Asphalt Driveway - $100 per square foot?

[Nikhil Agarwal]

Hi everyone, 

I currently have a side lawn and back yard. I want to convert the side lawn into a driveway and add 6 parking spots in the back yard. In total, it looks like I need around 1700 square feet of what's currently a lawn to be converted into an asphalt driveway. 

I'm currently being quoted approx. $100 per square feet by a contractor. I mistakenly budgeted around $15 per square foot based on online articles when I purchased the property. Certainly a lesson learned in getting quotes from contractors rather than relying on websites. I'm about to scrap this project but I wanted to get thoughts here before I do. Am I nuts for thinking it would be closer to $15 per sq ft?

When I spoke with the contractor, he mentioned that the increased cost is because this would be a new driveway where I currently have a lawn and it's not an existing driveway that is being re-surfaced. Specifically, excavation and 4 layers of rocks would need to be added to prepare the land and that is driving the cost to a bit more than $100 per sq ft.

[Ryan Normand]

$100/sf is laughable. In the industry, that's what we call a "F*** You Price"... In other words, he doesn't want to do it so he's giving you a price so insanely high that you almost have to say no.

I don't do asphalt, but in my area you can get a concrete slab with 4" of compacted ABC for $20/sf or less. And concrete is generally a more durable and expensive paving material than asphalt. There's no reason asphalt should be costing 5x unless there's some insane earthwork you're not telling us about. Get more bids. If they all come back that high just pour concrete.