Fair quote? Tarmac

Ce1979

Hi there,

Recently had the following quote for 100m2 tarmac. Kerbs etc already laid. Area is on  a hill. Driveway up to house. 

More quotations planned for next week but been let down a few times now but no shows 


Area is yorkshire. TIA

construct your driveway in tarmac to an area approx. 102m2 

 

To shape up, supply, lay and compact 20mm crusher run hard core approx. 4 tonnes

To supply and hand lay 50mm thick of 20mm size binder course asphalt  

To supply and hand lay 30mm thick of 10mm size surface course asphalt 

£5350

Spies

That looks reasonable at roughly £53/sqm

FreeBear

Any driveway over 5m² will require planning permission unless it is constructed from a permeable material (e.g. gravel or paving blocks) or the rain water is directed to a lawn/border to drain away naturally. You are not allowed to let the rainwater run off across a path and into the road.

At 102m², you are going to need a fair sized soakaway if you don't have a suitable lawn/border for the water - Any quote you get needs to take into account drainage plus the relevant permissions - https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/paving-your-front-garden/planning-permission

Oh, and 4t of hardcore is no where near enough - I did ~30m² last year and used 10t after having had 18t of waste material removed. Waste removal is also something else missing from your quote !

Ce1979

FreeBear said:

Any driveway over 5m² will require planning permission unless it is constructed from a permeable material (e.g. gravel or paving blocks) or the rain water is directed to a lawn/border to drain away naturally. You are not allowed to let the rainwater run off across a path and into the road.

At 102m², you are going to need a fair sized soakaway if you don't have a suitable lawn/border for the water - Any quote you get needs to take into account drainage plus the relevant permissions - https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission/common-projects/paving-your-front-garden/planning-permission

Oh, and 4t of hardcore is no where near enough - I did ~30m² last year and used 10t after having had 18t of waste material removed. Waste removal is also something else missing from your quote !

Thanks for the reply and details.

The tarmac would be replacing an existing driveway, concrete, which has been neglected for some years. Therefore there is already a foundation of hard-core albeit needs some work/ levelling. 

FreeBear

Ce1979 said: The tarmac would be replacing an existing driveway, concrete, which has been neglected for some years. Therefore there is already a foundation of hard-core albeit needs some work/ levelling. 

Some investigation of the existing sub-base is required. Whilst you might have a sufficient depth of hardcore already in place, you won't know for certain without digging some test pits. The last thing you want is spend all that money only to find ruts appearing where you park your car in a few years time.

My comment about waste disposal still stands - 100m² of old concrete is going to need several grab lorries or a lot of skips.

Mahsroh

Check with the builder re: waste removal whether they've allowed for it. 102m2... even if you allowed to reduce levels by 150mm it's only 15m3 so 3, (maybe 4 allowing for bulking factor) 8 yard skips (which are typical sized skips for domestic type projects) Alternatively a grab lorry normally holds 10m3 (or allow 8m3 including bulking factor) so a couple would do it, but they would be more expensive than the skips I would imagine. Based on what's currently quoted you're not reducing down by that much though, just the 80mm binder and surface courses so it's potentially less still. 

Agree with previous remarks about checking the existing sub-base. 4t of hardcore might be enough to fill some soft spots / regrade etc. but you're better off checking rather than spend £5k on a new drive to find it's uneven in a few years time. if they have to put another 100mm of type 1 down under the binder course, material wise that's only likely to be about 20t which will probably be around £500 in material costs, labour will be a bit more but shouldn't be significantly more expensive if they've already priced to regrade / compact what's already there. There will be some additional disposal costs and cost to rip up the existing, but you're better off spending £6k now, rather than £5k now and another £5k in 4 or 5 years when the driveway has started falling apart. It might be fine of course, just do the checks to be on the safe side. 

Generally, as already said, circa £50/m2 is not unreasonable though for what's been quoted, just make sure the sub-base is sufficient before they crack on and do it.