# cost of laying tarmacadam



## midland muck

Hello all,
I am trying to organise a contractor to lay tarmacadam at my mums house. I'm still waiting for quotations from two contractors. I was at friends house the other day and they they told me they were paying €7K for tarring around their house and the area was approx. about a 1/3 of what my mums wants done which is 400m^2 (4300 ft^2). There is already a compacted gravel base laid around my mums house. I was shocked at the price quoted to my friends. Am I being naive or does anyone have an idea of cost per square metre/ft?


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## Carpenter

Does sound expensive alright but are you comparing like with like? Whilst you can do a simple exercise and cost the area at so much per m2 you have to include kerbs, edging, dishing to falls, additional hardcore and any other site works which may be unseen by you.  Did your friend have the contractor prepare the sub base, laid to falls, put in kerbing, edging, gullies etc?  I'm only guessing on cost but i would have thought about €20 per m2 would be an approximate rate , based on the builders work being complete (base laid, ready for rolling).


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## NHG

All I know is that the larger the job the lower the sq mtr price.

We had a very large area done and driveway last october my husband had all the groundwork done and all the piping done to take the surface water away and it was €8000 plus the aqua drains.  Our house is on an elevated site therefore we have aqua drains taking water off back yard and front of house and car park area and another set at the bottom of the driveway at the gates to take the water off the driveway.

Another guy priced it at €7000 and when we mentioned the aqua drains - he said "do like everyone else and let it run out on the road"


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## Carpenter

NHG said:
			
		

> Another guy priced it at €7000 and when we mentioned the aqua drains - he said "do like everyone else and let it run out on the road"


 
Except that to do just that would be in violation of a planning condition which is attached to most one-off houses, i.e. do not allow surface water run-off from the site to discharge onto the public road.


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## midland muck

Thanks for the input all!
NHG,
Would you have an idea of the area you had to get tarred?


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## movax

The main factor you should take into account imho is depth of macadam to be laid , if you had a surface area of say 100 m2 and wanted 50mm of black laid compared to 100mm your talking a major difference.
Also the type of material used will also have a bearing for instance , stone mastic asphalt (SMA) , hot rolled asphalt (HRA) , 10mm macadam , 20mm macadam.
What you should do is ask for a price per tonne to supply and lay the stuff, figure out your surface area and then multiply by the depth to get a volume in metres cubed , then multiply this figure by 2.44.
This will give you a near as bedamned tonnage of what you want.
The 2.44 figure is a middle of the road assumption as we dont know what material you intend to lay, finally make sure your tarmac guy does a good job of rolling , a good rule of thumb is to keep him rolling it until the track marks of the roller disappear as he is traveling across the newly laid macadam.
Hope thats some help without been too technical.

Movax


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## nt00deep

I want to know more about the significance of that techie stuff.

What's the difference between stone mastic asphalt (SMA) and hot rolled asphalt (HRA)? (durability, texture, colour, gimmick) ?

For the 10mm v. 20mm, which should it be for a domestic yard? I know there is a world of a difference between cheap and expensive quotes and just want to understand if there is a technical explanation for the difference or is it just the sucker factor ?

Also, how does one go about ensuring at the outset or ensuring through regular maintenance that the macadam stays close to black and not the boring dull grey after a few yrs.


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## movax

SMA is a german developed mastic asphalt , it was first used to resist the wear of studded tyres , studded tyres were then banned in 1975 but the good old Germans had seen that it performed better than conventional asphaltic type wearing courses and decided to go big time into it , its extremley durable, highly resistant to cracking , ravelling( tyres leaving little circles on the surface when you preform excessive turning ) and damage by moisture. It can easily be laid by hand ( though it would'nt be my favorite past time these days!!) and is not dependent on weather unlike HRA.Its black in colour , closed texture and its no gimmick.
HRA is expensive.Its weather dependant as regards temperature so really summertime is the best time to lay , its probably not the best surface for a domestic job as there is a lot of attendant plant to place it, sometimes you see different coloured chips laid thru it eg red / white again v expensive, v,v durable , closed texture , again colour is usually black but if you got the cash any colour you want! again its no gimmick.
Macadam is what most smaller contractors lay and what most people end up lifting after 5-6 years cos it just looks s**t.
10mm macadam should only be used where no vehicular traffic will be present i.e footpath, 20mm macadam should be used on trafficed areas,
as a general rule the thickness of macadam to be laid should be *a minimum* of twice the maximum stone size , ideally 3 times i find is best.
EG 20mm macadam should be laid to a min depth of 60 mm or 2 1/2 " approx, again macadam is easily laid by hand but its quality is suspect as there are a lot of cowboys mixing it up in yards thruout the country.
As regards colour loss this is an unavoidable fact , mainly due to our wonderful Irish climate, amount of bitumen used and traffic volumes.

Better get back to work now , thats the most thinking i've done all day !!!

hope its some help to somebody.

movax


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## nt00deep

For 300 sq.m, got a quote for 4800 so 16/sq.m


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## movax

I'd say whoever give you the quote is doing ok for himself @ that rate but its not a bad price , big area 300m2, what type of blacktop are you laying?


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## nt00deep

> what type of blacktop are you laying?


macadam to a depth of 60mm / 2.5 inches, but don't know if it is 10mm or 20mm stone size (assume it is 20mm based on your earlier post)


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## Samru24

Hi,
As you seem to be well informed on the subject I wondered if you could answer a question for me please?  I got a quote to have my driveway tarmac'd 18 months ago and have just had a requote from the same company (same person who came out before) and the cost has more than doubled.  I was expecting an increase but thought this seemed a little extreme - would you agree or has their been a huge increase in costs in this area?


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## cmurphy

Can anybody in the Tralee area recommend somebody to lay tarmac. ?
We have kerbing and base laid. If you have had tarmac laid in your driveway and you're happy with it, can you recommend the company to us? Thanks for your help. Also we have 530 square yards - would you have any idea what that should cost?. Any other advice is much appreciated, as I have 2 young children and want to get it laid soon, so the stones / dirt stop coming into the house.
Thanks.


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## lob77

Wet behind the ears when it comes to tarmac. Getting it laid at entrance to house i.e. between main road and entrance. What type of tarmac should I get? There will be a fair bit of traffic on it as our entrance is one where cars/tractors/lorries pull in to leave other cars pass on the road etc Have been told that 10mm@2 inches in depth will suffice but previous thread says only use 20mm on vehicular area?


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## aidans

Hi - was told 30-40mm necessary so 20 sounds too light.


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## ein

movax said:


> SMA is a german developed mastic asphalt , it was first used to resist the wear of studded tyres , studded tyres were then banned in 1975 but the good old Germans had seen that it performed better than conventional asphaltic type wearing courses and decided to go big time into it , its extremley durable, highly resistant to cracking , ravelling( tyres leaving little circles on the surface when you preform excessive turning ) and damage by moisture. It can easily be laid by hand ( though it would'nt be my favorite past time these days!!) and is not dependent on weather unlike HRA.Its black in colour , closed texture and its no gimmick.
> HRA is expensive.Its weather dependant as regards temperature so really summertime is the best time to lay , its probably not the best surface for a domestic job as there is a lot of attendant plant to place it, sometimes you see different coloured chips laid thru it eg red / white again v expensive, v,v durable , closed texture , again colour is usually black but if you got the cash any colour you want! again its no gimmick.
> Macadam is what most smaller contractors lay and what most people end up lifting after 5-6 years cos it just looks s**t.
> 10mm macadam should only be used where no vehicular traffic will be present i.e footpath, 20mm macadam should be used on trafficed areas,
> as a general rule the thickness of macadam to be laid should be *a minimum* of twice the maximum stone size , ideally 3 times i find is best.
> EG 20mm macadam should be laid to a min depth of 60 mm or 2 1/2 " approx, again macadam is easily laid by hand but its quality is suspect as there are a lot of cowboys mixing it up in yards thruout the country.
> As regards colour loss this is an unavoidable fact , mainly due to our wonderful Irish climate, amount of bitumen used and traffic volumes.
> 
> Better get back to work now , thats the most thinking i've done all day !!!
> 
> hope its some help to somebody.
> 
> movax


 
Movax,

That was brillant, thank you very much for your very interesting posts

Ein


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## gogsymate

Can anyone tell me about how much it would cost to lay an area with tarmacadam of 875 metres roughly & also including 85 kerbs.


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## fbmpw

can tarmacadam be laid directly on an existing concrete slab


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## Towger

fbmpw said:


> can tarmacadam be laid directly on an existing concrete slab


 
My parents next door neighbors had that done, by the .....! It only lasted two years before it started to break up. BTW, If it makes any difference it was only laid a couple of inches thick.


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## linesman

I have a yard approximately 120 sq yards and was wondering if there is an alternative to tarmac.   Any suggestions that won't cost the earth.


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## Bluebells

Movax, thank you, thank you, thank you for those two posts.

I'm about to start on my driveway, and you have saved me so much research. I was dreading it.


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## Kenno

Hi Bluebells,
Just wondering what type of surface did you go with and how much is it costing per sq meter? Keep us posted about the final outcome.


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