I have an area of approximately 100' x 200' in front of my barn/workshop. It is level and well drained and currently covered with about 2" of crushed (1/2"-1") basalt rock.

There is a lot of traffic over the area and I would love to have it paved with asphalt, however that option is simply too expensive.

Is there any type of DIY project that might give similiar/suitable results, without the cost of having a paving contractor do the job?

 

Hi:
There are several different blocks and paving materials in both, Home Depot and Lowe's.

In the past, we, the family did work around house laying heavy-duty blocks mixed with some bricks for walkway, back-porch and extended driveway. One of blocks we used was heavy-type, 8 x 16 x 4 and other is med. type of block, 8 x 16 x 2. They, both are excellent for paving. In my opinion, they both are very resonable price in comprison to fancy paving stones. You could go to Home Depot and Lowe's which blocks are suitable to your project.

 

If you like pavers look for a place that collects and resells overstock or "imperfect" pavers. You can get them at a fraction of the cost if you don't mind the color being slightly off from what it "should" be.

 

You could flood the gravel with asphalt sealer. Not quite the same as real asphalt and it will require periodical applications of sealer to maintain it.

 

Tell me more about using asphalt sealer. Does it harden up? What about winter during the freeze/thaw cycle. I understand that it probably won't stand up well, but I assume the cost to recoat in the spring would not be too bad. Can it be appled in 40-50 deg. weather?

What kind of base material would be best? Currently it has irregularly shaped crush basalt rock, 1/2-3/4" in size. Would a 1-2" top coat of smaller crushed rock be helpful? (They just completed a road expansion in the area and there are thousands of tons of small crushed rock available right now ... cheap!

 

I've never actually done the "chip and seal" method but the neighbor's driveway was done this way - also several others in this area.

My neighbor's driveway was sealed over small size gravel. I have no idea how much sealer it took. It does dry and harden but not as hard as regular asphalt. When he lived there he resealed it every year and it always looked great. He moved about 5 yrs ago and it's not been sealed since and is definetely showing signs of neglect - weeds popping thru the sealer most everywhere but the tire tracks.

Our winters are somewhat mild. We do get snow but it usually melts in a couple days. Sorry I don't have better info for you.

 

on one of the home improvement shows I have watched in the past, they applied an asphalt drive but it was not premixed.

they first graded the area to the desired flatness and slope. Then applied a gravel (smaller crushed just as used in typical asphalt) (don;t recall how thick) and compacted it with a roller (as in large). Then the mmolten bituminous filler was then sprayed on to the gravel. The applicator claimed that if applied properly, it was actually better than a pre-mix asphalt due to the higher aggregate content and the fact it was compacted without the filler.

Sounds like a similar method of what the others were posting but this was an actual engineered method.

If you can lay and level the gravel. Possible improvise a roller and know somebody with a tar kettle (used in roofing), you could quite possibly do this yourself.

and where are you that there is tons of crushed rock----CHEAP????

the small crushed rock would definately be the best as it is sharp (holds pack well) and allows for a denser stone fill rather than all the "open" spaces when using larger stone. All you want the asphalt to do is bind the rock.