Asphalt Driveway Thickness
According to the Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association's "The ABC's of Driveways", there are two main ingredients in asphalt thickness. For the first, the base under the asphalt needs to be solid and correctly formed. The bottom layer of the base is made of subgrade, which should be free of organic material and topsoil. On top of that, there should be between 6 and 8 inches of properly compacted crushed granular base aggregate. On top of the base layer, according to Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association, a typical driveway will need a minimum of 2 inches of hot mix asphalt. This thickness varies depending on how durable the driveway blacktop needs to be and how much and what type of traffic it will see. For a more durable driveway, the contractors can use a 2 inch hot mix asphalt base course followed by a 1.5 inch surface course. Although the Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association manual for ABC's of Driveways is meant for the contractors, it is also a valuable manual for anyone thinking of paving the driveway with asphalt. The manual is available at asphaltinstitute.org/ai_pages/FAQs/PDFs/ABCs_Driveways_OHMPA.pdf
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