Paving guides for Edmonton owners, written before booking
Eleven explanations of the things that decide what a surface costs and how long it lasts. Written to be read before a contractor arrives, so the conversation starts from the same facts on both sides.
Most paving disputes start from a missing explanation
An owner who knows that cracks are a water problem, not a cosmetic one, books the cheap work early. One who does not finds out after a winter, which is why freeze and thaw has a page of its own here.
The same goes for timing. New asphalt that is sealed too soon stays soft, and the owner blames the paving rather than the sealing, so the first season and the recoat interval are set out plainly rather than left to the crew on the day.
And some of it is simply what a quote means. Depth, base, drainage and warranty wording are the four things people wish they had understood, so each gets its own page.
Winter damage
Before the work
Paving guides: deciding and planning in Edmonton
What to work out before a contractor is standing on the drive.
Where water goes after rain. Standing water is the clearest early sign that the base or the slope has a problem, and it is visible without any expertise at all.
Get at least two, and compare the depth and base lines rather than the totals. Two quotes that differ by half are usually quoting two different jobs.
Treat leftover material offered at the door with suspicion. Work priced that way is rarely compacted properly, almost never comes with anything written down, and leaves nobody to call when it fails.
Early. Hot mix needs workable ground temperatures and the season books out, so a decision made in late autumn usually becomes a spring job whether you wanted that or not.
The coat itself, sometimes. The preparation is the part that decides the result, and an uncleaned surface or an unsealed crack will show through within one season.
More than depth does. Water that sits will get under any surface eventually, so a correctly graded thin surface outlasts a thick one that ponds after every rain.
