Recycled Asphalt/ New pad for parking

I have parked my 40 footer on the recycled asphalt. No issues at all.

My recycled asphalt drive has held up fine even with the use of my snow plow. Prepped right. Smoothed. Compacted. A little water. A little sun. Very hard. No tracks left by my Fifth Wheel. No pads in use.

Consider using class II road base, packs well, and easy to install.

dedmiston wrote:

crcr wrote:
Personally I would definitely pass on the recycled asphalt. If you don't want the expense of concrete, I'd suggest DG -- Decomposed Granite, 1/4" minus.

I've used DG for parking areas many times, for years for rentals I once had, and now we added a few parking spaces at our church and used DG. With usage and rain, it packs in almost like concrete, and makes an excellent parking surface. I've never had it get muddy after rains.

Another vote for DG. DG is a great paving material and it looks fantastic if it's installed well. How much rain do you get? DG can get kind of muddy if the ground is saturated and the grade doesn't drain properly.

I live in the Desert Southwest. We only get about 7" of rain a year. However, we not infrequently get gully washers than can drop a lot of rain in a very short time, or sometimes over a day or two. Just last weekend, it rained steady for two days solid. The ground was so saturated it was spongy, but our added DG parking at church was still fine.

I would say if you have someone haul in some DG and spread it, that if they don't have a roller to pack it, I would rent one of those vibrator packers the size of a lawn mower and use it to compress the DG.

I used flex base for my driveway. Probably the same as DG. It looks like a concrete mix and comes it several grades depending on rock size. If properly packed and after a few rains it is great. The county replaced my culvert and used it for filler around the new culvert and extending out to the road and 50' up my driveway. They packed it with a roller and after a rain it settled and my truck and rv won't even leave 1/8" deep tracks when wet and they weigh 23k. Next best thing to concrete I've found.

crcr wrote:
Personally I would definitely pass on the recycled asphalt. If you don't want the expense of concrete, I'd suggest DG -- Decomposed Granite, 1/4" minus.

I've used DG for parking areas many times, for years for rentals I once had, and now we added a few parking spaces at our church and used DG. With usage and rain, it packs in almost like concrete, and makes an excellent parking surface. I've never had it get muddy after rains.

Another vote for DG. DG is a great paving material and it looks fantastic if it's installed well. How much rain do you get? DG can get kind of muddy if the ground is saturated and the grade doesn't drain properly.

IF the asphalt grindings are FRESH, they will compact, with a steel wheel roller, quite well. I've seen it and done it many times in my 30+ years with Caltrans. If the grindings are old, like was the case with my neighbor, they will not compact and will track everywhere.

Just using recycled milling would be a mistake since it will never harden up. A new hot asphalt mix with just a percentage of milling added is fine, and almost all new roads have a small percentage of recycled milling added to the mix.
If you use the hot asphalt paving, the base must be compacted dirt, or gravel.

Crushed concrete makes a good gravel surface, and is comparable to a limestone driveway, but a little less in cost. All gravel surfaces need maintenance time to time, and do not need as much base prep as the asphalt.

Very surprised about the asphalt comments.

Maybe the person that put it in for me was just more experienced. He dug down almost a foot, then back filled with some sort of rock, then a good layer of the recycled asphalt. It has remained solid, level, mostly weed free for three years. I would not just use asphalt alone. It needs a good base from what I saw. No tracking of oil or grease. I would do it again.

Personally I would definitely pass on the recycled asphalt. If you don't want the expense of concrete, I'd suggest DG -- Decomposed Granite, 1/4" minus.

I've used DG for parking areas many times, for years for rentals I once had, and now we added a few parking spaces at our church and used DG. With usage and rain, it packs in almost like concrete, and makes an excellent parking surface. I've never had it get muddy after rains.