Choosing a paving contractor in Edmonton, what to ask
This page is a list of questions rather than a list of our qualities. Ask the same things of everyone who quotes, including us, and compare the answers rather than the numbers at the bottom.
The questions worth asking every Edmonton contractor
Ask what depth of asphalt and what depth of base they are quoting. Any contractor who intends to build properly can answer immediately, and a quote without those numbers cannot be compared with anything.
Ask what happens if the base turns out to be poor once the old surface is off. The answer tells you whether a mid-job change has been thought about or will arrive as a conversation you did not expect.
Ask where the water goes. A contractor who has looked at the grading will say something specific, and that detail decides more about service life than the asphalt does. Then ask about what is covered and who handles permissions, both in writing.
Side by side
How to compare
How to compare Edmonton paving quotes fairly
Check the areas match
Two quotes describing different areas are not comparable at all. This is the most common reason a figure looks lower than it should.
Line up the specifications
Same area, different depths means two different products. Compare build against build before comparing either total.
Look for what is missing
Removal, disposal, drainage and markings are the usual omissions. A quote without them looks competitive until they are added back in.
Get it in writing
Scope, depths, timings and what is covered afterwards. A verbal assurance is worth exactly as much as it can be checked against later.
Worth a pause
Signs worth a second thought in Edmonton
Pressure to decide today is the clearest one. A surface that has lasted years is not going to fail this week, and a price that exists only until the end of the visit is a sales technique rather than a quote.
A refusal to put depths on paper is another. It is the one number that decides what you are buying, and declining to write it down keeps that deliberately unclear.
What Edmonton owners ask about choosing a contractor
What depth of asphalt and base are you quoting. Anyone intending to build properly answers immediately, and a quote without those numbers cannot be compared with another one.
Enough to see a pattern, which is usually three. The value is in comparing the reasoning about base and drainage, not in finding the lowest figure among them.
Not automatically, but it needs explaining. Check the area, the depths and what is excluded, because a gap usually turns out to be one of those three rather than margin.
Pressure to sign today, a refusal to write the depths down, or material offered at a discount because it happens to be left over from another job rather than specified for yours.
Some deposit is normal for materials and scheduling. What matters is that the amount is proportionate and that the scope it secures is written down before you pay it.
Area, asphalt and base depths, what is excluded, the timing, how extra base work would be priced, and what is covered after completion. Verbal assurances cannot be checked later.
Ask us the questions on this page about your Edmonton job
We will give you depths, exclusions, what happens if the base is poor and where the water goes, in writing, so you can hold the answers against anyone else.
