Asphalt installation across Edmonton, from the base upward
New asphalt is mostly a base job with a surface on top. We price what is underneath, not just the square footage, because a thick top layer over a soft base opens again in the same places within two seasons.
The commonest failure on a new driveway is not the asphalt. It is a base that was never rebuilt, or a soft spot that was paved over because digging it out would have shown on the quote. The surface looks right for a season and then cracks along the line of the weakness.
That is why excavation and base work is priced as its own line here. If the existing base is sound, you are told that too, and resurfacing becomes the cheaper answer.
Drainage belongs in the same conversation. Water that sits will get under any surface, so the finished slope is set against where water has actually been pooling rather than against the old grade. How that is worked out is on its own page.
Base rebuild
How it runs
How your Edmonton asphalt installation runs
Measure and assess the base
Area, slope and drainage are measured, and the existing base is checked for soft spots. This is what decides whether the job is a resurface or a rebuild.
Itemised written quote
Removal, base work, depth, area and disposal appear as separate lines so a change to any one of them is visible rather than folded into a revised total.
Removal and base preparation
The old surface comes out, granular base is graded and compacted, and soft areas are dug out and replaced before anything is laid over them.
Hot mix, rolled and edged
Asphalt goes down hot and is rolled in passes. Edges are compacted by hand where a roller cannot reach, because edges are where a new surface usually starts to fail.
Installation services
New asphalt work we take on in Edmonton
Six jobs, and the site visit decides which one a surface actually needs.
Most Edmonton driveways are removed, re-based and paved inside one day. A lot, or a drive where the base has to be dug out and rebuilt, runs into a second day.
Residential drives and lots that take delivery vehicles are not built to the same depth. The compacted depth is written on the quote so you can compare it against anything else.
Only where the base below is sound. If the old surface has broken into interlocking pieces, paving over it hides the problem for a season and then cracks in the same pattern.
It is removed and taken away, and disposal is its own line on the quote. Asphalt is commonly recycled rather than landfilled, which is why that line is usually modest.
Light traffic the next morning is normal. The surface keeps curing for months, so avoid parking anything with a narrow foot, like a trailer jack, in one spot that first summer.
Hot mix needs to be laid and compacted before it cools, so the season closes when ground temperatures drop. We say plainly when a job is better left until spring.
A site visit takes about twenty minutes and tells you whether the base needs rebuilding or whether resurfacing will do. Both answers come with a price in writing.
