Crushed Asphalt Driveway?

[Tod59]

My 700' gravel driveway is 18 years old and now due for an upgrade; either more road gravel or crushed asphalt. Cost is a consideration as I am on a budget.

Had a contractor out and he suggested the crushed asphalt....he said its got some tar in it so it adheres to it's self better, I can use my snowplow during the winter on it, it has less dust than gravel and is recycled. He said my old driveway is a great base as it is still very compacted and not very wet at all, so I would only need about a 2 1/2 inch top coat.

Anyone here use crushed asphalt? Pro's or Cons?

Thanks
Tod59

[KrazyRay]

We used the crushed asphalt on our road several months ago and it has held up pretty well so far through the winter months.

[Rambler62]

We use it for our drive way and for the pad to park motor home and it is great. You can't believe how hard it compacts. Would use it again in a heart beat.

[flashed]

When our road was getting milled for repaving I was able to get several loads and I actually prefer it to gravel.

[special-K]

It works great, ask if it has chunk first, though. I assume a contractor puts more refined than straight up of the hiway. I've had friend get that for free for letting the equipment be parked on their land when the hiway was being repaved and you get fist sized chunks that make it hard to deal with.

It compacts and makes a surface much like pavement. But it can scrape up when plowing snow if you're not careful. It's best to leave blade up a bit. If you have a skid loader or access to one, it's not so bad to just redress once winter is over

[LockDoc]

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The state resurfaced 7 miles of highway 63 near me so they had a lot of it they ground up. The only cons I heard about it was if you didn't go over it with a heavy roller after it was spread out, and parked a vehicle on it when it was hot out it would stick to the tires, and when you moved the vehicle it would pull chunks of it out and you would have to scrape it off of your tires. I chose not to use it and used road rock instead.

LockDoc

[Tod59]

Thanks for the replies!!

[flashed]

As mentioned above ,there will be chunks of asphalt ,cant be helped but if its free Im taking it . I spread mine out with my tractor and picked up the bigger chunks that my tractor did not crush .

[special-K]

Maybe some who contract laying it down have a process to refine it more. I don't know. All I know about is the free stuff they are glad to get rid of that is all up to you to handle. It's great stuff.

I remember the first use of a milling machine I saw. It was in the Flagstaff/Sedona area in '80 or '81 and way back then when it was brand new technology they were saying it was 80% recyclable back into new asphalt. Why they aren't using this as a great resource that it is and being stuck with how to get rid of it is way beyond me. I guess they like digging up the very earth we stand on so much they can't get enough of it. Lehigh is expanding their quarrying over hundreds or thousands of acres nearby of what till now was prime farmland and beautiful country in a highly historic area. Might as well use what's free for our driveways so at least we are taking as little out of the ground and using what already has been as possible.

Good road bed material is crushed concrete, too, rather than 2" stone. Cheaper too. Use that where you can and break up and use whatever you tear out, rather than pay (a lot) to clutter up overburdened landfills.

[RDrancher]

Originally Posted by Tod59

My 700' gravel driveway is 18 years old and now due for an upgrade; either more road gravel or crushed asphalt. Cost is a consideration as I am on a budget.

Had a contractor out and he suggested the crushed asphalt....he said its got some tar in it so it adheres to it's self better, I can use my snowplow during the winter on it, it has less dust than gravel and is recycled. He said my old driveway is a great base as it is still very compacted and not very wet at all, so I would only need about a 2 1/2 inch top coat.

Anyone here use crushed asphalt? Pro's or Cons?

Thanks
Tod59

About 50% of my business is building new gravel driveways and restoring old ones. Sounds like your contractor knows what he's doing. Good existing base and not too much thickness with the RAP. We use screened RAP so we don't have to deal with any chunks. If it has a good amount of tar/oil in it and a vibratory roller is used, it'll set up nice over the summer. Good stuff.

[flashed]

Here in my area they try to give it away due to the cost of hauling it supposedly .

[KrazyRay]

The crushed asphalt we get here is refined to a 3/4 ab with no chunks comparable to gravel road base. It holds well on a grade unlike the gravel that becomes a wash board.

[100%Chevy]

I too have a very long driveway! 1800'!
Over the years,I've tried just about everything on it.
I've found the best material is crushed concrete.
But,it usually comes with small pieces of rebar and wiremesh that you have to find and remove before it gets your tires!
Fine ground material doesn't hold up as well as a coarser material.
Crushed granite is good too.But expensive.
In my area,near the Gulf,it is wetter than most places and the fine stuff just disappears in the ground pretty quick!
We once used clam shells before the EPA came around.It did the best and looked good too.
Mike.

[Tod59]

Thanks everyone.

[pritch]

Originally Posted by RDrancher

About 50% of my business is building new gravel driveways and restoring old ones. Sounds like your contractor knows what he's doing. Good existing base and not too much thickness with the RAP. We use screened RAP so we don't have to deal with any chunks. If it has a good amount of tar/oil in it and a vibratory roller is used, it'll set up nice over the summer. Good stuff.

Funny, it's always been called roto-mill around here, but last summer I heard it called RAP for the first time. Recycled Asphalt Product. I would defiantly use it whenever I could. This is from a guy who made a living placing concrete driveways! I'm right now trying to get some to my place. The guys I work for crush it and they have a vast stockpile that I can get a great deal on, but it's 50 miles away and hauling it here is nearly a deal breaker. There's a local guy that has some, but it ain't crushed and he wants over 3 times the price, but it's only 10 miles away, so it's probably a wash. Makes me mad that just a few years ago they were happy to haul it to whoever wanted it just to be rid of it.

[RDrancher]

Originally Posted by pritch

Funny, it's always been called roto-mill around here, but last summer I heard it called RAP for the first time. Recycled Asphalt Product. I would defiantly use it whenever I could. This is from a guy who made a living placing concrete driveways! I'm right now trying to get some to my place. The guys I work for crush it and they have a vast stockpile that I can get a great deal on, but it's 50 miles away and hauling it here is nearly a deal breaker. There's a local guy that has some, but it ain't crushed and he wants over 3 times the price, but it's only 10 miles away, so it's probably a wash. Makes me mad that just a few years ago they were happy to haul it to whoever wanted it just to be rid of it.

Ah, another mud-man! I had a concrete business for over 20 years before I moved here to Texas in '04. Not sure when recycled asphalt got the RAP designation, we always called it "millings". Sometime in the last 10 years or so some of the states started letting the asphalt companies add a certain amount of millings back into the new hot mix along with recycled shingles. Every year since then the ratio has gone up. If you have a place that's a close and convenient place to dump where they're milling roads, it can still be had for free or cheap. But once it gets hauled and dumped, it costs more to purchase than crushed limestone road base or crushed stone around here. Crazy.