What should the cost be of a very basic concrete driveway 200 meters long?

[TravelerEastWest]

What should the cost be of a very basic concrete driveway 200 meters long?

[trogers]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

[TravelerEastWest]

Thank you!

[MichaelSong]

I paid 75.000 THB for 200m about 4 years ago everything included: labour , steel net and concrete (Cpac). Phrae province.

[Torrens54]

Make sure you see examples of their work and get a Thai to check with whoever had the "examples" done.

[mausbiber]

A friend in Chiang Mai province just got his driveway.

He had to pay THB 480/m² for a total area of 500m².

The concrete is about 15cm thick, the work was done by a road construction company which normally is working for the Amphoe.

[JaiLai]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That's a bold statement based on seeing the condition and how the 'road contractor' carry our their work on public roads.....

[trogers]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That's a bold statement based on seeing the condition and how the 'road contractor' carry our their work on public roads.....

A bad road contractor will still build a road, and not a paving slab as will be done by a building contractor.

A driveway that is 200m long, and perhaps 3-4m wide should be deemed a road. Construction includes supply, levelling and compacting the substrate, transverse and longitudinal joints, curbs, etc.

I will suspect quality of work if the price is below Bt1,000/sqm.

[canuckamuck]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That is truly insane. if the driveway is 3 meters wide that is 600 square meters, and according to you it should be 1,080,000 baht.

I suspect you are paying a special farang price for your projects.

The other poster's 480 per square seems much closer to the mark.

[trogers]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That is truly insane. if the driveway is 3 meters wide that is 600 square meters, and according to you it should be 1,080,000 baht.

I suspect you are paying a special farang price for your projects.

The other poster's 480 per square seems much closer to the mark.

That's a budget for a paving slab, and not a road.

And a paving slab 200m long will crack and tilt within a short time.

Edited December 21, 2013 by trogers

[Crossy]

Do consider whether you want / need a concrete drive, if you're not going to have lots of traffic there are alternatives.

Ours (not so long) is compacted laterite and gravel, looks rural, the lawn (ok grass) fades into the drive, suits our informal garden and house style. Simple construction, minimal maintenance, just the occasional load of gravel spread around where the surface has sunk (not needed to do that for a year or so now).

[trogers]

Do consider whether you want / need a concrete drive, if you're not going to have lots of traffic there are alternatives.

Ours (not so long) is compacted laterite and gravel, looks rural, the lawn (ok grass) fades into the drive, suits our informal garden and house style. Simple construction, minimal maintenance, just the occasional load of gravel spread around where the surface has sunk (not needed to do that for a year or so now).

And one other advantage is no ponding/flooding as rain soaks through such a driveway.

[LennyW]

450 to 500 Baht per M2, but make sure it is 6" thick, the sub base will be extra, make sure that is well compacted. if you order from CPAC and tell them it is for a driveway and they will provide the correct mix.

Do not accept hand batching from the "local labour" squad.

[JaiLai]

Do consider whether you want / need a concrete drive, if you're not going to have lots of traffic there are alternatives.

Ours (not so long) is compacted laterite and gravel, looks rural, the lawn (ok grass) fades into the drive, suits our informal garden and house style. Simple construction, minimal maintenance, just the occasional load of gravel spread around where the surface has sunk (not needed to do that for a year or so now).

I know this gravel comes in different sizes, what size would you recommend for a drive way, 25-30mm?

I also believe driveways with gravel will take time to compact and strengthen, if it's put down in rainy season it's like dropping stones in a bowl of porridge and is 'spongy' and messy for a very long time.

Thanks.

[JaiLai]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That is truly insane. if the driveway is 3 meters wide that is 600 square meters, and according to you it should be 1,080,000 baht.

I suspect you are paying a special farang price for your projects.

The other poster's 480 per square seems much closer to the mark.

That's a budget for a paving slab, and not a road.

And a paving slab 200m long will crack and tilt within a short time.

Is a "paving slab" not sufficient for a residential propert where it would only ( normally ) be cars / motorbikes maybe in and out half a dozen times a day or thereabouts?

To go to the trouble and cost of a properly ( cough cough ) constructed road for use as a driveway is a bit excessive?

[Crossy]

Do consider whether you want / need a concrete drive, if you're not going to have lots of traffic there are alternatives.

Ours (not so long) is compacted laterite and gravel, looks rural, the lawn (ok grass) fades into the drive, suits our informal garden and house style. Simple construction, minimal maintenance, just the occasional load of gravel spread around where the surface has sunk (not needed to do that for a year or so now).

I know this gravel comes in different sizes, what size would you recommend for a drive way, 25-30mm?

I also believe driveways with gravel will take time to compact and strengthen, if it's put down in rainy season it's like dropping stones in a bowl of porridge and is 'spongy' and messy for a very long time.

I have no argument with the above

Our drive was laid at the end of a rainy season, all rather haphazard actually as it was supposed to be temporary.

The route was already in use by the contractor as his access, so was already pretty well compacted at the start.

The really wet stuff was scraped off to a level that would support the small bulldozer, several truckloads of crushed laterite was then dumped on and spread with the 'dozer. Compacting was done with a tractor and my truck driving on the laterite, more laterite was added at the low bits.

It stayed like that for a month or so being compacted by various ins and outs. A couple of vehicles did get stuck by venturing too near the edge, recovery using the bulldozer was a cinch.

Wifey then ordered a load or ten of 'gravel', it's crushed rock varying between dust and 20mm, more driving and compacting followed.

Since then we've added a couple more loads of gravel at low bits, after 12 months it's compacted enough that the truck delivering the sand for our sandbags (we didn't actually flood this year) didn't even dent the surface.

Like I said, it was supposed to be temporary, but actually fits so well with our informal garden we're going to leave it alone.

[cooked]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That is truly insane. if the driveway is 3 meters wide that is 600 square meters, and according to you it should be 1,080,000 baht.

I suspect you are paying a special farang price for your projects.

The other poster's 480 per square seems much closer to the mark.

That's a budget for a paving slab, and not a road.

And a paving slab 200m long will crack and tilt within a short time.

No it won't if constructed correctly.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

[Jerry Cornelius]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That is truly insane. if the driveway is 3 meters wide that is 600 square meters, and according to you it should be 1,080,000 baht.

I suspect you are paying a special farang price for your projects.

The other poster's 480 per square seems much closer to the mark.

That's a budget for a paving slab, and not a road.

And a paving slab 200m long will crack and tilt within a short time.

No it won't if constructed correctly.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

Totally agree.

The trick however is to find some-one to do just that.

The closer you are to an area popular with westerners, then you're further down the wrong end of a negative exponential curve.

.

Limiting enquiries to a western audience doesn't help too much either. Most of the builders here happen to be Thai and I have a distrust of those also, albeit to a lesser degree.

Some here who don't have a vested interest to support give good advice however. It's up to you to disseminate who's who.

Jerry

[cooked]

At 65 I still do as much as I can myself, so I tend to see things differently from many guys on TV. I'm sure that there is plenty of information as to how to construct a concrete driveway on the net. Certainly not rocket science just very hard work. Count 2 M3 of concrete + about 6 bottles of beer a day per Farang.

[trogers]

Bt1,800/sqm for 10cm thick concrete without landfill. Make sure you engage a road contractor to build it, and not a building contractor.

That is truly insane. if the driveway is 3 meters wide that is 600 square meters, and according to you it should be 1,080,000 baht.

I suspect you are paying a special farang price for your projects.

The other poster's 480 per square seems much closer to the mark.

That's a budget for a paving slab, and not a road.

And a paving slab 200m long will crack and tilt within a short time.

No it won't if constructed correctly.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

And the correct way to construct it is to do it like a road, not a typical concrete slab like a parking space for 2-3 cars.

Look at any concrete road in Thailand and see the kind of joints there are. Would you include curbs on the sides, or would you risk driving your sport rims against the side of concrete 10-15cm high?

[canuckamuck]

maybe a gutter, but definitely no curbs.

[cooked]

maybe a gutter, but definitely no curbs.

yes, drainage has to be considered, about 2% slope to one side, if you can manage to get the drive leveled properly. Where will the water then go to? is one thing you need to consider.

[trogers]

maybe a gutter, but definitely no curbs.

I would hate driving down a driveway that is only 3m wide and longer than 2 lengths of a football pitch when it is raining and at night, and there are no curbs to prevent my car going into a gutter...

[wgdanson]

Hey trogers, learn to drive then.

[TravelerEastWest]

Wow - what great responses - I am very thankful gentlemen - I feel like you have given me an early Christmas present.

This project is for a driveway that will have very limited use and my budget is as low as possible that will get the job done if it starts to crack within one year - not OK - if it starts to crack in 3 or 4 years then OK.

One other thought I want my small kids to be able to ride their bikes on this driveway. So only gravel alone might not work?

Note building is going on now with lots of concrete trucks etc so the current "driveway" is quite hard. the ground is a mix of black clay and red mountain earth.

[Crossy]

That 'red mountain earth' is probably laterite, you're well on the way already.

No need to add gravel if you don't want, visiting family kids happily bike all over our drive and grass areas with no trouble.

Just to clarify, the 'gravel' is not rounded river gravel but crushed rock, it compacts down to a hard surface, it's really there to toughen up the laterite.

EDIT If you're in an area where laterite is readily available in blocks, how about this for an idea:

You may have noticed, I'm very much against using concrete for anything other than construction

[2009]

On 12/21/2013 at 8:16 AM, Crossy said:

Do consider whether you want / need a concrete drive, if you're not going to have lots of traffic there are alternatives.

Ours (not so long) is compacted laterite and gravel, looks rural, the lawn (ok grass) fades into the drive, suits our informal garden and house style. Simple construction, minimal maintenance, just the occasional load of gravel spread around where the surface has sunk (not needed to do that for a year or so now).

 

Rough cost?

 

Got an up to date pics? Does it holdup against weeds?

Edited May 5, 2021 by 2009