St Mary's Paving Company

Has anyone ever used St Mary's Paving company? I am looking into getting my driveway blacktopped and got a really good price from them, but I am very concerned with the quality of work they do.

Anyone have an opinion of them?

[duzzey1]

I remember seeing someone talking about this a couple of months ago. Use the search button to find it.

[Uncle Charlie]

You need to be careful whne getting a cheap price. There are 2 different types of asphalt, one is for "base coats" and one is for "top coats". Big diffenece in the two and their lifetime values. Base coat is put down under top coat and uses larger rocks, etc, which can lead to a problem if it is used for top coat on a driveway.

Some of these cheap price paving contractors do just thatYou want a good job, quality work, at a fair price, call Coppenhaver. They did my driveway after I got ripped off by someone selling on price. The 1st driveway lasted about 2 1/2 years because I went for price, not quality. Amazing what you leanr AFTER you have lost your as....!

[Oz (Premo)]

Originally Posted by Uncle Charlie

You need to be careful whne getting a cheap price. There are 2 different types of asphalt, one is for "base coats" and one is for "top coats". Big diffenece in the two and their lifetime values. Base coat is put down under top coat and uses larger rocks, etc, which can lead to a problem if it is used for top coat on a driveway.

Some of these cheap price paving contractors do just thatYou want a good job, quality work, at a fair price, call Coppenhaver. They did my driveway after I got ripped off by someone selling on price. The 1st driveway lasted about 2 1/2 years because I went for price, not quality. Amazing what you leanr AFTER you have lost your as....!

I can attest to this. My driveway is obviously a basecoat, when compared to my neighbors topcoat, fitting the exact descriptions above.

Because I sealed it regularly, it has lasted about 10 years. But it is thin in spots, cracked and worn. Obviously the cheapest paver my builder could find back in 1995.

On the other hand, my neighbor used Copenhaver. From the looks of it, their driveway will last much longer with less frequent sealings. I'm going to repave mine soon, and Copenhaver's phone will be ringing...

Thank you for the replies.

St Marys Paving quoted me $1200
Copenhavers quoted me $2950

I think I'll go with Copenhaver bid.

Thanks again.

[Oz (Premo)]

Originally Posted by icebaby1111

Thank you for the replies.

St Marys Paving quoted me $1200
Copenhavers quoted me $2950

I think I'll go with Copenhaver bid.

Thanks again.

WOW! For that much of a difference, I think I'd have to save the $1750.

What length/width/sqft are you paving? Is it repaving? Do they have to do any excavation?

Originally Posted by Oz

WOW! For that much of a difference, I think I'd have to save the $1750.

What length/width/sqft are you paving? Is it repaving? Do they have to do any excavation?

My driveway is 133 feet long by about 8 foot wide with a wider part up near the house of 32 foot across. No excavation is required. This will be a new paving. Right now we just have gravel.

Is $2950 a high price from Copenhaver for a driveway this size???

[willie]

Originally Posted by icebaby1111

My driveway is 133 feet long by about 8 foot wide with a wider part up near the house of 32 foot across. No excavation is required. This will be a new paving. Right now we just have gravel.

Is $2950 a high price from Copenhaver for a driveway this size???

For that big of a difference, I'd be talking to St Mary's Paving some more. There may be a little confusion here about the "big rocks" in ashalt. It may be what is called "popcorn" by some. I've used this on some very steep driveways for traction reasons. The State does this also.

[Cletus_Vandam]

A lot of opinions here... but one thing to keep in mind is that the drive is only going to be as good as the base it placed on. If the gravel is failing in areas now, chances are unless the paving company doesn't do proper filling and compaction, the asphalt is going to fail.

As far as "popcorn" aggregate goes in paving, the State uses this type of asphalt for thier highway paving projects because water won't pond as much (since it has the chance to drain below the surface due to the gaps between the stones). The correct name for this paving is Superpave and it is definently not what you want for a private drive-it is cost prohibitive.

Surface course and base course paving are mix designations for asphalt mixes identified as SN and BF.

One thing that you will need to check on between the two bids that you received are: (1) do they both include some basic grading of the ex. gravel before paving begins, (2) what thickness of asphalt is being applied, (3) is the drive going to be compelted in a single layer, or will it be a layer of base with a layer of surface atop?, (4) what course of asphlat is being applied.

If your base isn't in bad shape and isn't failing now, you can get by with a single layer, 2" thick. As far as width goes, 8' is tight. I just completed my drive and used 10' wide, but it was almost 600' long. Best case and if you can afford it would be to go with a two layer approach using 2" layer of base and 1" layer of surface. That isn't cheap and may be what Coopenhaver is proposing, compared to the other guys quoting a poss. single layer.

If you have failing sections in the drive now, I would go with a trusted paving company that has exeprience in doing excavation work and has the right equipment (vibratory rollers, graders, etc.).

Hope this helps and sorry to be so long winded.

[Nitro]

I am in the process of researching comp's to pave my driveway. Here are the #'s I've gathered thus far. I'm paving about 2,000 sqft so these estimates are for that size job. Volume discounts usually apply.

Joseph Marini
aprox. $1.56 sqft/recommended to me by a trusted General Contractor/willing to install drains if desired (you can buy drain parts and they will install or they can do it all)/$95 for 2K sqft Calcium Chloride (CC) treatment under driveway to deter weeds/.31 cents sqft for sealer (i have to re-verify this..2X as much as others have quoted me)/1yr guarantee/very professional-returned all phone calls.

Tri-County
aprox. $1.35 sqft/?? on CC treatment/.15 cents sqft for sealer/no drains (too busy)/1yr guarantee/no complaints on customer service..returned all phone calls

Frederick Hand Paving
aprox. $1.65 sqft/no drains (too busy)/.15 cents sqft for sealer/quoted aprox $25 for CC treatment/1yr guarantee/ very professional estimators..returned all phone calls

Hope this helps