Blacktop or Concrete driveway?

[scoutcub]

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!

 

[JB4310]

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!

If you get sub freezing temps don't get concrete, asphalt is more forgiving with any movement, less sensitive to ice melting compounds, I would think much less expensive.

And you already like blacktop

JB.

 

[tree farmer]

Just a couple of thoughts here. The surface, concrete or asphalt, will only be as good as the base prep. under it, so do your homework on this. Carefully select a good contractor, and check out some of his local work. A well constructed concrete drive is by far the most durable, but will keep you off it 'til it cures and is also the most costly. Asphalt (pavement) is the fastest, installation and cure time, cheapest, but has a few negatives: It is not gas or solvent resistant and tends to develop potholes and gouges easily if you're plowing snow . Requires maintenance patching and sealing occasionally. Personally, I like asphalt as our county tax office doesn't see asphalt as a permanent item, so they don't skyrocket your property taxes like they do for concrete drives.:thumbsup:...Dan.

 

[gwjd]

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!

for a slop i would thing asphalt would be cheaper

what ever you go with make sure you get the base right dont let them throw pavement on the exsisting gravel at a minimum it needs to be bladed and compacted. asphalt is just as good as con but is more sensitive to base movement

 

[Diamondpilot]

In Indiana Concrete is considered a permanent surface. Black-Top is considered temporary. Due to this there is no extra property tax on BT but there is on Concrete. Check with your local assessor.

I got a bid a few years ago to do my drive both ways. BT with 2" base and 1" top was $8600. Concrete was $42,000. I did not do anything yet due to the economy and me wanting to hang on to my $$$$.

This summer I have decided to do a 20'x40' stoop of concrete in the front of my Pole Barn. I will then use BT on the remainder of the of the drive.

By the way here is a picture of my drive. Its 280' long and is 25' at the road and 40' at the barn. I think its 8,500 SQ FT give or take.

The drive is as wide as the stakes in the snow picture but I only plow X wide to keep the gravel out of my yard.

Chris

 

[FinMod]

One other thing to keep in mind in snowy places (like Michigan). Once you blow or push the vast majority of the snow off the driveway, the blacktop will be clear in no time but it will take a lot longer with concrete to melt/evaporate. The sun on black does wonders! I have a pad in front of the garage that is concrete with a blacktop drive and the difference is, well, black and white.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Ray

 

[Cat_Driver]

Concrete BUT add stainless steel fibers of other fibers to the cement mix. I just laid a side walk on powder sand with no base and it has never cracked and I drive trucks across it.

With asphalt you will always and I do mean always be repairing it, weeds will grow up through it, it will crack so that you always have to fill the cracks and don't forget sealing it every year.

I know I used to install asphalt and repair hundreds of drive ways.

 

[etcallhome]

One other thing to keep in mind in snowy places (like Michigan). Once you blow or push the vast majority of the snow off the driveway, the blacktop will be clear in no time but it will take a lot longer with concrete to melt/evaporate. The sun on black does wonders! I have a pad in front of the garage that is concrete with a blacktop drive and the difference is, well, black and white.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Ray

I agree with all the above , only bad things with blacktop,
If you drop gasoline on it,eats down in to surface
if you jack up a car truck setting on blacktop, jack will make holes
Every year you have to clean and put on a sealer.
Buying sealer each yr and then spreading on sealer staying off drive for a couple of days.. Depending on size of drive 1 5gal can or 15 cans or more ,couple of brushes to put sealer...
After about 20-25 yrs, time to resurface and start process all over again

Concrete put down good base same as blacktop
pour concrete stay off drive for about 3 -5 days
should last rest of your life..
no sealer each year , over 20 yrs the extra cost of concrete evens out a lot.
Not much difference in price when you add up all the costs ,
Brother in law choose blacktop ,I choose concrete
His looks like crap now after 25 yrs ,,,,Yes I replaced the bottom 1/2 of mine because of a drain failure not because of the concrete. But upper part was poured in 1978 still looks good no cracks..
Just my 2 cents

 

[arrabil]

I've got 300'+ of blacktop. I believe it was put in in 1985 a year after the house was built. I've had it since 2002. Never done a single thing to it. Literally nothing. Its just starting to crack and make holes. Yeah, it eats down to the "rock" when you get bad stuff on it. No idea why you would need to seal it every year. No idea why I would do anything at all to it. Maybe ten years from now we'll seal it. Maybe.

 

[JB4310]

I've got 300'+ of blacktop. I believe it was put in in 1985 a year after the house was built. I've had it since 2002. Never done a single thing to it. Literally nothing. Its just starting to crack and make holes. Yeah, it eats down to the "rock" when you get bad stuff on it. No idea why you would need to seal it every year. No idea why I would do anything at all to it. Maybe ten years from now we'll seal it. Maybe.

Don't seal it you'll make it worse, ever see them Painting (sealing) public streets.

JB.

 

[arrabil]

Exactly. I should add that the hole is due to the loader and then the snow blower on the tractor. When I used a walk-behind snow blower it wasn't enough weight to affect the driveway at all.

My wife and I were even saying we wouldn't mind it deteriorating a little more.... that much more grip on a 17 degree grade in the winter.

You may be able to make out the one and only hole I'm talking about in the attached picture...

 

[mjncad]

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!

As others have said, proper prep work is the key to having a long lasting driveway regardless of it being concrete, asphalt, or crushed rock.

You didn't say how long and wide the driveway is or how steep the slope is.

I like asphalt for its lower initial cost, concrete for its looks and durability, and when I resurface our ~4,000 square foot driveway this year it will be with crushed rock or recycled concrete. The reason for my surface choice is cost savings, I can do it myself, easier to repair, and I don't have to worry about our expansive soils and freeze/thaw cycles wrecking it. My other gripe with asphalt is tracking oil/tar into the garage/house.

Get some estimates for asphalt and concrete, see how much sticker shock it is for your budget, then maybe reconsider crushed rock.

 

[GE222]

My drive is one continuous slope and is made of asphalt. After 20 years, cracks are starting to show. I really do like the way the snow melts quickly.

With both asphalt and concrete, the base is very very important.

 

[Pops15]

A quality concrete drive is far superior to a quality blacktop drive. The reason for sealing blacktop is to keep water from penetrating it. It doesn't need to be done every year. Maybe every 5-6 years. Some people just like the looks of a freshly sealed drive. The reasons you don't see streets being sealcoated is because the base is almost always better than what a guy blacktopping a drive will do, and blacktop streets nearly always have better drainage than driveways. It's been many years since I compared price between concrete and asphalt but a concrete drive used to run about 2 1/2 times what a blacktop drive would run.

 

[Egon]

A quality concrete drive is far superior to a quality blacktop drive. The reason for sealing blacktop is to keep water from penetrating it. It doesn't need to be done every year. Maybe every 5-6 years. Some people just like the looks of a freshly sealed drive. The reasons you don't see streets being sealcoated is because the base is almost always better than what a guy blacktopping a drive will do, and blacktop streets nearly always have better drainage than driveways. It's been many years since I compared price between concrete and asphalt but a concrete drive used to run about 2 1/2 times what a blacktop drive would run.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Check the prices and the budget and go with concrete if it's affordable.

Asphalt starts deteriorating the day it's installed.

 

[20 20]

Black top

 

[brin]

I've had black top on my 1,200 ft. road for 24 yrs. now ..we sealed in after the first 6 mos. and then again after 10 yrs. the road is boardered by bermuda grass pastures so once a year we spray roundup along the edge of the road to keep the bermuda grass at bay. The road has held up great and we had a real good base before we put it down.. You do not need to sealcoat it ever if you have a good installation to start with and seal it 6 mos. after it has been down. If you are going to jack something up on it..put a board under your jack..problem solved. Concrete cracks and you can have a real mess but with black top you can always top it with one inch and your road is totally resurfaced and not expensively.

 

[JB4310]

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.

 

[nickel plate]

I put myself through college (and with the help of the G.I. Bill) working for an asphalt paving and grading company and I worked on anything from freeway projects to parking lots. The key to a residential asphalt driveway that is well prepared base-wise is to add a border of at least P.T. 2x material or ideally a concrete berm (curb) to contain the asphalt then backfill and tamp the border.

 

[galen1115]

If you can afford it, concrete. It your drive is long or on the north side slope, blacktop.