All you DIY'ers out there: Making a driveway

eboo

< 25 Posts
Needless to say, I have scoured all the DIY internet websites, and have come away empty handed. We just bought a new house, and it has an asphalt driveway. And it is on a hill, about 40 feet long. We would rather have a mixture of pavestone/brick and formed concrete than the asphalt. Two things I can't figure out:

1. Can I just leave the asphalt there, level it with some sand, it layer over it, or is there any reason I need to first pull all the asphalt up?

2. How in the hell am I going to pour concrete into some formwork without it all running downhill?
 
1) probably should be on Horn Depot board

2) No, you cannot pour over the asphalt. By the nature of your questions, I suggest that you hire a contractor to do the work. Otherwise, your driveway will look like ***.

3) You will **** your pants when you get a price from a contractor. There is a concrete shortage, and prices have gone up as much as 400% in some areas.
 
I thought the Depot was for selling services?

Anyway, I'll ask the mods to move it over. Thanks.
 
If you REALLY want to do it yourself (although I highly advise against it), here are some details from the City of Austin which may be helpful: The Link

Good luck!
 
you cannot pour a slab over asphault and hope for a good outcome.

now you very well may be able to pour a "lip" not unlike a curb at the edge of the concrete and use pavers to cover the asphault. You would still need to put a layer of sand over the asphault, to set the pavers on.

If you are going to do it your self that's probably your best option. It will look better and probably cost less than tearing out the old and repouring.
 
Oh man, that's awesome. Two more questions:

1. what is the geotextile layer?
2. why do i need that concrete curb?
 
1.Geotextile is a woven fabric used for erosion control.
2.You need some type of edge retention. On most patios etc. you can use an aluminuim edging spiked into the soil. If I was doing a driveway I would probably be more comfortable with a concrete "toe" edge restraint. It doesn't have to be as high as in the illustration. Probably from 3 to 4" below the pavers to about 3/4 the height of the finished level and about 4" wide.
 
Pavers are a good product, as they are about twice as strong as concrete, look better, and lend themselves to interesting patterns and color blending. However, doing it yourself is not easy at all. The excavation is a major pain, it has to be very level, you have to import sand and subgrade, landscape cloth to keep out weeds, lay the stones, and then compact them with a big commercial vibrator.

It's a big job and the materials form the lion's share of the expense. I would highly recommend using a contractor. I actually know a pretty good one who is reasonable.

Go check out Teas nursery for some design ideas. They have one where they lay the pavers on the diagonal with a soldier's course border in a slightly different color.

I did this at my last house and it looked great and is still going strong with the new owner.
 
suttre he won't have to excavate, just pour the retaining edge(lip) and go to town. Unless you are talking about excavating for the curbing?
I didn't think about the "geo-textile" but given that over time the asphalt will indeed crack it's a smart idea.

I will say that the concrete edge is going to be KEY especially since you are on an incline. You will need to to hold the supporting sand for the pavers in place. Otherwise big rains are going to wash out the sand from the edges and your hard word goes to **** in a hurry.

I will say that MATH is going to be a key component!


YOu also need to think about drianage when you pour the concrete, and which side of the drive is going to take on most of the run off water assuming that the drive is on an angle of some sort.

You want to make sure the concrete curb is as tall or taller than the sand and paver height. It often looks nice having it little bit higher (1/2 inch or so)and that will contain runoff on your drive from jumping into your lawn area.

The pavers will look bad *** when you are done, but it sounds like a good deal of labor. You could do the curbing over several weeks in smaller patches and reuse the same framing wood again and again. This also will help solve your potential problem of pouring on a downgrade, with the smaller working area.

One other thing that is sort of cool is that you could even add color to the curbing. HOWEVER if you decide to go that route you need to use the EXACT SAME mixing recipe every time.

I would decide what you want and then get a couple of bids from reputable contractors. Then do the math on doing it yourself and decide from there. It might be more cost effective to have a contractor pour the curbing and then you doing the sand, paver laying and cutting. as the curbing on the incline is probably the toughest part of the project technically.

Plan on BUYING a used wet saw for all the cuts you are going to make on the pavers and then sell it when you are done.

Good luck!
 
Guys, these tips are really helpful. I have to admit, part of the reason I want to do this myself is because it just sounds like fun. But, I don't see how I could do the curbing myself given the technical complexity of the job, so that will probably be done by a contractor.

H4L: Don't the pavestones come in small standard brick sizes? Why the need for cutting?

How much value do you think this will add to the home, in a rough +/- couple thousand dollar range?
 

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