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Driveway replacement

3K views 17 replies 6 participants last post by  RomeovilleDad 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello all,

our driveway is in need of a full replacement including excavation since there is a sub-grade problem: the original concrete slab, right at the slab separator, which is centered exactly at the side of house has sunk 12"...

No...we didn't let this problem go unresolved as 12" would be years of damage. That's 8" of difference from the end corner of the house to the center. We inherited this issue when we bought the house. Nobody caught it because layer upon layer of asphalt was laid over by the previous owners.

I found this problem when I began to seal the gap between the house and concrete patio and worked my way toward the driveway.

Having bought the house recently and investing our money inside the house (remodel, upgrades, etc) before discovering this problem- replacing the driveway is out the question for at least a year...max 2.

What is my best temporary solution? Replace the damaged asphalt with black top asphalt and seal it or remove the remaining old asphalt and even out the original concrete slab with new concrete poured on top?

edit: we live in the Midwest...so the temp solution needs to be something that will be better suited for the harsh winter.

Thanks.
 
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#5 ·
Temporarily, gravel would do nicely. You can break up the asphalt and haul it off yourself if you have a truck and have the gravel hauled in and spread. Helluva lot cheaper than your other options, and it'll hold up in the winter (we have harsh winters here and most, if not all, driveways and secondary roads around here are gravel).
 
#6 ·
I hate to see concrete or whatever up against a building with a basement.

One sees a lot of it settling over time, and draining into the basement.

Best option is to keep the hard surface at least 2' away from the home and not draining to either side, rather as steep as possible to the street. I say don't slope it to either side because this isn't a good thing to do to a neighbor either.

From time to time you'll see an old driveway with just concrete tracks leading up to the garage and it is open in the middle with grass growing there. This is great for drainage but would make snow removal challenging.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the replies.

I went ahead with the black top temp job. Using QPR 50lb patch....although 13.98 per bag... this is still going to run heavy for a temp repair on a driveway that needs to be excavated. All I see is money being burned...

What makes it worse is that this driveway isn't flat at all: the square section at the end of the house that runs up to the garage is slightly slant as well- about a 1/4" or so towards the green garbage can you see in the picture.

This whole thing is a nightmare. From the looks of it now that I am working on it... when they build the concrete patio they poured in and level the concrete another 1/4" or so lower than the rest of the driveway...

I'll post pics of the 'after' nightmare when I'm done as well as my empty pockets.

Unless anyone wants progress photos.
 
#11 ·
I thought about it but it would just be additional waste of money, time and energy. The whole thing needs to be excavated and redone so the least expensive, yet, most efficient 'band-aid' way of doing it was replacing the worse parts of the driveway with black top and just seal coating it. Hell, even this way, it was too much for a band-aid job.



if the basement is not leaking, or leaking to bad. i would drive only on the right side, until it could be replaced.

and i would start getting estimates. even if you are not ready yet. i am going to guess $5000 for blacktop.
Basement isn't leaking as far as I can tell. I have to finish removing the remaining drywall to see if there's any minuscule cracks in the foundation. I 'leveled' that side the driveway the best way possible so that the slope isn't as severe as it was.

Yeah, 5k at least for blacktop... but there's no point since the entire driveway needs to be excavated and probably around +10k if we go with concrete.


We're going to wait on estimates because we might actually go a completely different route by attaching the garage to the house. If I'm to excavate the whole thing might as well do everything all at once.
 
#14 ·
Yup. From the looks of it looks straight. Everything looks good on the inside as well. I won't know for sure in regards to the nooks n' crannies until the basement is fully gutted. My money is on the oil refinery explosion that happen in the early 80's that caused damaged to our area that caused this.
 
#17 ·
what brand/store of patch did you use ? did it dry hard ?

i patched 2 holes. started with 1 bag from home depot. then finished with another bag from menards. 2 weeks now, and this stuff is still kinda soft = don't even think about driving a car over it.

i have used patch in the past, and it was ready to go nearly immediately.
 
#18 ·
I bought the QRP black top patch from Lowes. 50lbs, $14 per bag...

Yeah it takes months to actually cure/harden. The company said it was designed so on purpose so that it settles naturally or something.... It don't bother me. It's on the side of the house and I got enough driveway to move around it.

I post some pics of how far I came along with it in a couple of days. I still got to patch over the crock skin areas around the fence/driveway and eventually seal it.

I'm pretty much renovating this entire house from top to bottom. So I should have multitude of threads coming up.

Just torn apart the HVAC and duct work to deep clean.... So for now the rest of the driveway is put on hold but the main issues has been addressed.
 
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