Driveway Paving

With the two weeks of boat maintenance behind me I turned my attention to the driveway, which is badly breaking up in sections.  In about 1980 a good job had been done in paving the driveway with bitumen (ie blacktop), complete with smart looking concrete curbing.  That lasted about 15 years, when I had it all resurfaced.  That resurfacing was not as successful as I had hoped, with the new top layer of bitumen tending to peel off the original layer.  The main problem is at the entrance where putting the foot on the accelerator in order to climb up the hill causes the rear wheel to scour and eventually peel away the bitumen.

My plan was to spend a few weeks researching my options.  I had agreed with Paul that I would get a quotation from a professional which I would then present to him to see if he could better the price.  However, things developed much more quickly than I had expected.

I started out by visiting Midland Brick, in Middle Swan, down the hill not far from Darlington.  The facility had been transformed since my last visit to the place in the late 1970's.  Boral Ltd, a large corporation, had taken over it and now it was a modern operation with plenty of samples on display, helpful staff, and even a special section from where one could take sample pavers home.  I was approached by a very helpful representative, Andrew, who seems to have traveled through every part of the world and speaks fluent Chinese.  I asked him if the company could recommend paving contractors and he directed me to the office where I could obtain company cards.  He told me that any contractor that Midland Brick recommens has to be very good because it is in the interest of the company to have their products properly laid. 

At the office I obtained the card of ABM Landscaping, a local "family owned" company located across the road from Midland Brick. I telephoned ABM on a Tuesday and on Friday Aaron Trew, the manager and owner, visited my property for an assessment and quotation.

I was armed with an accurate scale drawing of the paving to be done:
- The main driveway from the road up to the house then bending right to the garage
- The carport
- The right side of the house leading to the back patio
- The left branch of the driveway bending to the right to the car port underneath the verandah.
 I calculated a total area of 300 m sq.

Aaron and I hit it off immediately.  He was born in Glen Forrest in 1975, the year in which I purchased the house.  He was raised in the area and his parents had lived for many years in Orange Road, Darlington.  We were on the same wave length about life in the hills and he understood very well what I was trying to do.

I learned some fundamental things about the project.  First, he recommended clay pavers over the prettier and more modern looking masonary pavers.  Masonary pacers are basically a mixture of sand and cement.  They tend to leach out salts, stain, and discolor over time.  Clay bricks are stronger, never discolor, and any oil or other material that spills on the bricks can be cleaned up.  The other thing I learned is that for a driveway such as mine with changing levels (think second derivative, calculus aficionados) the pavers must be small (ie brick size) because the larger pavers cannot deal with the vertical curves.  These were fundamental and very important facts that helped me in making my decisions.

Aaron said that the best deal that Midland Brick had to offer was a "Cottage Blend" brick at $25 per sq meter.  These are house bricks that didn't make the grade due to minor variations in either size or color, which can be difficult to control in the kiln process.  The bricks are tumbled to round off the sharp edges then sold as pavers.  At 76mm thick they are stronger enough for heavy trucks, in contrast with most of the other offerings of 40-60 mm thickness and suitable for only light trucks.  The $25/m sq  is at the low end of the pricing, which run up to $55/m sq.

I asked Aaron when he could start the job if he got the quotation and his reply was "immediately".  After recovering from my dropped jaw I asked him how long the job would take and he replied "5 days", which astounded me even more.   After those ten hard months of renovation of the interior of the house I had expected another ordeal lasting perhaps months and the thought that the entire job might be completed within the next two weeks blew me away.

A few days later Brenda and I met Aaron at Midland Brick and he showed us the Cottage Blend brick.  We all agreed on the Cottage Bland with a slightly grayer version to line the edges of the driveway.

I soon met with Paul Jr (His father was on a holiday in Bali, no doubt recovering from his recent stays in England and the south of France.) and explained the situation.  He agreed that they could not compete with a company specializing in this sort of work.

Before the end of the week (last Friday) I received the quotation of $18,266 which was lower than both Reg and I had expected.   In my mind I had allocated $20,000 for the paving, which turned out to be remarkably accurate given that I knew practically nothing about driveway paving.  This will bring my total expenditures to date of the house renovation to $60,000. 

I visited Aaron and Paddy at ABM on Monday, signed the quotation after some minor questions were answered, the first load of bricks was delivered the next day, and this morning, Wednesday, the work began.

First Load of Bricks

Driveway in Bad Shape

Earthworks Begins