Are You Paying Too Much for Your Paving? Here's How to Know

When you’re getting asphalt paving in Shreveport and West Monroe, Louisiana, your costs should be pretty simple to understand and very streamlined from most installation experts. However, there are situations in which you might suddenly find yourself wondering if you aren’t paying too much for your pavement. While we rarely run into this issue because we strive to keep our costs down, some companies take unfair steps. Here are a few scenarios in which you might be paying too much.

Worker Wages Seem to Increase

As your asphalt paving process proceeds, your workers should be getting paid a pretty standard rate. Most of the time, you’re going to pay at least $15-20 per hour for each person on the crew. If you have four people work on your team and average around $18 per hour, that’s $576 per eight-hour workday. Costs should remain very consistent within this range for each day they work.

However, you may find that costs suddenly go up for no reason. For example, you may find that a four-person crew suddenly asks for $700 for an eight-hour day. What is happening here? The contractor may be banking on you not paying attention to your bill and try to jack up the prices unfairly. However, there may be other scenarios at play here that are fair and not illegal.

For instance, they may have run into issues that required them to bring on one or more new crew members to the team. Each member averaging $18 or so per hour will add $144 or so to your daily work budget. So make sure that you speak to your asphalt paving crew about this factor before assuming that sudden increases in worker costs are triggered by greedy contractors.

Material Costs Don’t Seem to Make Sense

When you’re getting asphalt for your paving project, you should have a pretty uniform material budget. Though this budget will undoubtedly increase slightly due to errors or other needs that occur without warning, the costs shouldn’t suddenly skyrocket without expectation or sense. This situation can often begin very early in the project and may be caused by contractors pricing items too high.

For example, asphalt paving is usually less expensive than concrete because it is easier to perform and the materials themselves are not as expensive. The average price per square yard will vary, depending on many different elements. However, you shouldn’t be paying more for asphalt than you would for concrete – and if you are paying more, something strange may be happening that needs to be assessed.

Other factors that can influence your installation costs include the foundation of your pavement, drainage, the costs of local materials, the addition of top coats and sealants, and more. Break down these costs with your contractor to track why they are increasing and take time to go through each of these elements on a step-by-step basis to ensure that you get the best results for your paving.

Sudden Cost Factors Seem to Develop

Lastly, it is important to understand the strange factors that may pop up with any asphalt paving project. For example, you’re going to need to get various types of permits and licenses to finish your project. You may also need to pay engineering expenses to your asphalt experts to ensure you get the best results. However, you may pay too much for these steps if you aren’t careful.

In some cases, it is probably best to handle licensing and permitting on your own to cut down costs. Your contractors can handle it for you, sure, but they are going to charge you a fee for it. Some might jack up the prices of these fees as a way of making a little extra money. Others may charge a fair right but one that may still drive up the costs of your total paving project in the process.

You also need to make sure that engineering costs are reasonable by talking to other paving experts. If they believe that your asphalt paving is being overcharged by your contractor, it is important to talk to the paving experts about why they are charging you more. In many cases, there are factors that influence this price that other contractors may not consider in their budgets, such as insurance.

Get the Best Paving Your Money Can Buy

As you can see, asphalt paving in Shreveport and West Monroe, Louisiana, has many factors that influence its overall costs. Most of the time, paving contractors are going to be on the level and will provide you with high-quality installation and repairs that are more than worth your money. If you want to ensure that you work with a team who you can trust, please contact us at Ark-La-Tex Paving right away to schedule an appointment.