tarmac driveway quote

thegentleway

Hi,

I've quoted £1,200 to tarmac a driveway, approx 4.5 x 5 m. Seems reasonable to me but just wanted to check it sounded about right as I've got no idea how much this normally costs.

Thanks,

Tom

FreeBear

To be honest, sounds way too cheap. Did a similar sized driveway earlier in the year, and I had a quote just under £1K just to dig out the area and put hardcore down. Ended up going another route, and it still cost best part of £750 for the groundwork.

With a tarmac drive, you will need planning permission unless it is a permeable surface or any rainwater is captured and drained entirely within your boundary - https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/45/paving_your_front_garden - £1200 is not enough for a permeable tarmac, and putting compliant drainage will eat up a good chunk of that budget.

Jeepers_Creepers

What is the existing driveway made of, tgw?

As FB says, that's cheap. The only ways I can see it being possible is if the existing surface is pretty much ready for the tarmac layer, or it's a dodgy company.

You find out the latter by due diligence - find out everything about them, where they are based, company details, Companies House records https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company , list of recent customers - you know the sort of stuff.

stuart45

Problem with Tarmac is when it's put down too thin on a badly prepared sub base. A lot of the chancers will just stick a surface or top coat down on some drives, such as cracked and worn concrete driveways. This normally starts to lift after a year or so. 
Done properly Tarmac  makes a really hard wearing finish for a driveway.

jimbog

take a look on YouTube to find what's involved in doing it properly and ensure/observe that your contractor will be doing the same

AdrianC

My mother's just had her tarmac drive resurfaced. Nothing major - no digging out, just a scrape and new layer. Very highly regarded local firm, and they look to have done a good job.

15m max length, but only 3m wide for a part of that, 8m at the widest part. £4k.

Tarmac is far from cheap.

stuart45

There's nothing wrong with an overlay on an existing Tarmac base as long as it's sound. As it was done by a quality local firm there won't be any problems. 
The problem with with firms that skimp on materials is that the job can look really good for the first year.
The key to a good finish is the man on the rake. A friend of mine was good enough to do tennis courts. I helped him do a car park once, and I could see what a difference a good rake man makes.

thegentleway

Thanks for the advice.

This is the existing driveway:

Getting the kerb dropped so thought I would get driveway done as well and maybe a fence as it's a shop next door and customers often walk across the driveway. He's quoting £600 for the fence, which seemed expensive to me so was just going to that myself.

stuart45

What's that base where the tarmac is going. Have you thought about resin?

thegentleway

Tarmac is going on driveway bit in blue (also on dropped kerb bit but that's a seperate quote). I think it's old low grade tarmac, not sure to be honest. Haven't thought about resin. Is it better? I'm just looking for something long lasting, not really fussed what it looks like as long as it's neat.

martindow

Are the local authority happy with you putting tarmac on their pavement?  I would be quite surprised if they agreed to that - it would look strange if a pavement had a strip of tarmac across it.