Quotes for a tarmac driveway..stunned

[schtompy]

Hi all, I think this might have been done to death or close to, but I’ve been looking at quotes for a driveway to be put onto the house I’ve bought. Only had 2 back so far, but 45m squared, tarmac, edging and an Aco drain with a tiny 20cm wall, a small hedge to be removed and I’m getting quoted £7/£7 and half grand..now I’m on my todd, and wondering if that’s making a difference..they’re thinking I’m on my own, I won’t know the prices? I’ve done a bit of googling, and it seems a reasonable price is between £3-5 grand. Anyone else on here had high quotes? It’s not like I’m on the better side of town, I’m not! Any advice or experiences would be helpful.

That seems a lot, but what is down currently other than the hedge? Is the site level ? Etc.
Hard to say without understanding what the tarmac will replace.

Will it need digging out and hardcore? Where is the drainage running too?

The site is fairly level, currently gravel down and paving slabs, most of them loose which I will be moving soon (both gravel and slabss I’ll use them out in the back garden) but the front needs a bit of digging, minimum 200mm deep, tarmac and sub base put in/on.
the drainage is running straight into the downpipe drain.
I thought it sounded a lot too.

Thanks for the update. We did our drive about 18 months ago - gravel and slabs into tarmac with block edging. On a slight gradient. With hardcore, levelling and new drain cover we were £4200. It’s probably around the same area.

Thanks Dearg, That was more the price I was thinking it would be, shame you're not near me or I'd ask for the company that did yours! I'll get more quotes

You need to get more quotes, usually free!

For 7.5k, I'd be getting a proper imprinted concrete drive.

Lasts longer, zero maintenance, and will never sag under car weight like it does with tarmac, which also fades to a shitty grey colour over time.

We’re North Wales. Got 4 quotes to widen existing drive into front lawn area just to squeeze a car onto.

On the plus side they all quoted within a few hundred of each other, but it was 3k to 3.5k.

Wow I wish I'd had that quite! do you think they're genuine or trying it in because I'm on my lonesome? I've heard that women can get taken for fools either way regards to workmen..

If you feel like they are taking advantage because you are a lone female have you got any male friends or friend's husbands you could borrow just to be there whilst they come out to quote?

We did a lot of research when we were having ours done, so looked online at lots of different websites giving rough examples but also looking at local companies for their prices. I can't give you our price because it was a resurface and a widening so two different sorts of installs. Plus it was 3 years ago and prices have just continued to go up.

Quoted £7 k for a drive the size of 2 cars. Beware of cheap quotes as they not be legitimate and some contractors come back for more mo ey anyway on some pretext of unexpected issues.

Don’t know whether this is any help but this is what we paid in 3 years ago. This was the middle price of 3 quotes obtained all from reputable companies and give or take £100 they were all much of a muchness.

Shared driveway total of 56 square meters.
Existing driveway to be excavated and new sub-base I Existing edging to be removed and replaced with block Base tarmac and top coat of tarmac to be applied.
Materials and labour -
Vat -
Total -
£5,040.00
£1,008.00
£6,048.00

I've just been quoted 10k for something similar!

We won't be going ahead for sure now!

Thanks everyone, I’m still getting quotes in and thinking of maybe reducing the size of the driveway, I was going by what was outside the front door, but thinking on, the other side of the house would work too, I just didn’t want to take the hedge out that side! I might just go for a single car width..maybe get quotes for both sizes! See what those quotes are!