Asphalt Milling in New Orleans, LA
Licensed and insured · Serving Metairie, Kenner, Gretna, Harvey, Marrero, Westwego, Chalmette, Arabi, River Ridge and Harahan
Call (504) 607-7395Potholes around here have names. A few of them have been on the same block long enough to vote, and folks steer around them out of habit like they're furniture.
Milling is how we get rid of them without tearing your whole lot to pieces. We run a grinder across the surface, shave off the tired top inch and a half to two inches, and leave the base underneath alone if it's still sound. What comes off is asphalt millings, and they don't go in a hole somewhere. We haul them, crush them and they get a second life, sometimes as an asphalt millings driveway out in Chalmette or Marrero where a customer wants something firmer than gravel that won't wash out in a July downpour.
Here's what I promise about the people, not the machines. We call you back, from a person. We show up in the window we gave you, or you hear from me before the window closes. Nobody on my crew talks over your head about pavement, and nobody leaves a ridge of grindings across your neighbor's grass on the way out. We sweep. Every time.
Below I've laid out how an asphalt milling job actually runs, what moves the price, the millings driveway option and the questions people ask me before they book. Read on, then give us a ring and I'll come look at it myself.
Asphalt Millings Driveway
That black grindings pile we haul off a parking lot doesn't go to a landfill. It goes back down as a driveway, which is the part of asphalt milling most folks never hear about. If you've got a shell or limestone drive out in Gentilly or River Ridge that washes into the street every time we get one of those afternoon downpours, this is worth knowing.
Here's how we do it. Strip the sod and the soft topsoil, shape the pad so water runs off toward the ditch or the street instead of pooling against your slab, then lay the millings in lifts and roll each one. Three to four inches compacted is what I want under a car, thicker where a work truck sits. Late spring through summer is the sweet spot, because that leftover binder softens in the heat and the material knits together instead of staying loose.
Done wrong, it's just a gravel drive that happens to be black. Dumped out of the tailgate, raked flat by hand, no roller, no grade. Come the first real storm you've got ruts, and by spring the weeds are winning.
An asphalt millings driveway won't ever look like fresh hot mix, and I'll say that up front. What it will do is stay put, shed water, and take a beating from a boat trailer without complaining.
Milling Driveway
Milling a driveway is a different animal than milling a lot out on Airline. Your gate opening is maybe eight feet, there's a live oak root humped up under the slab, and your neighbor parks three feet off the edge. So we bring a small drum machine instead of the big one and take the surface off in passes, usually an inch and a half to two inches, rather than one greedy bite.
Here's what goes sideways when it's done fast. Cut too deep on a residential slab that never had much stone under it and you're suddenly grinding dirt. Leave ridges behind and they telegraph right through whatever goes down on top, like a bad haircut growing out.
Most milling driveway work at a house is a morning. Loading out the grindings and sweeping the apron clean fills the afternoon.
Milling And Overlay
Milling and overlay is the one I recommend most, and it's simple in concept: grind off the top inch and a half to two inches of tired surface, haul the asphalt millings out, then lay a fresh mat over the sound base underneath. You keep your elevations. That matters more here than people think, because when a crew skips the milling and just pours new asphalt on top, your curb reveal shrinks, the gutter stops draining, and water starts pooling at the door threshold every time an afternoon thunderstorm rolls through Uptown.
The order of operations is where jobs go sideways. We sweep, we tack the milled surface, and we lay while the mix is still hot enough to compact properly. Cold mix behind a slow roller never knits, and you'll see the seams inside a year.
On a mid-size lot, pavement milling runs a day and the overlay follows the next, weather permitting. Traffic's back on it once it cools, usually a few hours. We stripe after that.
Pavement Milling
Pavement milling is grinding, and that's all it is. A drum studded with carbide teeth spins down into your lot and shaves off the top inch or two of surface, leaving a ribbed texture behind and a pile of asphalt millings that we either haul off or stockpile for reuse. No mystery to it. The mystery is in how flat the machine leaves things.
That's where a lot of asphalt milling companies get sloppy. Set the drum to a fixed depth and walk it across a New Orleans lot and you just copy every dip and hump you already had, so the water still ponds in the same spot by the dumpster after an afternoon storm. We cut to grade, not to a number, and we watch for worn teeth that leave ridges the overlay won't hide.
Depth, square footage, haul distance for the millings and how many manholes, valve boxes and curb lines need hand work around them are what move an asphalt milling cost more than anything else.
What the job involves
Milling is the part of the job most people never see, because it happens before the pretty black layer shows up. The machine rolls through with a drum full of carbide teeth spinning against the surface, and it grinds off the top inch and a half to two inches of old pavement at a set depth while a water spray keeps the dust and heat down. Behind it, a skid steer and a broom clean the surface until it's bare. That grinding gives us a fresh, textured surface for the new mat to grab, and it means your lot doesn't gain two inches of height and end up above the curb line, with rain pooling where it used to drain.
Depth is everything. If the base underneath is soft, milling shallow just hides the problem, and by the second August of heat and afternoon downpours you'll see the same alligator cracking show back through.
The other thing that gets skipped is the sweeping. Leave fines on that surface, the tack coat can't bond, and the new asphalt peels in sheets a year later.
Most parking lots we mill get done in a day, with New Orleans Asphalt Paving following the next. The asphalt milling itself is fast. The old material doesn't get wasted either, since asphalt millings get recycled and reused rather than dumped.
What it costs
Milling gets priced by the square foot, but square footage is only where the conversation starts. Depth matters more than most people expect. Taking off an inch and a half so we can lay a fresh mat is one job. Going full depth because the base underneath has been soaking up water since the last time the Superdome roof made the news is another, and it means more tonnage on the trucks.
Access moves the number too. A machine comes in on a lowboy, and a wide open lot in Elmwood is easier to work than a tight courtyard off Magazine Street where we're cutting by hand around a dozen catch basins and a live gas valve. Manholes, curb tie ins and drain structures all mean somebody on a jackhammer, and that's time.
Then there's what happens to the grindings. Hauling them off and paying at the scale is one price. Windrowing them and reusing them on site is another, which is why a client with an asphalt millings driveway or a back lot often ends up ahead.
Call us and we'll walk the site, measure it, and give you a real figure rather than a guess over the phone.
What blows a budget is milling done blind. Cut too deep and you've bought yourself base repair. Skip the sweeping and the tack never bonds, so the new asphalt shoves in August heat.
Why choose us for this
Your parking lot is rutted, the asphalt has shoved into waves where the delivery trucks swing wide, and the last thing you want is to spend a month babysitting a crew. You want somebody to grind it flat, haul it off, and leave you alone about it for years.
So here's what I won't do to you.
No number that grows: the figure I put on paper is the figure on the invoice, unless we open it up and find the base is soup, and then you hear about it that day, not at the end.
No disappearing act: my crew doesn't start a second job across town while yours sits half milled with a two inch drop at your door. We mill it, we pave it, we finish.
No signature today: nobody from here is going to sit in your office until you cave. Read the estimate over the weekend if you want.
No mess: the millings go on the truck, the curbs get swept, and the storm drains stay clear, which matters when a July afternoon dumps three inches on Gentilly in an hour.
I'm not the cheapest asphalt milling quote you'll get, and I've made peace with that. Grinding to a consistent depth and tack coating properly takes hours somebody has to pay for. After nineteen odd years of this, I'd rather lose the job than do it twice. The estimate costs you nothing and books you into nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Is milling the same thing as patching a bad spot?
No. Patching cuts out a failed area and fills it back; milling grinds the surface off across the whole lot or drive, usually an inch and a half to two inches deep, and leaves a grooved base ready for new asphalt. If your surface is cracked and rutted all over but the stone underneath is still solid, asphalt milling is the honest fix. If it's one soft spot by the dumpster pad, that's a patch, and I'll tell you so.
Will milling tear up my base or my drainage?
It shouldn't, and that's the whole point of running the machine at a set depth instead of ripping everything out. We mill to grade, keep your existing slope, and pay attention to where water is already headed, because in this town water always wins. Curbs, catch basins and manhole rings get milled around, then hand-worked so nothing sticks up proud.
How long am I off it?
On a typical lot we mill and pave inside two days, and you're driving on new asphalt about 24 hours after the roller leaves. If we're leaving asphalt millings down as the finished surface, you can drive on it same day, though an asphalt millings driveway wants a few weeks of traffic and sun to knit tight.
How do we start?
Call us, we'll walk the surface with you and measure.