Driveway paving in Edmonton, base checked before pricing
A residential driveway is a one-day job when the base is sound and a two-day job when it is not. Which one you have is decided at the site visit, not after the machine arrives.
The old surface comes up first and goes away the same morning. What is underneath is then graded and compacted, and any soft area is dug out rather than paved over, which is the step that decides whether you are buying ten years or two.
Hot mix arrives at temperature and has to be laid and rolled before it cools, so the surface goes down in a continuous sequence rather than in stages. The order of the day is set out in full on its own page.
Edges get hand attention because a roller cannot reach them. An unsupported edge crumbles first and takes the surface with it, which is why edge repair is such a common call on drives that were paved cheaply. If your base is already sound, resurfacing does this for less.
Fresh driveway
How it runs
The sequence on your Edmonton driveway paving job
Measure and mark the area
The drive is measured on site including the apron and the turn at the garage, because those add area that a satellite image flattens out of the picture.
Strip the old surface
Existing asphalt is broken out and removed the same morning, which exposes the base and shows up any soft ground that was hidden under it.
Grade and compact the base
Granular material is levelled to the finished slope and compacted in layers. Soft spots are dug out and replaced before anything goes over them.
Lay, roll and finish the edges
Asphalt goes down hot and is rolled in passes until the density is right, then the edges are worked by hand where the roller cannot reach them.
What moves the price
What your Edmonton driveway paving quote depends on
Area is the obvious one and the least interesting. Two drives of identical size can be far apart because one needs its base rebuilt and the other does not, and that is the line to compare between quotes.
Compacted depth is the second. A drive that only carries cars is not built like one a truck turns on, and the depth should be written down rather than described as standard.
Access is the third and it is often missed. A machine that can reach the whole area works quickly; one that cannot means hand work around posts, steps and tight corners, and that time has to be in the number. The full list is here, and what a quote should contain is worth reading before you compare any of them.
Base conditionBiggest variable
Compacted depthWritten on the quote
AccessOften forgotten
Related work
Other Edmonton installation work
What people usually book alongside a new driveway.
Most Edmonton driveways, yes. The exceptions are drives where the base has to be dug out and rebuilt, and jobs where rain stops the crew part way through the base work.
Yes, and anything parked on the street in front of the drive too, because the truck and the roller both need room to work along the full length of the surface.
Base work can often continue but hot mix cannot be laid onto standing water. If rain arrives mid-job the surface is finished on the next workable day at no extra cost.
Normally the following morning. Keep narrow loads off it for the first hot summer, because a trailer jack or a motorcycle stand will press into a surface that is still curing.
New asphalt is noticeably darker and stays that way for several months while it oxidises. After a season the colour settles to the grey-black you see on older surfaces.
No. Depth beyond what the traffic needs is money spent on material rather than on the base, and a thick surface over a weak base still cracks in exactly the same places.
Twenty minutes on site gives you the area, the compacted depth, the base work and the disposal as separate figures, plus an honest answer on whether resurfacing would do.
