Installing a new asphalt driveway

[BWR1953]

That would be yes, Da

I've been working on it off and on today. It's taking forever because as usual, I took hundreds and hundreds of pictures. I've been sifting through all of them, trying to get a few samples for each month. Still difficult!

 

[alldodge]

All we need as 8x10 with circles and arrows and paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each is all about

 

[BWR1953]

All we need as 8x10 with circles and arrows and paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each is all about

LMAO! Yer killin' me over here!

I found about 800 pix that I took during this project. I winnowed that down to 400, then further reduced it to 200... and this morning I found 50 more that had been omitted!

Still workin' on it though.

 

[BWR1953]

Okay, time for that update, but I'll recap first.

The project was started in January 2021. The original idea was to start in January and to complete the project by mid-March 2021 which is a very dry season here. Didn't happen.

The plan was to fill and level the parking area by adding dirt (sand), covering the leveled lot with geotextile stabilization cloth (the same stuff used on highways) and then cover everything with limerock, the usual road base around here.

After that would be asphalt installation followed by adding sod all around the affected areas.

Further, one of the brothers installed water faucets and electricity to the fence in 3 places and the boy and I installed lighting for the area.

As I mentioned above, I took hundreds and hundreds of photos, but I'll only be posting a small subset of those.

My last working post was on 4 Apr 21, so I'll pick up from there and update a month at a time.

 

[BWR1953]

April 2021

The first thing I did was get some more heavy equipment.


More loads of sand arrived.


While my buddy was grading, I was hauling trash construction materials and whatnot.


Having neighbor friends who can do useful stuff made this project possible.


On many occasions, my friends worked well into the evening.


And this was just one of many major setbacks caused by rain. My friends weren't always available and I went round and round with asphalt contractors who simply failed to show up. It took months before I finally found a company with actual integrity.

Meanwhile, the erosion caused much heartache and frustration, plus a great deal of expense. It happened over and over.


This is the geotextile stabilization cloth covering the sand. We had to remove and reinstall it several times. Exasperating.


These are the driveway lights. I'm very pleased with how they worked out.


We also installed an LED rope fence light. This pic is dark, but it lights up the completed driveway at night enough that people feel comfortable walking around out there.


These are my "prison compound" lights!


And there's one up in the tree over the driveway turnaround area.

 

[BWR1953]

May 2021

On 1 May 2021, I had a Pulmonary Embolism which damn near killed me.

The project came to a screeching halt after that... for several days!

On 4 May 2021, I was discharged from the hospital and got back to work as best I could. I did a lot of sitting and planning while the boy and my friends did a lot of the work.

Another lighting pic.


The geotextile stabilization cloth covering most of the driveway except for the turnaround area.


First loads of limerock delivered.



The dump truck sank a little in one spot, pulling the cloth away from the fence, but my friend and the boy got it squared away.




All smoothed out.


Then more limerock deliveries.



I ordered a commercial manhole to cover the well head. It's rated to have semi tractor trailer trucks roll over it continuously, so I think it'll last around here okay.


And still more limerock deliveries.

 

[BWR1953]

June 2021

Rain, my nemesis. The rainy season usually starts in late June and lasts through September, but it got here early while I was doing this project.





I just like this pic of me at 0730 one morning, getting ready to work again.


We built berms to fight off the rainwater. It was successful, mostly.


Well manhole and cover installation.






Well head vent installed.


Rain damage required a lot of repair work. A lot!

 

[BWR1953]

July 2021

As if our regular rain wasn't enough, this happened.





A night light pic with the limerock down.

 

[BWR1953]

August 2021

Finally!

On 9 Aug 21, my asphalt contractor came over and did some prep work for the asphalt installation the next day. They did final grading, compacting with the vibrating roller, marked the paving area, etc.



The next morning, the team showed up bright and early to do the asphalt installation.




















Installation done.

Unfortunately, all of the rain damage and subsequent additional purchases of sand and limerock, plus paying to have the big stuff repaired put a serious dent in my project wallet.

I didn't have enough funding left to get the entire planned area paved.

The contractor actually offered me $6,000 for my Starcraft Kingfisher and said that he'd not only complete my planned area, but would throw in bonus areas at the rear of the garage!

But, after a family discussion, we declined the sale/trade and had to reduce the paved area to fit the budget. As a result, you'll notice the unpaved "halo" area around the asphalt. I also wasn't able to get the parking pads on each side of the garage paved either.

Meanwhile, the rain continued to be absolutely relentless. And my buddies weren't available to get the sod laid down.



We finally got enough tarp down to protect the majority of the dirt which didn't have any grass or sod in place.



And that'll be it for tonight. Still plenty more to come though.

 

[alldodge]

Lots of work and looks great

 

[sphelps]

Those Florida liquid sunshine setbacks were relentless!
Looks good !! Any clue as to the sq ft cost of the driveway? I really would like to do the same ..

 

[BWR1953]

Thanks guys!

The asphalt cost was about $2 per square foot. In my case, that came to $7,300 for the area which was actually paved. It would have been over $12,000 if I'd included the "halo" areas. I paid cash money for the entire job, including the asphalt and I wasn't interested in financing debt.

But, looking back with 20-20 hindsight, I should have sold the contractor the Kingfisher for his $6,000 offer. Ah, well.

 

[BWR1953]

September 2021

My friends became available and we finally laid sod between rain storms. First though, they had to clear a project off their flatbed trailer so that sod could be fetched.



Sod!


We pulled the tarps off the parking pads and made ready for installation.


Tractor work to clean up the sod area.


Plus a little raking.


Skid steer loaded with sod and installation underway.
















Finally looking good.


And then the rains returned.


Sod not finished and rain delays once more pushed off the completion date.

 

[BWR1953]

September 2021 (continued)

Several days later, we started on "The Hill" out front. This is the turnaround area which I had to build up back in the beginning.

More grading after months of rain damage.



More sod retrieved and installation started.


Work continued on into the evening.



I believe that it was after 10pm before we finished that night.


This "bald spot is where we ran out of sod. We filled it in a few weeks later, along with much of the remaining area.


And this is how the hill sod looked the next morning.

 

[BWR1953]

October 2021

In mid-October, we finished up installing sod everywhere except the "halo" area.

The sod is Argentine Bahia, which requires warm temperatures above 80 degrees to thrive and 2 to 3 weeks to establish the roots. Adding more sod after this would have to wait until spring 2022.




This little sidewalk was made using paving stones which I found on the property when I moved in, back in 2007. I had a huge pile of them and some are used elsewhere around the place.


We used "Brown Top" seed, mixed with Argentine Bahia to get something going before it was too late in the year. We didn't hold much hope that the Bahia would do anything, but the Brown Top is fast growing and tolerates the cooler weather and shorter days much better.


And still the rains came...


But the grass seed did take hold, which helped with erosion issues.


A few weeks later, things were looking better.


And the sod in the garage area was taking hold as well. Good stuff!

 

[BWR1953]

April 2022

Last spring I had to make a decision. I still wanted to fill the "Halo" area and garage parking pads with asphalt, but that would cost about $6,000 and even as much as $8,000 because I wanted to add a paved parking area behind the garage. Pretty tough.

Next option was to fill those areas with bluestone gravel.
Cost would be about $1,500 - $2,000. Easier on the wallet and it would look very nice but came with a subset of maintenance issues that I just didn't want to undertake. I'm too old and too beat up to mess with that stuff. The boy will be leaving home in the spring of 2024 and my wife isn't physically capable of doing the work.

That left one option: more sod!

I only needed two pallets of sod to complete the Halo, which only cost about $300 for the pair. Plus, I paid the boy a couple bucks, so my total sod cost for the Halo area was only $500. Done deal!



I picked up the first load of sod and "we" got to work.
There are about 150 pieces on each pallet and the boy offloaded and placed about 130 of those by himself. I just couldn't do much.


I went for a second load of sod.


Adding the sod to the trailer really "goosed" my wife's truck!


But it worked out just fine once the load was centered.


By the time we did the second load of sod, I'd figured out how I could actually do some work. I found that I could carefully rotate myself and lift a piece of sod, carry it to the work area and drop it nearly in place. The boy would then rearrange the pieces and get them into final position. As a result, I was able to offload 130 pieces myself! Yay!


This is how I supervised.


My wife showed up and brought us food. Nice.


Finally got it done!


The sloped area with the limerock on the left got cleaned up later, but we'll probably add more sod there in 2023.


And the area by the garage parking pad was done too.

 

[alldodge]

Real nice job, maybe 6 - 30 packs of beer

 

[BWR1953]

And here's how it looks today, with dormant grass.

This morning:



And this afternoon:


This year I'm planning on installing new stairs/decks and adding more sod to the front yard. My goal is to get all the big stuff done before the boy leaves home in June 2024. Lofty goal!

That'll be after we recover from the current major damaged bathroom problem. Ugh.

 

[sphelps]

Nice transformation!
Looks great!