My new driveway!

[pinshooter45]

Haven't had time to do Pix yet but just had my drive way paved with asphaltn by Central Paving. IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! Went 18' wide and I'm about 60' or about 5 cars long. Been trying to get this done for years every time I had the money in the past, something would come up and eat the cash! Now it's finally done! And Black is beautiful!

 

[IndyMonkey]

At our house in Indy I went from 8' wide x 50' long to 3600sf of concrete, it was a beautiful thing.

You cant ever have enough hard surface for sidewalk chalk

 

[Naptown]

You cant ever have enough hard surface for sidewalk chalk

+1 to that!

 

[Sausagecake]

Gotta have a good basketball court for the kids(and you), this is Indiana after all!

 

[Hkindiana]

How expensive is it to put in a driveway? Also, how much more is concrete than asphalt? What are the pros and cons of each - I'm tired of driving on gravel.

 

[IndyBeerman]

Haven't had time to do Pix yet but just had my drive way paved with asphaltn by Central Paving. IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! Went 18' wide and I'm about 60' or about 5 cars long. Been trying to get this done for years every time I had the money in the past, something would come up and eat the cash! Now it's finally done! And Black is beautiful!

I had mine redone 2 years ago, the main part is 27x50 with a 8x25 pad that continues around beside the garage.

Cost 3100.00 to get it repaved because the last owner never heard of sealer and worked on cars on the asphalt instead of the concrete garage floor.

Nothing eats up an asphalt driveways faster that oil and gas.

 

[IndyMonkey]

.

 

[pinshooter45]

My cost

The original quote was $3525.00 got them down to $3200.00 for paying cash. Concrete is generally 3-4 times the cost of asphalt, and concrete will raise your property taxes cause it is considered a permanant improvement. Asphalt is not. And I will probably put up a basketball goal, for my grandkids. Although Half the neighbor hood may want to come and play on it. One of the crew sugessted I buy a pop machine and sit it out side and recover some of my investment. Thinking about it!

 

[Indy317]

I had them do my driveway a few years ago. Wide and long enough to hold eight cars (two rows of four cars bumper to bumper). It was just under $3,000 because it was during that warm December we had a few years back. Here are some suggestions I would do immediately:

#1: I had a gravel driveway, and it did make a nice bed for the asphalt. They didn't do much scraping off the surface, which is fine, except that if you have exposed sides, you will start getting gaps in the sides. You need to immediately start supporting those sides by adding dirt. I failed to do this and am playing catch up. My recommendation is to get a load of well pulverized dirt, very few rocks. Go to Mernards and get a grass seed blanket (they are green in color). Also look for the clear plastic biodegradable stakes (they aren't really plastic). Add a ton of dirt to the sidewalls if they are higher than the existing ground surface. I would suggest making the dirt 1/2" or so higher. Put down the seed blanket and water daily. The seed blanket provides excellent erosion control. The first time I did this, I didn't put any erosion control down over the recently added dirt. What happened was that when it would rain, water would flow off the driveway causing washout areas. Even after five years and two loads of dirt, I will still need to add some next year. Don't use burlap type blankets, even ones that are really porous. They work at erosion control, but it is hard to get grass to grow from under them. The best is the seed blankets that Mernards sells. I watered them only a few times and they stayed green. The Lowes brand that I used browned out quickly, but still worked at erosion control.

#2: Weeds will grow through if you don't already have a solid surface (ie: Blacktop over concrete). Buy some kill all vegetation killer. Attack them when you start seeing small bumps in the driveway. I only had to do this for one summer, now nothing comes up. You will have large thick weeds push right through that asphalt if you don't spray them. You can step on the bumps and they will flatten out (might even use bricks). This will likely happen next spring time, so be ready. I was shocked a week could actually grow through about 2-3" of asphalt.

#3: I was told to seal coat after about nine months. I'm not really sure if that is correct or not. I highly recommend a guy named Ed Couch. He is out of Brown County, but is willing to travel. His prices are in line with others. We had our driveway done in Dec., then had the seal coat put on in the following Sept. per Central Paving. I had Ed do it then and it was over $300.00. Going by what a relative said, I opted to do it every other year. Ed uses some method that you don't see broom marks. Very nice, black sealer. Two years later I used another local guy, who was $225. Ed actually matched that price, but didn't get me his info till later. The local guy didn't do a bad job, but they left long lines on the driveway. This year, after neglecting to support my sides, and having some cracks, I decided to once again have it sealed. I had Ed do it again. I have never meet the guy, as he does it while I am at work. He was recommended by a neighbor of my parents and lots of my neighbors used him after I did.

#4: I would highly suggest doing the small crack seals yourself. It can be somewhat messy, but not too bad. This year I tried four different brands, and came to realize the best stuff is what I used years ago on one area by the mailbox. The stuff is called Quikrete Blacktop Crack Seal. It is sold at Lowes in a black plastic bottle with yellow and blue label (1 QT). Wash out the cracks with the hose, let it dry, and sit down and push this stuff into the crack with your finger. It is by far the best of all the crack sealers, and it is also the stuff that matches the black color.

This year, given my driveway issues (unsupported sides falling apart until I finally supported them), I sealed the cracks myself. I then called Ed to do a seal coat. At $225 a pop, I might look at just doing it myself since I don't want to pay that every year. I also have an oil or small gas spot that I will need to clean off next year. I saw they had stuff at Lowes for that as well. I have no idea where that came from, as I change my oil in the garage and we park our cars in the garage. Does anyone know how often one should seal coat their driveway?

Just wanted to share a few newbie tips since I had the same thing done just four years ago.