Is gravel really a viable option for commercial driveway paving or parking lot paving?
Simply put, the answer is yes! Depending on the size of your property, traffic volume, and other factors, gravel can be a great alternative to asphalt or concrete. What’s more, gravel provides a number of benefits that other paving materials don’t provide.
Here are five unique advantages of choosing gravel for your driveway or parking lot!
Gravel Offers Significant Cost Savings
Most people understand that new paving isn’t cheap. Particularly if you’re paving a large area of your property, costs can quickly add up and leave you with a large bill. Any savings may be highly beneficial to you and your business — in which case, you should certainly consider the cost savings of gravel.
Undoubtedly, gravel is the most affordable option out of the three most popular paving methods. Including labour, concrete paving can cost up to $5 per square foot and asphalt paving typically costs upwards of $2 per square foot. Gravel paving, however, costs roughly half the amount of blacktop.
Gravel Is Extremely Versatile
It’s no secret that the appearance of blacktop and concrete is somewhat limited by their lack of colour options.
Because gravel’s top layer consists of small chips, however, your paving company will allow you to choose from a range of colours when designing your gravel surface. Opt for a more eye-catching tone or even match your surface with your property.
Gravel Surfaces Can Be Installed Quickly
Unlike asphalt and concrete, gravel doesn’t need time to cure. Once all of the aggregate materials have been spread, compacted, and smoothed out, you can start using your new gravel surface right away. This limits any downtime to your business!
What’s more, because gravel installation is both faster and easier than blacktop or concrete installation, certain projects — such as small driveways — are viable do-it-yourself (DIY) projects!
Gravel Requires Little Maintenance
One of the biggest drawbacks of asphalt and concrete is the amount of professional maintenance and repairs that they require. These materials are often susceptible to stains, cracks, divots, and other blemishes.
Gravel, on the other hand, isn’t vulnerable to the same kinds of damage. In fact, gravel maintenance typically consists of evening out the surface and raking stray chips back into place. Unlike asphalt and concrete, your gravel driveway or parking lot doesn’t even require scrubbing or sweeping. The occasional rainfall will wash the majority of dirt and debris away.
Gravel Is Porous
One of the main reasons why gravel requires less maintenance than blacktop and concrete is because it is relatively porous. As the small, separate chips allow water to drain easily, you don’t have to worry about issues such as standing water and improper drainage.
As rainfall hits your gravel, it will permeate the surface and that water will naturally return to the soil in an environmentally friendly way!
At Empire Paving, we have over 40 years of Toronto asphalt paving, concrete paving, and gravel paving experience. Get in contact with us today to receive a free estimate on your upcoming project!
We were very pleased with the professional job done by Empire Paving this fall.
Luciano and his team were very reliable, knowledgeable and able to handle all issues that arose during completion of this project. We would highly
recommend Empire Paving for any paving job!