Every homeowner wants to know what it costs to pave a driveway. It is a concern to many that would help a lot in personal budgeting. It is important to make your visitors’ first impression on your home. Welcome them with an aesthetically pleasing driveway.
Paving your driveway, however, comes with a cost. This guide will give you updated cost estimates for the various projects on pacing that you may wish to have. The average cost per square foot of your job will differ depending on your location, the size of your project and on the materials used.
Paving is a great way that can enhance the exterior of your home. It personalizes the appearance of your home, incorporates different unique materials and goes ahead to the point where you can avoid hiring labor since you have the chance of doing the job by yourself.
The materials that you select to pave your driveway is the main factor to the price charged. It will also affect the homes resale value and more so the appearance from outside.
Asphalt driveway cost
Asphalt has been considered by most of the contractor as the cheapest option when it comes to pavement installations. It is an economical, safe, and building material that can be recycled. It is therefore important that you source professional experts in the asphalt driveway installation. When perfectly fit, the driveway gives a clean and safe surface where you can work from and your kids can use to play.
Having a pavement, whether it is in blacktop court, walkways, parking lot, or simply being a driveway, offers your home and business owner’s great benefits. You will enjoy great advantages in times of snow removal. It is, therefore, a project that will require professional skills and tools.
Replacing, resurfacing or paving asphalt driveways costs between $2,800 and can go up to $6,200. Depending on your specifications, however, the project can go to as low as $1,500 to as high as $10,000. Most homeowners, to put up a normal average asphalt concrete, it costs $3 to $4 per square foot.
What do I need to Consider when Installing Asphalt Driveway
Compared to the other driveways, many homeowners prefer using asphalt installation. Most claim its way cheaper. The price, however, can be affected by several factors.
Check out the below primary factors which affect the final cost of installing the driveway.
Expected Weight and Size Capacity of the Driveway
The size to be covered by the pavement is the first thing a contractor will check. The larger it is, of course, you expect higher prices. The size of the driveway also matters. It might be very small yet very thick.
The expected weight depends on the vehicles that you will be running in the driveway. When using small vehicles you simply use the normal pavement mixtures. When you are likely to be parking heavy vehicles on the pavement, you will need a full-depth. The full depth asphalt is very strong as they are made specialized asphalt mixture through from the top to the bottom part. The mixture is what creates strength and durability of the driveway that can withstand heavier loads than the normal asphalt driveways.
When the driveway is in full depth it means more of the material will be used and especially when you are using the specialized material, more costs will be incurred.
The shape of the driveway is another factor that you have to keep in mind. There are those which have an unusual shape, length or even the slope. This makes the installation work much easier and the more difficult the installation is the more expensive you are likely to get the cost of the driveway.
The Mobilization Cost
Here you need to have a consideration of how you are going to move the equipment and tools from the source site to your home. The cost at the end of the day cannot be on the contractor. The more complicated and far your location is the more the cost will rise. Installation of the asphalt driveway will need equipment and personal transportation. The entire costs will be determined by your site location from the asphalt plant.
You might not compare the cost of installing asphalt and concrete driveways but in terms of the equipment required to complete the job, asphalts become more demanding. You will have to consider the transportation and also the fueling costs which are necessary to bring in the compactors and also dump trucks, roller trucks, paving machines and other tools and laborers to the paving site. This can, therefore, make the expenses rise even before you start off the installation work.
The Cost of Preparation
To have your asphalt pavement standing is not a one-day activity. The installation process doesn’t start automatically. It takes time and effort to prepare before the actual work starts. Just like what happens in a house construction, a good driveway has to go through a few foundational steps to make the ground ready to impact the heavy weight.
To avoid future problems with your pavement, a subgrade is required. It needs top workmanship that gives you pavement a foundation platform. It also provides the proper support required to maintain the structure of the driveway.
A properly subgrade layer has tight compartments to hold asphalt layers which will be laid down on it. A supporting aggregate material is then placed on the subgrade. This is the subbase. Subbase is either used as crushed gravel or you can use the coarse recycled asphalt. Both will work well. This layer is the one that determines the thickness of the pavement depending on the types of vehicles that you expect to go through. It will go to approximately 4-6 inches of thickness.
Recycled asphalt is mainly recommended since it helps in improving the drainage and also attaches the pave better. You will definitely remove any obstructions such as trees to apply the subbase properly.
In case the current asphalt has to be removed, your cost of preparation will increase at the end of the day. The contractor will, therefore, haul off, dig up and even dispose of the removed materials.
Materials Cost
The highest percentage if the asphalt driveway comes from the cost of the material. If you can get a source of low high-quality materials, your entire cost of installation will go down. The price of the material will be determined by the current market price and other materials that you may use along to improve drainage.
The subcase costs are as well factored in as part of the materials costs. Installation costs. The installation cost is one charged for labor. This cost factors in the wages for the crew members and the expenses for the worker’s payments. Due to the expenditures, you might be required to pay so many dollars for the installation costs.
Another Cost that we shall look into is the Cost of Installing a Concrete Driveway
Concrete pavement is mainly used due to the high durability. If maintained well it can even last for over 30 years. The concrete pavement continues to harden and cure as time passes. To support regular vehicles a concrete driveway should at least be 4 inches thick. 5 inches will do well for the heavier trucks.
It can cost you up to $7,300 to pave a concrete driveway. At the cheapest market, you can get the same service with as low as $3,500. The best this will install the concrete driveway is that it needs very low maintenance costs. To prevent water from sipping to the underneath, the homeowners are, therefore, advised to continually seal the cracks that come along. Using asphalt you will be required to have a recoat every year but you can go to over 5 years without any maintenance of the concrete pavers.
The concrete driveway installation cost is, however, the main worry that many homeowners want to know. To get to the final accurate price there are a few factors that will be considered. There is an online estimating tool that you can as well use to get an estimate of the kind of investment you are thinking of. It gives you a rough idea of whether to proceed with the plans for the shift to other plans.
Variables Involved to Price a Concrete Driveway
Pricing a Concrete driveway is not as simple as it may look. A professional paver will take you through a various factor that you have to check before determining the final price. The greatest contributor to the final cost is the cost at which you purchase the physical materials.
Other variables that will as well determine the cost you will pay include:
The preparation
There are a few things that you need to do before laying the foundation of the concrete driveway you don’t just pour concrete at the worksite. Proper preparation helps you get the good drainage. Poor drainage highly affects the durability of your pavements. Continuously moisture leads to the growth of certain plants that with times causes the floor to crack. Each driveway is unique. If you are installing it for the first time, you have a lot of preparation to do.
Before starting the installation process you will need to get a surveyor to lay the expertise sills on the area. They will help you get the best design and determine the accurate price.
Functionality
The main question that any contractor will ask is, “how are you planning to use the driveway?”, ‘what kinds of vehicles will be using the driveway?’ these are questions that will determine how thick the pavement will be. They will determine the extent of the materials used, and how much sub base will be used. The cost per square foot of the driveway for the heavy vehicles will be different from the one you are to use small personal vehicles.
Delivery of the mix
Concrete starts to dry up as soon as it is poured. You might opt to bring the mixed content to the site and is poured directly to the site of construction. The contractor, therefore, has to determine how the contents will get to the site. This is determined by the worksite distance from the plant. Where the plant is too near, a few trucks can be used for the job. In case the plant is quite a distance from the workstation, the contractor may consider hiring many trucks.
Installation Cost
This is another factor that you need to keep in mind. This cost will be based on the amount of physical labor required for the job. There are areas that machines might not get to that may need manpower to complete the job. This might increase the cost due to the extra time that you will need to have the job done.
What Else Should we Factor in?
Apart from the above factors, there are other things that come up that influence the driveway paving cost.
– Engineering. The topography of you worksite might affect the cost you pay. Slopes, angles, and slopes lead to extra work and extra materials. These cases lead to increased labor hours and will also lead to increased costs.
– Weather. Temperature fluctuations in the cause of the year lead to the destruction of the concrete with time. It will, therefore, need to be sealed after some time to improve on its quality. You, therefore, need to consider sealant during installation to add to its durability.
– Permits. There are different laws that have to be fulfilled in case you have any construction work in progress. If the pavement connects to a road, for instance, it is supposed to meet all those required plans.
In addition to the upfront costs of the installation and for nixing the materials, you need to consider maintenance costs. Driveways are used than your house floor and will need to be taken care of once in a while. These help keep the driveway in the best condition.
Asphalt, for instance, can withstand any weather condition than any other material used. It has an average lifespan of up to 20 years. With asphalt driveway you can, therefore, have maintenance after every 3 years, you will need at least $0.15 per square foot when sealing and in replacement, you need at least $2.25 per square foot.
Combining all the above factors helps you get a better high quality paving contractor. Price is also a great factor that you ought to consider before starting out the project. You need to be sure that you will be able to finance the project. Find the best professional paving contractors who will help you complete your job.
