How to Prep a Driveway Contractors in Nashville TN For Asphalt Paving

 Although most people do not have the tools or equipment to actually install an asphalt driveway there are many things you can do to prepare the drive for paving work. The Driveway Contractors in Nashville TN  without exception must have a solid base underneath to pave upon. Soft or wet spots are the most common reason for failure of the pavement itself. Cracking or alligatoring means the ground is unable to carry the weight of the vehicles driven over it. Severe wet spots will cause the pavement to fail totally and breakup into large chunks and cause the entire driveway to fail.

There are available today ground stabilization fabric materials that can be laid under stone sub base materials in wet areas to help solidify the sub base itself. The material is fairly expensive but may allow installation of a Nashville Driveway Installation  where it would not be possible other wise. If placed directly on the earth below the sub base and over the wet area, once the sub base material is properly compacted the ground will support a great deal more weight without and shifting or movement. Many masonry supply stores carry these materials. It will take two people to roll out and handle the fabric as it generally comes in twelve foot wide rolls. A local excavating contractor may have some smaller rolls to sell. Give them a try as well.

Our first job is assure there are no wet spots either by installing some under drains, ditching along the edges to carry away surface water or actually replacing some of the wet earth with stone or other suitable materials. Sub base materials could be small and large stones, DOT item 4 materials, crushed gravel or bank run sand and gravel perhaps. The material needs to drain well and can be compacted with mechanical compactors. Drainage piping could be twelve inch corrugated piping which when installed will help water quickly pass under a drive or smaller four inch perforated piping run under the driveway areas encased in stone to provide constant pathways for water drainage without soaking the soils themselves. Water will always take the path of least resistance so any drainage piping installed will help the ground to dry much more quickly than nature would allow by itself.

Once you have solved any current or potential water problems you can move on to the actual asphalt sub base itself. Most homeowner driveways have a four inch base of gravel shale or item 4 installed when the home was built. Over the passing years, car tires break the shale down into very small pieces which will not provide a great sub base material. Adding new shale or stone can become a yearly maintenance project to maintain a smooth driving surface. As the stone or shale is pressed into the earth you are creating a thicker and thicker sub base. Depending upon whether you want your new drive to finish up higher or perhaps level than the adjoining lawns or gardens is how much sub base you want to have in the end. A typical residential driveway is ten feet wide with an actual driving surface area of about eight feet wide. For paving, you will need a solid ten foot surface to get a nine foot drive. Ten foot drive, eleven foot surface and so on. You need to have at least six inches of sub base beyond the actual finished paved width on both sides. The extra flat area is used to backup the asphalt and prevent the edges from crumbling. Remember also that asphalt and sub base may be as much as six inches thick and will require extra topsoil to backup the edge of the sub base and asphalt.

By adding sub base material and keeping the surface as level as possible, you will already have the sub base built for the paving man. In many areas of the US a material called blue stone screenings is available. This material is actually finely crushed granite and comes in three colors. Blue which will turn a darker blue when wet as time passes. Red that will also turn a lighter blue over time and yellow which stays yellow tinted forever. Once graded, this material becomes as hard as concrete on a driveway. I have seen blue stone screening surfaces snow plowed winter after winter without any plowing damage. A new dusting every few years maintains the crisp color and in-fills any depressions that may have developed. This makes a super sub-base for finished asphalt.