New drive way and pad

[Silverflames]

Hello all,

We are getting ready to put in a asphalt millings drive way and parking pad for the AS.

I was leaning towards millings, since I don't want the maintenance on a smooth asphalt drive. It will close to 700' long, so the maintenance might be expensive. Millings, not as pretty but would be fine for a country drive way.

So my question is, what has other people's experiences with asphalt driveways been like? How long should I expect it to hold up in the Fl sun?

Thanks!

[Silverflames]

Asphalt drive way? Good Bad? The ugly?

[GMFL]

Concrete for me

[Sbb]

I am in NJ. When I put my jack down, I lay a 2x2 piece of ply wood first, then three 12x12x 2 squares of lumber, keeps the foot of jack from sinking on hot Summer days.

[TennTex]

Interested in responses to this as we are having our driveway resurfaced in a few weeks and also need to put in a pad for the trailer. I will need some form of retaining wall as the pad area slopes 16" over 30'. Are you facing that as well?

Alan

[Silverflames]

I have about a 6" drop, so I going to have them roll the millings up and over.

I think pharmgeek had to build a retaining wall.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by GMFL

Concrete for me

^
X2

Black, heat, soft. ?

Bob

[Silverflames]

I just spoke to company, it will be close to $2800 more to top the millings with hot asphalt. 700' long drive way is very expensive.. I guess I'll just be sticking to the millings for now.

[dkottum]

My friend who has a gravel business recommended recycled ground asphalt for our driveway. Inexpensive, no cracking problems of concrete or the sun/weather damage of smooth asphalt. My concern was grass and weeds growing in it, appearance of weathering, tracking it into the house. We're looking at some crushed stone that can pack tight, be replenished. That's a long driveway, I'm curious what you finally decide.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Silverflames

We are getting ready to put in a asphalt millings drive way and parking pad for the AS.

I was leaning towards millings, since I don't want the maintenance on a smooth asphalt drive. It will close to 700' long, so the maintenance might be expensive. Millings, not as pretty but would be fine for a country drive way.

So my question is, what has other people's experiences with asphalt driveways been like? How long should I expect it to hold up in the Fl sun?

Thanks!

When I worked for the Corps of Engineers, I was occasionally tasked with designing road surfaces and parking areas at CoE facilities. Soil conditions near Brooksville, Florida aren't a whole lot different than in south Louisiana, so a design that works for south Louisiana should work for you as well.

The important thing to remember is that for any asphalt surface, including recycled asphalt millings (RAM), the surface course is not really the load-bearing course. The load is borne by the graded crushed aggregate layer underneath. The asphalt course is just a binder course to keep everything in place. This is different from a concrete surface where the concrete is load-bearing.

So if you want to make a proper driveway that will last, you will need to:
excavate about 12 inches deep,
roller-compact the soil,
put down a layer of porous geotextile fabric to keep the stone from sinking into the soil,
add about a 6" layer of graded crushed aggregate (not "gravel"!) with a maximum stone size of about 2",
roller-compact the aggregate,
add your RAM in two lifts of about 3" each,
and then roller-compact the RAM. Ideally the surface should be slightly crowned, sloping to both sides from the center at 1/8" per foot for drainage, so for a 12' wide drive the edges will be 3/4-inch lower than the center.
A spray-on seal coat is optional but will close off any pores that remain in your RAM top layer to prevent water from soaking into the surface.

Roller-compacting each layer forces the aggregate and/or RAM to interlock. If you don't compact each layer as you go, then your own tow vehicle and trailer will eventually do the compacting over time, and you'll end up with ruts.

Pavement design is actually more complicated than this, but for a roadway/driveway on private property this is about the lowest level of detail that will give you something that will last more than five years. Besides, now that I'm retired I have let my professional certification lapse so I can't legally do a full-blown design anymore.

[Bob662]

Our driveway is 0.3 miles long. We first put down a clay-gravel surface. That was compacted by traffic over the next couple of years, but proved unsatisfactory due to dust when dry, and muddy when wet. So we topped it with a shoot-and-chip surface: three alternating layers of sprayed-on tar, then pea gravel, compacted between layers. Now on to 12 years it is holding up well. The wife likes the gravel road-like appearance but now it is an all-weather road--no dust, no mud. She vetoed asphalt because she didn't like the black surface. Shoot-and chip is an attractive "look" for a country-like road.

[CRH]

I have a asphalt drive way and parking area for a couple of toys. I have parked my 2500 lb boat in the same spot for 15 years. I have nice dips in the pavement where the tires sit. I am sure my Airstream would have left worse.

Out back, I put down several inches of crusher run for a Airstream pad. It was a very dirty product. It was wet went I spread it. I drove over it to compact it. After a few rains and some time, it is turned out very hard.

[Silverflames]

Protagonist, thanks for the great instructions. Most of the drive way is 20+ year old gravel dirt mix and is a pretty solid base. I'll be asking for 6" of highway RAM that will then be compacted. The company has a roller that is heavier than the one I can rent, but it's $500 for them to roll it. It's $300ish for me to rent a vibration roller (2500lbs.)

Would it be better to to them roll it with the heaver roller, or would it pack better with the smaller roller over the course of a weekend? I'm sure the contractor will spend some time rolling it, but not 12-16 hours I could spend over a weekend.

Also, could I over pack it?

Thanks!

[Dingo Girl]

Originally Posted by dkottum

My friend who has a gravel business recommended recycled ground asphalt for our driveway. Inexpensive, no cracking problems of concrete or the sun/weather damage of smooth asphalt. My concern was grass and weeds growing in it, appearance of weathering, tracking it into the house. We're looking at some crushed stone that can pack tight, be replenished. That's a long driveway, I'm curious what you finally decide.

I've seen a lot rural of driveways lately that have been surfaced with crushed cement.
It is supposed to pack down rock hard.

[dkottum]

Protagonist, great response. We'd like to add one more requirement for our own driveway, to have a brick red colored crushed aggregate surface that allows water to drain through. Maybe crushed red brick, maybe there are better choices?

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by dkottum

Protagonist, great response. We'd like to add one more requirement for our own driveway, to have a brick red colored crushed aggregate surface that allows water to drain through. Maybe crushed red brick, maybe there are better choices?

Brick only works as a road surface in the form of solid bricks. Crushed brick will gradually break into smaller and smaller pieces until it eventually becomes brick dust. Brick is just baked clay.

On the other hand, there are quarries that produce red granite, that should be able to provide graded crushed granite aggregate. I can't speak to the cost, but that is probably your best bet for a red crushed stone surface.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Silverflames

Protagonist, thanks for the great instructions. Most of the drive way is 20+ year old gravel dirt mix and is a pretty solid base. I'll be asking for 6" of highway RAM that will then be compacted. The company has a roller that is heavier than the one I can rent, but it's $500 for them to roll it. It's $300ish for me to rent a vibration roller (2500lbs.)

Would it be better to to them roll it with the heaver roller, or would it pack better with the smaller roller over the course of a weekend? I'm sure the contractor will spend some time rolling it, but not 12-16 hours I could spend over a weekend.

Also, could I over pack it?

Thanks!

My recommendation would be to compact each layer using the heavier roller. Use the vibratory compactor only to get into the corners where the bigger roller can't reach (and where your vehicle/trailer wheels won't be rolling or sitting).

Besides, your 6" of RAM should be applied in two 3" layers that are each compacted. If the contractor does it, he can compact the first layer then add the second layer and compact it all in the same day. Apologies for not mentioning the compaction of the first RAM layer in my original post. I didn't realize the oversight until you asked this question.

Not sure what you mean by "over pack it." You won't be able to compact the surface hard enough to break the stones in the RAM, so there's no way you can compact it too much.

[Silverflames]

Thank you all!

[Silverflames]

I figured I would post a follow up on the RAM driveway and RV Pad.

It took a whole day, and it came out pretty well. 9 loads total, a long hot 10 hour day, over 700 feet long.

The RAM packed down very well, and is much like asphalt but it a but gravelly on top. They only rolled it for a couple of hours. I'm thinking I'll rent a roller in a couple of weeks and roll it again to pack it down more. Overall, we are very happy with it.


Much better than gravel, sand, and grass!