once, so they are definitely not forever.
That said we do have concrete sidewalks that last forever (40+ years) and still look good, the old ones last longer than the new ones due to the quality of the finish, which takes time not like the pour 300ft of side walk in the morning and strike once with a screed and once with a course broom and your finished
With side walks though you're not getting heavy traffic, and heavy plows scraping the surface along with less road salt and chemicals.

But realistically cost alone may be the crucial factor, especially when talking about long drives up hills etc. the cost would be so prohibitive.

I need my driveway redone, it's multi layered 70+ years old and I can't afford to do it with asphalt, even just a glorified topping.

JB.

 

[JB4310]

That would be me. We had the drive installed the year gas was $4/gallon and oil was $100+/barrel. Concrete wasn't that much more than asphalt and given the length of our drive and the maintenace asphalt would require over 30 years it was an "easy" decision. 13 truck loads of concrete, half a dozen guys and about 8 work days and the job was done. As far as issues... yes we had an ice storm last winter that deposited a nice layer on the entire drive. There was no way I was putting salt on a brand new drive and I could not get enough sand down (a 60# bag at a time) to make a difference. We did use ice creepers to walk up and dpwn for a week. We generally don't get a lot of ice so this was a minor inconvenience. As stated, snow would melt faster on an asphalt drive. The tractor/blower does a decent job with snow so we really haven't had problems since the ice storm.

Yup, I thought you might see this, How is yours holding up? any cracks or surface damage? did you ever seal it? do you use any sand or salt?

I have nothing against concrete just think it's not the best choice for northern climates. I do remember how beautiful yours came out.

JB.

 

[WBWI]

Drive is holding up well. The only areas I have damage are the expansion joints. I've hit them with the edge of the bucket when scraping snow and chipped a few of the them. I haven't seen any other pops or cracks. I still won't use salt but have thrown down sand on the worst inclines.

The drive was sealed when it was installed and they recommended sealing it every few years. I need to figure out how to power wash it before I seal it again. I don't have 700' of hose laying around to supply water.

 

[arrabil]

No salt, needs to be cleaned, easily damaged, no sun melt, more expensive.... I'm missing it..... what makes a concrete drive better?

 

[brin]

I posted earlier about my black top driveway but I do have to say my prefrence would have been to leave it gravel..A little known fact, as one poster has already posted , if you use a real good base and then put down 4 inches of wet cruser run ( has cement dust in it ) and then roll it really good - you have a fine road that will last forever and require very little maintenance. I loved the look of our gravel road but our county passed a law that required the first 20 feet to be cememt or black top where it joined the county road..I just did not think it would look good...it would look like we ran out of money and could not afford to finish the job so back then I just black topped the whole thing but I sure loved the look of the gravel...it was packed and smooth ..just like concrete but without the expense or worry.

 

[Jeff244]

One nice thing about asphalt is that after 15-20 years you can resurface it with another 1.5" of asphalt and it will be brand new again, assuming it's not in too bad of shape. If it has lots of wide cracks, then you can have the asphalt removed and replaced, using the same base. Or you can have a "petromat" fabric put down prior to resurfacing.

A new asphalt driveway should be sealed after it has cured at least 6 months with a good quality gas and oil resistant sealer. You should seal a new driveway 2 years in a row and then every 4-6 years after that. If you seal it too often it tends to get slippery, although silica sand can be added to it for traction. It's also a waste of money to seal it every year.

The reasons roads aren't sealed is that the constant traffic tends to seal it. Also, the seal would wear off in no time. Just look a a parking lot that has been sealed, the entrances and exits start to wear off in a few months. Also, the seal would make the roads slippery and therefore dangerous.

Like many others have said, one of the most important things is the base. If there is already gravel there, take a pick and dig down to make sure you have at least 6" of gravel. Another thing to do is have a loaded tandem axle dump truck drive over it slowly to see if there is any movement in the base. If there's much movement, your base may be inadequate.

One more thing to think about, although it will be more expensive is to have the first layer of asphalt put down this year and the second coat put down next year. After going through the winter most weak areas will show and can be fixed prior to putting the final coat on.

Good luck,
Jeff