A new Ottawa paving company, judged on method rather than history

Why a new company says so out loud

Every paving company in this city was new once, and most of them handled it by writing a number of years on a website and hoping nobody asked. We would rather explain the thinking, because the thinking is what a homeowner can actually check. Ottawa sits on Champlain Sea clay with a sensitivity between 65 and 85, a natural water content of 64 percent against a liquid limit of 52 percent, and a CH high plasticity classification that puts it in the worst frost susceptibility category there is. Frost damage needs three things at once: susceptible soil, sub-freezing temperature and available water. Nobody controls the first two. Everything a competent contractor does here is about the third. If a quote does not tell you how deep the granular goes, what it is compacted to and where the water is supposed to leave, the length of the company history is not the variable that failed.

How we assess a driveway before quoting it

Paving Experts Ottawa is a new business in Ottawa. We could have written any number of years and nobody would have checked, which is roughly what the industry has trained homeowners to expect. What we can set out is how we assess a driveway, which published standards we build to, and what we will actively tell a customer not to buy. All three of those are things you can verify on the day, which is more than a company age can ever be.

There is a practical reason as well as an honest one. The questions that decide whether an Ottawa driveway lasts fifteen years or five have nothing to do with who owns the paving company. They are how deep the granular goes, what it is compacted to, whether the grade moves water off the surface, and whether the surface course went down warm enough to compact. A homeowner who asks those four questions of any contractor, new or old, will get a better driveway than one who asks how long the firm has been trading.

So we will not claim years in business, job counts, star ratings, awards or certifications. We do not have them. The only proof we hold is the five reviews above, which clients sent us directly, and the reasoning we are willing to put in writing on your quote.

What we check before a number goes on paper

We measure the real area rather than the area you remember. Ottawa driveways are usually smaller than people estimate, and on a job priced per square foot that difference matters in both directions. A single driveway runs around 300 square feet, a standard double 600 to 800, and a three car apron 900 to 1,200. A rural laneway gets measured properly because there is no typical figure worth quoting.

We probe for soft spots. Springy ground under a boot, rutting under a parked car, or a surface that dishes near the garage all point to base failure rather than a surface problem, and no overlay survives that. We look at where meltwater goes, because the single thing separating a driveway that survives an Ottawa March from one that does not is whether water can leave before it freezes again. The City's own grading guidance caps a driveway at 6 percent, never lets a swale fall below 1 percent, and keeps 150 mm of clearance at the foundation. Those numbers are a useful sanity check on any lot.

We check the apron and the edges, because that is where salt spray and plough damage concentrate, and where ravelling usually starts. We ask when the house was built, because the base under a 1970s driveway and one built in 2015 are different problems. And we check whether the work you want touches the City road allowance, because that changes the paperwork before it changes the price.

The published standards we build to

The City of Ottawa's light duty pavement standard is 50 mm of asphalt over 150 mm of Granular A and 300 mm of Granular B Type II, compacted to at least 98 percent Standard Proctor maximum dry density. A driveway is not a road and does not need a road's full structure, but that document tells you what the people who maintain pavement in this climate think granular depth is worth.

OPSS 310, the Ontario provincial standard for hot mix paving, requires at least 7 C and rising for a surface course and 2 C and rising for a binder course, with no frozen roadbed, a dry surface and the work finished by half an hour after sunset. It contains no calendar restrictions at all, only temperature ones. That is why we book against the forecast rather than against a wish list, and why we will move your date rather than lay a mat that cannot be compacted.

The binder specified for Ottawa is PG 58-34. The minus 34 is the low temperature grade, set against a city record low of minus 36.1 degrees. Access By-law 2026-139, in effect since 8 April 2026, and Zoning By-law 2026-50, enacted 11 March 2026, set the width and landscaping rules, and a Hardscaping Contractor Licence has been mandatory since 1 March 2026. These are recent changes and a lot of advice circulating in Ottawa has not caught up with them.

Things we will actively talk you out of

Sealing a driveway paved this season. The lighter oils in fresh binder need 6 to 12 months to oxidise, and sealing before that traps them, stops the sealer bonding and leaves a soft mat that scuffs. After the first seal, every two to three years is the correct interval for this climate, not every year. Annual sealing builds a thick brittle film that cracks and peels, and anybody recommending it is selling sealer rather than reading your driveway.

Resurfacing over a failed base. An overlay runs roughly $2.50 to $6 per square foot against $8 to $14 to remove and repave, so the temptation is obvious. It is also the most reliable way to spend money twice, because interconnected cracking, soft spots and standing water all reappear through the new surface within a season or two.

Replacing a driveway because of its age. The City states plainly that pavement age is not a factor in how it assesses performance, and prioritises condition. Crack sealing at $200 to $500 a visit, or sealing at roughly $150 to $350 for a standard double, is frequently the right answer on a driveway a salesperson has written off.

And cold patch as anything other than a stopgap. The City filled over 106,350 potholes with it across the 2025 to 2026 winter and describes it as a generally temporary repair that does not bond strongly. It keeps a wheel out of a hole until the plants reopen in May. It is not a repair.

Any workmanship warranty is set out in your written quote, job by job. Call (343) 314-8525 or email info@pavingexpertsottawa.ca and we will come and look at what you have.