How does the construction process for paving a driveway or street work? Pay close attention because it is important to have a basic understanding when dealing with hiring contractors and having them work on your home. We are not expecting you to be an expert in paving and construction over night, or really ever for that matter. But we do think it is imperative that you appear to know how the process works when you are getting quotes, choosing the best company for the job, and overseeing the progress being done on your driveway.

It will help you tremendously to know some of the jargon that professional pavers use so that they do not take advantage of your lack of a seasoned understanding. It is especially helpful to you if you establish from the very beginnings of the process that you have a fairly decent understanding of the job that they are doing. This is important because the sooner you establish that you are not one to be taken advantage of, the less likely that a company or contractor will have the power to walk all over you.

Alright alright already… so how does the construction work?

Asphalt is created inside of a temperature controlled plant from a pavement mixture that is then put into a truck so as not to be separated. This helps the durability and longevity of the pavement. Once the pavement is all grown up and ready to live on some lot or driveway, the asphalt is taken from the plant to the location of the renovation or repair. Throughout the process of transporting the asphalt, it is crucial to know that the asphalt is being temperature controlled the entire time. During the transport, a tarp is put over it so that it maintains a warm temperature so that it does not succumb to the changes in temperature around it while it is en route to the site.

At the job site, the base of the asphalt must get ready to join with grading which will subsequently use a subbase if required. A layer of liquid asphalt is then required for each level of pavement asphalt to make sure that there is a reliable cohesion between all the asphalt layers. Once this part of the procedure is complete, a material transport device, otherwise known simply as an MTD in the pavement construction world, will further mix the pavement before actually depositing it into the ground. You might be surprised to know that paving is not all a job done with machines nowadays. The paver often has to modify the job manually with their own two hands. However, this is why using a company that has up-to-date materials and machines is so important because the better and more diligent an MTD is, the less the paver will have to manually touch up or modify any imperfections that were done by the material transport device. This part is so important because  the more thorough the MTD, the more consistent the temperature of the pavement will be which means that the longevity of the asphalt will be prosperous and reliable.