Paving a long driveway

[Tomtint]

I'm thinking about paving my 1300 foot driveway this spring. I think I may do 2, 4' wide strips with 3' of a grass strip down the middle. Anyone here done this ? Pros /cons ?

 

[EddieWalker]

When you say paving, are you referring to asphalt pavement or concrete? If you want the two strips to drive down and a grass strip in the middle to mow, concrete would work for that. If you want to go with asphalt in two strips, it will fail pretty quickly. the edges of asphalt are it's weakest link. Doubling the amount of edge will more then double your odds of failure.

Most important thing is going to be a solid base. Then it's important to put it thick enough to hold up to traffic. Go too thin and have one heavy truck drive over it on a hot day, and it's ruined.

 

[Sprinklerman]

You arent going to find anyone to lay asphalt that narrow , the machines are too wide . Unless they have a path paver . And that wont save you any money .

 

[mkr7734]

Most important thing is going to be a solid base. Then it's important to put it thick enough to hold up to traffic. Go too thin and have one heavy truck drive over it on a hot day, and it's ruined.

Or much worse, when the frost is coming out of the ground. I see your in Boston area. About the best way would be to lay down stabilizer mat the whole way first, then more gravel on that. Compact it then the asphalt pavement. That should be able to handle the frost push. Lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$

We added 1,380 feet to an already 1,300 foot long lane when we built here. The part we did we cored out 6", put down down stabilizer mat, then 3" gravel then CA6 top coat. That was 12 years ago and it has never pumped. The front half of the lane pumps every year and you just got to keep adding gravel but every spring the mud comes up through the middle when the frost is coming out of the ground. I understand at one time it was a cow path that they just added gravel to, and not much from what I can tell.

 

[oosik]

There is a driveway, in town, with a double strip of concrete as you want. For whatever reasons, it didn't last long. It cracked and then the chunks heaved and the next thing I saw - all the concrete was torn out and it was a nice gravel driveway.

 

[Al Mac]

As many said don't do the strips. I did a 500' x 10' driveway with a large parking area (7000sq ft) 5 years ago. We get a lot of traffic way more than personal usage.
One point not touched on yet is this would be a spring project. Wait till Aug or Sept. Your area might be a little different. The ground will be hard as a rock in late summer. In the spring it will be soft. You also want the days to be warm for bonding and the nights to be a little cooler to firm it up. Something like when the hot days of summer are coming to a end and the windows have to be lowered or closed at night. Around that time frame is a good time.
Most people travel on the same track on a long driveway. Try to avoid this and travel to each side (not on the edge) some trips. Also avoid parking in the same spot. These items should be done for as long as you have it.
The new asphalt is not as tough as years ago. With reclaiming and trying to be greener it is a poorer product like many things.
It will be some of the best money you spend on improvements.

Al

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

I have seen people do something similar with concrete, never asphalt. As others have said, The edges are what break up, I dont think you would be happy with it in 5-10 years.

My driveway is only 250 feet long but I have said for a long time that one of these years I will do it in concrete. My plan is to form up and pour a truck or two each weekend for the summer. 1300' would take forever, probably not an option.

 

[dragoneggs]

My neighbor put in concrete strips for about 150ft of sloped driveway, I think because of concern with water runoff. A year later he filled in the middle with concrete. Not sure why either but I imagine he didn't like the extra maintenance. Or maybe it was originally to get around code? I know here we need to look at water runoff volumes and potentially have to put in retention pond/drain if paved area exceeds some certain amount.

 

[MossRoad]

I'm thinking about paving my 1300 foot driveway this spring. I think I may do 2, 4' wide strips with 3' of a grass strip down the middle. Anyone here done this ? Pros /cons ?

I think asking people to keep 4 tires on two narrow paths for 1/4 mile is asking a lot of many drivers. You're probably going to get a lot of people driving off the edge and damaging the lawn. You're also going to have a mile of edging if you decide to keep it trimmed that way. And don't you get periodic snow out there? You'll end up scraping down the grass in the center if you plow it.

 

[Streetcar]

Asphalt would be difficult to place in two strips
My parents have similar concrete driveway. It was done to save money for all houses in neighborhood. Most have been replaced with full width driveways
A split drivewayis a pain. You double the amount of grass to trim. The two slabs move relative to each other

 

[Tomtint]

Thanks all. I appreciate all the replies. I had spoken with a friend of mine in the concrete business. He figured it would require 150 yards of mix @ 115.00 per yard... Not including labor to form the strips. Concrete is just going to be out of the question. I'm thinking a 3" thick asphalt driveway may me my best option.

 

[roadhunter]

If you can buy asphalt millings or crushed asphalt it packs really nice and works well for driveways. You can always asphalt over it if you want something prettier.

 

[Tomtint]

If you can buy asphalt millings or crushed asphalt it packs really nice and works well for driveways. You can always asphalt over it if you want something prettier.

That's what we have now, it's about 5 years old a dim tired of the dust and dirt. Not to mention it's a pita to plow.

 

[Streetcar]

Thanks all. I appreciate all the replies. I had spoken with a friend of mine in the concrete business. He figured it would require 150 yards of mix @ 115.00 per yard... Not including labor to form the strips. Concrete is just going to be out of the question. I'm thinking a 3" thick asphalt driveway may me my best option.

If the existing base is holding up well the three inch overlay will be good for you

 

[Ken45101]

concrete done right will outlast asphalt many times. But strips require twice as much manual labor doing excavation, forms, etc. By the time you get done, the labor savings may exceed the cost of the extra concrete for doing it full width in the first place. When I've had concrete driveway work done, half the cost was labor and that was with a pretty low priced crew.

BTW, we have 2200 ft of driveway, all concrete, 3/4 of it coming up a steep hillside. Half of it was done in the 1970s and we finished off the rest and widened all of it.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

Everyone gets way to caught up in asphalt vs concrete. If you don't have a good sub-base it doesn't matter what you put down, its going to fail. Drainage needs to be addressed next, the sub-base has to be able to drain to carry the loads placed on it by the tires. The surface covering does nothing to carry the load if its not supported properly. One more thing, if you do concrete, put in rebar!!!! Don't get cheap on it because concrete will crack. You have to have enough steel to deal with atleast temperature and shrinkage but more is suggested.

 

[EddieWalker]

A few things to remember when having asphalt done. The mixture of what is used to create it is done at the plant, specified by the person buying it. There are ways to make it stronger, but that costs more money. One of my clients runs the local plant, and they had a parking lot fail. The owner of that parking lot was not happy, and during the course of the lawsuit, it came out that the contractor did not order the specified mixture of asphalt. He went with driveway grade asphalt instead of parking lot grade. I'm paraphrasing a conversation, and my terms are not accurate, just how I remember them. The contractor then tried to blame the plant for mixing it wrong and that they should provide the new asphalt needed to do the parking lot for free. In the end, the plant spent tons of money defending itself and the contractor ended up tearing out the parking lot and doing it over again, paying for all of it.

If you are going to do asphalt, be sure to know how thick it needs to be in your area, how wide it needs to be. You never want to be driving at the edge of it, so there needs to be a certain amount outside the tires. And of course, you need to know what your options are in the mixture of it, and what you want to pay for. Lastly, you have to make sure you actually get what you order!!!!

Having said all that, road base gravel, called different things in different places only fails when it's too thin. Sadly, this usually happens because some guys just love regrading it and dragging their box blade over it several times a year. This is the worse thing in the world for a gravel driveway. Once compacted, it should NEVER be touched again. If you get a pothole, you dig out the pothole, fill it, compact it and then leave it ALONE!!!

No matter what you think you can do asphalt for or concrete for, gravel is going to be a small fraction of those costs. Making the gravel twice as thick as you need it is still going to be a fraction of the cost of having a paved driveway. Do you really need a paved driveway or would it be more cost effective to put int he very best gravel driveway possible for a lot less money?

Here in East Texas, 4 inches of crushed limestone from 3 to fines is what we use. I went with 6 inches ten years ago and have only had a few potholes that have developed. I built up my dirt base several inches to bring it above the surrounding grade, so water is never an issue. Then after compacting the soil, I spread the rock. Water it down and compacted it, and nothing else in ten years.

 

[2458n]

My friend has a asphalt company that he married into. One daughter for the original owner. He has the equipment and labor ,and it still took ten years to pave his fathers farm lane. You can live with a good gravel drive for a long time. With the recent low cost for a barrel of oil asphalt has a chance to go below 65.00 a ton. If it does now might be the time to go full width and do it right.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Having said all that, road base gravel, called different things in different places only fails when it's too thin. Sadly, this usually happens because some guys just love regrading it and dragging their box blade over it several times a year. This is the worse thing in the world for a gravel driveway. Once compacted, it should NEVER be touched again. If you get a pothole, you dig out the pothole, fill it, compact it and then leave it ALONE!!!

.

This might be relative to somewhere south that never sees frost but couldn't be any further from truth/reality for frost country. Even our County maintained gravel roads that are built with several feet of layered and compacted gravel/crushed rock still break up and need grading from frost moving it around every year....sometimes several times a year if it's a bad freeze/thaw winter.

 

[EddieWalker]

Can't argue with what happens that far up North, but I wouldn't compare country roads to a driveway either. I bet 90% of the issues with county gravel roads has to do with the weight of the vehicles traveling on them. Same as paved roads in the rest of the world. Weight is always going to cause the most damage to a road.