Tarmac Driveway??

[lostfarmer]

Hi All,

Hope someone can help me!

My mother-in-law is looking to re-tarmac her drive. It's roughly 10m long and thin / standard width (you can reverse a car down but carefully!). She's had a quote today but is worried as she has no idea whether it will be likely to cost 500 or 5000 pounds.

Could anybody give me any guidance or a ball-park figure? She's in rural North Wales so not too many people she can get in for comparative quotes, but I wouldn't want to see her stung!

Thanks for any help!

xx

[flang]

Whats the existing driveway made of? as this can affect the price by lots!
If its grass expect it to be expensive as you will need a lot off hardcore.

[Llyllyll]

Some in depth information can be found at: http://www.pavingexpert.com/tarmac02.htm. There are also links to FAQ and some price guides there.

All things being equal, I'd estimate if you just put down a few inches of tarmac i.e. a crappy backstreet job it'll cost a few hundred, if you excavate to the required depth and use the various base courses (as recommended above) you're talking a few thousand.

Hope this helps.

[lostfarmer]

Thanks for your replies, off to look at pavingexpert.com now!

The current drive is concrete- is this a good thing or a bad thing?!

Sorry, am absolutely clueless about this! Could the tarmac be laid on the concrete?

Thanks!

[Llyllyll]

Could it - Yes; Should it - No.

Once you've had a look at pavingexpert.com you'll realise that it's not a simple, straightforward job (at least I did). I thought I'd be able to get the concrete drive up, hardcore down and levelled and a professional tarmac job done for under £1000 - how wrong I was.

The concrete is staying where it is for now.

[lostfarmer]

Yes- just been checking it out... not as simple as the finished product looks at all!

Thanks for your help!

[deanos]

Loads of cowboys around so be careful, go to a reputable place.