Slab - asphalt vs. concrete?

[mrtone]

Surely this has come up before, but it didn't come on in my searches.......
Has anyone thought of using asphalt for a slab? Recognize that its got many drawbacks but wonder what the costs would be vs. concrete.

 

[zman]

cheaper but not even close as a substitute... oil breaks it down...

 

[Dave Carney]

There's really no comparison in cost or durability. Asphalt costs about 1/3 as much as concrete...but has a lot of limitations, if all you are doing is paving a driveway that will never see heavy trucks, its ok but I wouldn't use it for anything else. My asphalt driveway is about 150' by 20'...held up ok for 10 years until the trucks came in for the shop build....now, it's really rough around the edges, broken, etc. I'd never use asphalt for a slab.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

For the inside of a building? Waste of time and money. Oil or fuel spilled eats it up, not smooth enough, you would get nasty any time you kneeled down or laied down to work on something. You would have to have a poured foundation to anchor the walls to anyhow, you could not anchor to asphalt. Yes, you could do a pole barn type building and asphalt it, but you would regret it I suspect.

Charles

 

[Old Moparz]

I wouldn't do it, & I work for a site contractor that has an asphalt plant. The boss's son wanted to use asphalt in his barn which is a workshop & not for cars, but he thought better of it & went with concrete.

 

[Tman]

Actually being done in pole barns out here quite a bit. Ranchers are using it because of the distance from redi mix plants. For storage it works well for them.

 

[BECC]

If you go with it, have some concrete anchor points on the perimeter incase you need something to set some heavy equipment on that wont sink or use a pull point for a wench.