Concrete vs. Ashphalt

[1l243]

I had a 20x45 concrete pad poured last week. The pad had footers with rebar thoughout the pad. Also 10 yards of gravel and 20 yards of concrete. the bid included 50 feet of 4' sidewalk. The cost was around $6000. I have about 20x95 of gravel driveway left that the concrete guy gave me a price on to complete. I called a asphalt guy out of a qoute as well. The driveway is flat with 3" of gravel both qoutes included excavation for proper sloping. To my surprise the ashalt guy was'nt that much less than the concrete guy about $1000. Has asphalt got more expensive or am I getting the "I really don't want to do it price" We do live about 25 miles out so I am sure I am getting travel figured in to the price.

I did the concrete ashalt thing at my last house (10 years ago) and found ashpalt about half of what the concrete cost.

Any thoughts?

 

[rburke65]

I would go with the concrete for the difference of $1,000. I do not know about the increase in cost of the asphalt.

 

[NZ0J]

Go concrete.

Petroleum prices have gone up, causing asphalt prices to go up as well. There used to be a pretty big gap, price wise, between concrete and asphalt, but with increased petroleum prices, that gap has narrowed a lot.

 

[jdcompman]

Go concrete.

Petroleum prices have gone up, causing asphalt prices to go up as well. There used to be a pretty big gap, price wise, between concrete and asphalt, but with increased petroleum prices, that gap has narrowed a lot.

This. My parents did about 1500' of driveway about 5 years ago and concrete and asphalt were nearly the exact same price.

 

[The Cobbler]

I'm sorry I didn't do concrete 7 yrs ago. the asphalt is starting to show it's age already

 

[spotco2]

We had a 300' driveway done last year and it was only several hundred difference between asphalt and concrete. We went concrete.

 

[turbowoodworker]

I am in the process of finishing the driveway as soon as it warms up. The bid for concrete was about 12000 and asphalt was about 10000 (long driveway).
Concrete is a no brainer at that difference. Much lower maintainance.

 

[themiller]

Concrete. My current house has new asphalt driveway (previous owners) and I wish on a fairly regular basis it was concrete. It looks pretty for a few years, but wears terrible and I have no make sure no heavy trucks part on it. In addition the damm chipmunks eat through it!!! Probably rip it out in a few years and replace.