Dear Tim,
Merry Christmas! My husband and I are in the process of building a home in North Carolina. We will have about a 400 ft driveway to contend with and are very interested in the "tar and chip" driveway concepts. It may resolve both the aesthetics and cost efficiency we long for. How does the cost compare to that of an asphalt or concrete driveway? Is it considered a hard surface driveway or is it like loose gravel.....we would appreciate any feedback you can provide. Thank you, Nancy
Nancy,
You are going to love tar and chip. I have installed this surface for years for customers and have one myself. There are thousands of miles of main roads, secondary routes, and private drives in the USA that are tar and chip. It is a magnificent surface that requires no maintenance.
You can have the loose gravel look or that of smoother blacktop with no loose chips. The choice is yours. If you want the full story on tar and chip, read the first column I did on the topic years ago. I then did a follow-up column as I kept getting requests from people to re-visit the topic.
As for cost, tar and chip is far less expensive than regular blacktop. It costs only 15 - 20% of what concrete might cost. The savings are a function of the size of the job. Just 5 months ago I redid my own driveway with expensive brown Merimac chert from Missouri. Even with that gravel, my cost was less than one dollar per square foot! Since your driveway is so long, you should get a price less than $1 per square foot.
Tim Carter
W3ATB
AsktheBuilder.com