Creating a new Driveway

[bluewaters]

Hi,
Hope you guys can help with information and personal experience on this matter.

We have a corner house on two main streets. The current driveway entry is on the wrong street (not on the street where my street number is:(.

We would like to create a new driveway off the main street towards the front portch.

We need to fix the current side walk (city owned) so the entry to driveway would be smooth.

Need to know if I need a permit?
How much a permit will cost?
How long the permit would take?
Can we fix the side walk ourselves without involving city?
Is there any company that can obtain a permit easy and quickly so less headache for us?
How much would it cost "doing it ourselves" renting necessary equiptment such as bobcat.....???

Thanks in advance for everyone's repliey.

Note: I'll be contacting the city for information but would like to hear from my fellow redflag members. Also, we would be doing the work ourselves, have the knowlege and skills to do this and most properly we will be doing a concrete driveway.

[hagbard]

Depends on the city. You don't give a location.

[bluewaters]

Hi,
Sorry. Forgot to mention this is in Toronto. (Etobicoke to be exact)

[1yellowdog]

I tried to get my driveway simply widened and the city I was living in at the time went ballistic. They would not approve any permits for widening the walkway or cutting the curb. Go down to city hall and be very general about what you want to do to see how they feel about it. My suggestion is to then get in touch with a reputable company who does asphalt or interlock and see if they have any contacts with your city hall to work around and restrictions they may initially give you. Some companies are approved to apply for permits and some are not in the city I used to live in. This is a few years back but the permit, if they had approved it, was going to cost around $120 but there was talk of them increasing them.

[bluewaters]

Hi, 1 yellowdog,
Thanks for your reply.

I will call the city today to get a feeling of what they might say. Also I'm hoping that someone can provide a reputable company they have worked with and go through them to obtain the permit. But want to do the work ourselves since it would cost alot if all done by professionals.

I guess I don't mind giving a portion of the work to a company but can't offered to pay them do the driveway.

[UrbanPoet]

That reminds me... I want to pave over my front lawn for an extra parking space. But that would include smoothing out the sidewalk. I remember City of Toronto used to allow this, but i heard its been banned lately =(

I live in a pretty dense d/t area too, so parking is scarce.
I wonder would i be able to get away with just interlocking the front lawn and just hopping the curb to park.

[1yellowdog]

You could request the company gets your permit and cuts the curb, the city may have other things that have to be done by an approved source too. This will take time also, months probably. I was told if I applied in the Fall I might get approval by Spring. They have to come out to the site and see if they think the new driveway location is doable, etc. You might want to check if your plan will increase your property taxes too.

[hagbard]

Note to self: Don't buy a house in Toronto.

[bluewaters]

Good idea 1 yellowdog, if the company cut the curb and gets the permit we can get the rest done and less hassel.

Anyone know of a good company they have worked with before?

Thanks all.

[urban1]

I know that many cities have gotten strict about this. (Imagine if everyone started paving over grass and installing or expanding driveways or parking.)

Why do you say its off the "wrong" street? Wouldnt you rather prefer to have more green space in front of your house rather than a bunch of concrete?

Hi,
We have a corner house on two main streets. The current driveway entry is on the wrong street (not on the street where my street number is:(.

We would like to create a new driveway off the main street towards the front portch.

[Techhead]

bluewaters,

I have noticed that with corner homes here. The driveway on the oposite side of the entrance.

I'm in Etobi and the most used company around my area is West York Paving.

Google.ca them, they are the first one in the list.

I do know in my neighbourhood we have the culvert also. It's not hard to get your driveway widdened as many folks do it. Call up the city give them how wide you want to go and they come 2-3 months later and drop in a new drainage tube, then it's up to you to pave overtop.
I think the max is 6' to the inermost corner of your house.

If memory servers me, the city has to use approved contractors to do any sidwalk repair. they use a higher PSI # in the concrete.

[bluewaters]

k,
I would love to have more green but the way my current drive way is has a few major concerns:

Not easy to park in and get out due to its location (specially I have a baby in the car and feel I am taking a risk almost every time, I may get rear ended by cars that don't expect me to turn into a drive way immediately after the traffic light)

I end up using the side door rather than main enterance since the drive way is at the side door.

People have issue finding entrance to the house (very confusing) and park since there is no entrance to my house from my street to my house!!

It's a major issue when it comes to resale since no one cares for that.

Techhead,
Thanks for the tip. I lookinto them and hope I can make them happen.

If anyone has more details on restriction, size, time lines..... any additional info, would be greatly appreciated.

[1yellowdog]

That reminds me... I want to pave over my front lawn for an extra parking space. But that would include smoothing out the sidewalk. I remember City of Toronto used to allow this, but i heard its been banned lately =(

I live in a pretty dense d/t area too, so parking is scarce.
I wonder would i be able to get away with just interlocking the front lawn and just hopping the curb to park.


I was able to hop the curb with my snow tires but unfortunately scrapped the underside of my car with my all seasons. I know people who want additional parking spaces do the interlock thing and pretend it's a patio but the other thing to check out is if your by-laws allow you to park directly in front of your house, in Ottawa they want you to park beside your house. So angled parking in front of the house is not approved these days.

[bluewaters]

1 yellowdog,
Parking on the main street is illegal and impossible. It won't work. As for going over the curb, I probably can do that since I drive a suv but I'm looking for proper set up since others such as guests need to be able to park.


By the way,
Spoke to a contractor (started from another part of the house and we ended up talking about the driveway), he said in toronto only city can break the curb and fix it. Also he said the permit for the dirve way cost about $1700!! (not sure if this included garage or just for driveway). He said the spot requires a survay and that cost about $2000!!! These are costs involved without the actual work!!! He charges $5000 for the driveway (we didn't even talk about what type of driveway).

Well I am definately not going to go with a contractor. If anyone knows about these costs of permits please shed some lights. I called the city but got a voicemail and I didn't want to leave a message.

Can't believe it would cost that much just for permits!

[Whitedart]

By the way,
Spoke to a contractor (started from another part of the house and we ended up talking about the driveway), he said in toronto only city can break the curb and fix it. Also he said the permit for the dirve way cost about $1700!! (not sure if this included garage or just for driveway). He said the spot requires a survay and that cost about $2000!!! These are costs involved without the actual work!!! He charges $5000 for the driveway (we didn't even talk about what type of driveway).


Corner lots always pose a problem for adding a side driveway, so detailed plans will need to be reviewed by the city.

A survey you should have received when you purchased the house. You can use that survey, and make a detailed drawing of where you propose to install the new driveway.

If approved, the city will insist on cutting the curb opening for the new driveway, at a specific cost per meter.

Curbs extend down about 6-8 inches below the asphalt and hold the granular material under the asphalt in place. When the curb is not properly cut and cracks, the water seepage into the crack along with winter frost erodes the base under the asphalt and will eventually develop a pothole and further heaving damage to the curb.

I don't know about Toronto's costs, but Missisauga would charge only the cost of the curb cut in terms of fees/permits. The driveway construction cost is seperate.