Howdy,
On Mon, 12 Jul 2004, nick brearley wrote:
> >He's willing to do it for time & materials. Time is $80/hour for labor &
> >machinery. He recommended Limestone as the material, at ~$12.50/ton,
> >since it ended up being the cheapest (higher per ton cost, but it 'goes
> >farther' than the other options of mill slag or gravel).
>
> It'd help to know what's being offered for $80/hour. How much labour and
> plant?
I'm not really sure I understand the question... The $80/hour covers him
on his machine running it to do work. I think its split up into $60/hour
labor and $20/hour machinery.
> I'm a contractor in the UK and it looks a bit open ended in favour of
> the contractor to me. He may be an honourable man with your best
> interests at heart but the odds are definitely stacked his way.
Yeah, that's my impression as well. The other work he's doing for us
(septic system stuff) is a set price deal though (it was part of the
agreement for us to buy a house, the money is in escrow from the seller's,
he knows there's no more, etc.) So far he seems pretty normal about all
this, so we'll see.
> One other thing I'd like clarified is the chosen material. As a rule slag
> is foamed material and tends to be less dense than limestone, it may not
> crush and screen as well as limestone but all things being equal you would
> get better spread from slag. On this one though you be better to go with
> local knowledge, advising from another continent on local material choice
> is not an exact science...
His comment on the mill slag was that it was a much heavier material and
didn't spread as far as limestone. I, of course, have _no_ idea about
this stuff...
> Try to get a cap put on the likely final cost before you start. Specify
> the depth of stone. IMO eight inches should be adequate unless you are
> going to run 40 ton trucks over it. If your subsoil is anyways damp or
> soft a geotextile membrane under the stone would be money well spent.
Thanks! We'll get a "range" estimate from him prior to starting work
which should provide that cap.
Its likely that we won't be financially able to get this done now anyway
though if our back of the envelope calculations are correct. We've got an
area about 175' by 75' or so that would need to turn into gravel driveway
and which is now grass. As I understand it, that means you need to scrape
off the topsoil and put down gravel. His just off the top of his head
wild guess at limestone tonnage was on the order of 300+ tons, which would
put the cost of materials at $4k+ we were figuring.
He's going to firm up that estimate a bit and then we'll decide which way
to go. He said he'd be happy to give us a rock solid (hah!) number as
well, but that it'd include enough cushion that he definately wouldn't
lose any money on the job... I.e. time & materials was the way to go (and
I'm inclined to believe him).
Mostly I just want to get educated about what it takes to build a
driveway.
Thanks for the help/advice!
Mark
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