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Mike Parker

Mike Parker is a full-time writer, publisher and independent businessman. His background includes a career as an investments broker with such NYSE member firms as Edward Jones & Company, AG Edwards & Sons and Dean Witter. He helped launch DiscoverCard as one of the company's first merchant sales reps.

All roads may lead to Rome, but only your driveway leads to your home. In simpler days before the advent of the automobile, packed dirt driveways were common. Today, some type of paving material is not only desirable but, in accordance with the building codes of most communities, required. Fortunately, there are many different types of paving materials available that will enhance both the beauty and value of your property, and they are available in and equally wide range of prices.

A paved driveway offers many benefits over an unpaved, or packed dirt, driveway. In addition to the obvious bonus of being aesthetically pleasing, paved driveways offer a better surface for parking. Vehicles parked on a paved driveway, even one paved with gravel or crushed stone, are unlikely to get stuck in the mud after a rainy day. Paved driveways add to the curb appeal and value of your home when you get ready to sell. They are easier to keep clean, and they help keep dirt from the outside from being tracking inside the home.

Driveway paving materials are divided into three primary classes: solid, aggregate and pavers. The most popular types of solid paved driveways include poured concrete and asphalt. Aggregate driveways are represented by compressed gravel and crushed rock or stone. Driveways composed of pavers may use cobblestone, formed concrete or brick. These are not hard and fast categories as some homeowners choose to use hybrids of each of these materials. A popular example would be the chip-and-tar driveway in which crushed stone or aggregate is pressed into an asphalt surface.

Crushed stone or gravel is the least expensive type paving material to use on a driveway. Although it requires a considerable amount of physical labor to install, handy homeowners can install this type of driveway without much professional help. Asphalt is normally the next least expensive type of paving material to install on a driveway, although few homeowners have the expertise to install one from scratch. Concrete is one of the most popular types of driveway paving material and requires little maintenance once it is properly installed. The most expensive driveway paving material is pavers, but they have the advantage of being virtually maintenance free and, if repairs are needed, can be replaced individually.

Some maintenance will be needed on almost all paved driveways to keep them in tiptop shape. Crushed rock and gravel drives will need to be refreshed with additional rock as the original layer gets pressed down in to the underlying ground. Asphalt will need to be sealed within nine months of being laid and resealed every few years. Concrete driveways will require an occasional degreasing. Cobblestone driveways may need to have the binding material between the pavers refreshed and broken pieces replaced as needed.

Regardless of what type of paving material a homeowner chooses for his or her driveway, it is important to always lay a proper foundation prior to installing the surface. Asphalt, concrete and even crushed stone driveways will benefit from having a 3-to-6-inch base of packed gravel in place prior to laying the finishing material on top. Cobblestone and other paver-type materials should have a level sand base to provide an even, level surface.

A properly constructed driveway prevents damage to your vehicle's tires and keeps the rest of your lawn free for plants to grow....

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Update: This article was written in 2009. The outlook for asphalt prices in 2012 is still not very good. As of June 2012, asphalt prices are still near the highs from 2010. Its very hard to predict what will happen to prices in 2013 but its likely prices will be very volatile and higher than the prices shown in this article.

First let me point out that this article is only a guide so that you can get a feel for what a new driveway may cost. Please remember that local markets will fluctuate quite a bit based on demand and current asphalt prices and any heavy haul services required. Also, these prices assume no base prep work which can add quite a bit of money to the job.

Recently we had the wearing surface of our driveway installed. Before paving the wearing course I did some quick estimates of the asphalt driveway cost. When we built our home three years ago I only had the first 2-inches of base asphalt pavement installed. I opted to wait before I installed the wearing surface (top 1-inch) to save money and also let the sub-base and base settle over several winters.

Now that weve been through several winters I decided it was time to finally install the wearing surface before the pavement was damaged by water and settlement. So I thought it might be fun to show you how to calculate how many tons of asphalt pavement you need to help understand what an asphalt driveway cost. Alternatively you can use a driveway cost calculator.

Asphalt driveways are typically priced by the ton. Currently in this part of New England asphalt driveway costs about $120 to $150 per ton installed with little to no base prep. In order to estimate the cost of a driveway resurfacing or a complete new driveway you need to understand how to calculate the total tons. We use the following equation:

Tons Of Asphalt Pavement = Square Yards Of Pavement * 0.057 * Depth Of Pavement In Inches

So my example is as follows: 1 Inch thick wearing surface with 3,423 square feet of pavement. To get square yards I needed to take 3,423 sq. ft. of pavement divided by 9 sq. ft. per sq. yard = 380 sq. yards. Therefore my tons of asphalt = 380 sq. yds * o.057 * 1 inch = 22 tons of asphalt pavement. If you assume an average cost of $140 per ton then the driveway costs $3,080.

If youre building a new driveway then you need to base it on a depth of 3-inches. Most asphalt driveways have 2 inches of base pavement followed by 1 inch of wearing pavement. Obviously the asphalt driveway cost will depend on exactly how thick your new driveway is.

The example above is one way to estimate the job cost. Another gut check for me is to look at the cost of the asphalt plus the crew/equipment cost. Right now (July 2012) just asphalt alone is at $75/ton. So 22 tons at $75/ton = $1,650. A driveway that size will take about 4 hours, lets say a half day (you can usually do either 1 or 2 driveways in a day so just figure out if youre a really large one or an average size. Crew costs plus equipment is around $400/hr for 4 hours = $1,600. Materials plus labor therefore is around $3,250. So my point is these are tools for getting you in the ballpark.i.e. this is a $3K +/- job and not a $10K job.

The asphalt surface is only one factor in having a strong driveway. Be sure your new driveway has an adequate driveway sub-base with proper drainage.

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Asphalt Driveway Cost - How To Estimate Before You Call A Contractor

Spacebase DF-9 Alpha 1C Part 6 Mass Demolition
Trying mass demolition to get thing back on track but did not work as planned could not be able to remove airlocks http://www.spacebasedf9.com/devplans In Sp...

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Spacebase DF-9 Alpha 1C Part 6 Mass Demolition - Video

Jonamac Orchard Pumpkin Demolition
Jonamac Orchard, in DeKalb, IL, host its first annual day-after Halloween Pumpkin Demolition.

By: NIUNorthernStar

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Jonamac Orchard Pumpkin Demolition - Video

Demolition derby car aftermath from Az. State Fair. 2013
A bit of time has past since the car was run. But I did get it done before repairs were started.

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Demolition derby car aftermath from Az. State Fair. 2013 - Video

Ballpark Demolition Montage
Ballpark demolition montage coming off the potential demolition of the Astrodome in Houston. LIKE us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @MLBNetwork and check ...

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Disco Demolition Night Date July 12, 1979 Time 6 pm and following Location Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, US Cause promotional event admitting those with a disco record for $0.98 Participants Steve Dahl, Bill Veeck and several thousand attendees Outcome Game 2 of the Tigers/White Sox doubleheader forfeited to Detroit. Deaths None Injuries Between 0 and 30 Property damage Damage to the field of Comiskey Park Suspect(s) About 39 Charges Disorderly conduct

Disco Demolition Night was an ill-fated baseball promotion that took place on July12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois. At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the twi-night doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Many of those in attendance had come to see the explosion rather than the games and rushed onto the field after the button was pressed. With the playing surface damaged both by the explosion and by the rowdy fans, the White Sox were required to forfeit the second game of the doubleheader to the Tigers.

A disco craze swept the United States in the late 1970s, with the dance-oriented music featured in hit films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977). Although disco was popular, it also sparked a backlash from rock and roll fans. Disco and the pushback against it were prominent enough that the White Sox, seeking to fill seats at Comiskey Park during a lackluster season, engaged Chicago shock jock and anti-disco campaigner Steve Dahl for the promotion at the July12 doubleheader. Dahl's sponsoring radio station was 97.9 WLUP-FM, so attendees would pay 98 cents and bring a disco record; between games, Dahl would destroy the collected vinyl in an explosion.

White Sox officials had hoped for a crowd of 20,000,about 5,000more than usual. Instead, at least 50,000 people (and possibly as many as 90,000)--including tens of thousands of Dahl's adherents--packed the stadium, and thousands more continued to sneak in even after gates were closed. Many of the records were not collected by staff and were thrown like frisbees from the stands. After Dahl blew up the collected records, thousands of fans stormed the field and remained there until dispersed by riot police. The second game was initially postponed, but was forfeited to the Tigers the next day by order of American League president Lee MacPhail. Disco Demolition Night remains well known as one of the most extreme promotions in major league history.

The genre known as disco, named for its popularity in discotheques, evolved in the early 1970s in inner-city New York clubs, where disc jockeys would play imported dance music to get the crowd moving. With roots in African-American and Latin American music, and in gay culture, disco became mainstream by the mid-1970s. Even white artists associated with a much more sedate style of music had disco-influenced hits, such as Barry Manilow with "Copacabana".[1] By 1977, disco was very popular in the United States, especially after the release that year of the hit movie Saturday Night Fever. This film starred John Travolta and featured music by the Bee Geesthe fact that both actor and performers were white and presented a heterosexual image did much to make disco widely popular. As Al Coury, president of RSO Records (which had released the bestselling soundtrack album for the film) put it, Saturday Night Fever "kind of took disco out of the closet."

Despite disco's popularity, there were many who disliked it. Some felt the music too mechanicalTime magazine deemed it a "diabolical thump-and-shriek".[4] Others hated the music for the lifestyle associated with it, feeling that in the disco scene, personal appearance and style of dress were overly important.[4] The media, in discussing disco, emphasized its roots in gay culture. According to historian Gillian Frank, "by the time of the Disco Demolition in Comiskey Park, the media commonly emphasized that disco was gay and cultivated a widespread perception that disco was taking over". Performers who cultivated a gay image, such as the Village People (described by Rolling Stone as "the face of disco") did nothing to efface these perceptions, and fears that rock and roll would die at the hands of disco increased after disco albums dominated the 21st Grammy Awards in February 1979.

In 1978, New York's WKTU-FM, a low-rated rock station, switched to disco and became the most popular station in the country; other stations sought to emulate its success. Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl was fired from local radio station WDAI on Christmas Eve 1978 when the station switched formats from rock to disco. The 24-year-old DJ was subsequently hired by rival album-rock station WLUP, "The Loop". Sensing an incipient anti-disco backlash[4][7] and playing off the publicity surrounding his firing (Dahl frequently mocked WDAI's "Disco DAI" slogan on the air as "Disco DIE"), Dahl created a mock organization called "The Insane Coho Lips", an anti-disco army consisting of his listeners.[8] According to Andy Behrens of ESPN, Dahl and his broadcast partner Garry Meier "organized the Cohos around a simple and surprisingly powerful idea: Disco Sucks".[4]

According to Dahl in 1979, the Cohos were locked in a war "dedicated to the eradication of the dread musical disease known as DISCO". In the months leading up to Disco Demolition Night, Dahl promoted a number of anti-disco public events, several of which became unruly. When a discotheque in Linwood, Indiana, switched from disco to rock in June, Dahl showed up, as did several thousand Cohos, and the police had to be called. Later that month, Dahl and several thousand Cohos occupied a teen disco in the Chicago suburbs. At the end of June, Dahl urged his listeners to throw marshmallows at a WDAI promotional van, which was at a shopping mall where a teen disco had been built. The Cohos chased the van and driver and cornered them in a nearby park, though the situation ended without violence. On July 1, a near-riot occurred in Hanover Park, Illinois, when hundreds of Cohos could not enter a sold-out promotional event, and fights broke out. Some 50 police officers were needed to control the situation. When disco star Van McCoy died suddenly on July 6, Dahl marked the occasion by destroying one of his records, "The Hustle", on the air.

Dahl and Meier regularly mocked disco records on the radio. Dahl also recorded his own parody: "Do You Think I'm Disco?", a satire of Rod Stewart's disco-oriented hit "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?".[8][11] This parody song presented discotheques as populated by effeminate men and frigid women. The lead character, named Tony like Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever, is unable to attract a woman until he abandons the disco scene, selling his three-piece white suit at a garage sale and melting down his gold chains for a Led Zeppelin belt buckle.

A number of anti-disco incidents took place elsewhere in the first half of 1979: "the Disco Demolition was not an isolated incident or an aberration". In Seattle, hundreds of rock fans attacked a mobile dance floor, while in Portland, Oregon, a disc jockey destroyed a stack of disco records with a chainsaw as thousands looked on and cheered. In New York, a rock deejay played Donna Summer's sexualized disco hit, "Hot Stuff"; he was protested by his listeners.

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Disco Demolition Night - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is very important to find a good carpet installer. Installation is the most important, yet overlooked part of the job.

Here are some things a good installer can provide you with:

A few things you should know about the sub floor (the floor the carpet will be laid on):

Installation Costs: Carpet layers will generally have a minimum fee that will be charged if the job is too small. A minimum charge in the $75 to $100 range is reasonable.

The price you can expect to pay for carpet installation is approximately $5 per square yard (this will vary somewhat). Square yardage is calculated by multiplying the length (in feet) by the width (in feet) and then dividing by 9. Carpet layers may also charge extra for the following:

Carpet layers hired by you are solely responsible for their work. You will not have any recourse with the carpet retailer in the event that installation is not done properly (which is a good reason to use a big company like Cover All - see beolw).

Call the Certified Floorcovering Installers Association at: 816-231-4646.

FOR WEST COAST CUSTOMERS:

If you are on the West Coast, you can go to this web site to get a referral for an installer: http://www.floorinstallers.com

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Measure the longest walls in your room. Multiply the length and width, and divide by 9 to determine the square yardage. Add 10 percent to allow for errors, irregularities and pattern matching.

Make sure the surface to be carpeted is smooth and clean. Scrape up any paint or joint compound and sweep and vacuum the floor thoroughly.

If possible, remove the doors from the room so you won't have to work around them. Having the doors out of the way will also make it easier for you to cut off the bottoms of the doorjambs if necessary.

Cut the tackless strips to size with a strip cutter or heavy snips (Image 1). Nail the strips 1/2" from the wall (Image 2). Don't install tackless strips across thresholds or doorways; the tacks on the strips are sharp and could poke through the carpet and hurt your feet. Tackless strips come in a variety of widths, thicknesses and heights. Make sure you're using the correct size. If you're installing carpet over a concrete subfloor, use masonry tacks or epoxy adhesive to hold the tackless strips in place.

Lay out the carpet pad perpendicular to the direction you plan to install the carpet (Image 1), and staple it near the tackless strips with a staple hammer (Image 2).

Staple the seam of the pad, alternating staples so that they aren't beside one another. Stretch the padding so that the pieces are butted tightly together.

Feel through the padding to locate the tackless strip, and use a utility knife to cut away the padding along the interior edge of the strip (Image 1) so that all the tacks are exposed (Image 2).

Measure the room at its longest point, and add 3" to the measurement. Take the carpet outside if possible, and notch the back on both sides at the appropriate length. The carpet will be easier to handle outside. You might want someone to help you.

Courtesy of Cary Wiedman

Roll the carpet with the back facing outward until the notched areas show. Then run a chalk line from notch to notch. Cut the back of the carpet along the chalk line, roll up the carpet, and take it back inside.

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How to Install Wall-to-Wall Carpet Yourself : How-To : DIY Network

home section Interior Design Housekeeping Entertaining Home Improvement Gardening & Plants Landscaping eHow Home & Garden Home Repair & Maintenance Carpentry How to Install a Carpet

Viktoria Carrella

Viktoria Carella has been a full-time freelance writer for seven years and writes mainly on health topics along with other topics such as home improvement, SEO and more. Carella has been writing for Demand Studios for several months and has been published in her neighborhood newspaper on several occasions.

Homeowners usually want professionals to install carpet, but some homeowners want to avoid the high cost of hiring someone. Many do-it-yourselfers find out carpet installation isn't as difficult as the professionals make it seem. If you have good leg and arm strength and can read a tape measure, you can install carpet.

Measure the dimensions of the room you will be carpeting with your ruler or tape measure. Lay the carpet down in a room larger than the one you will be laying the carpet in, or outside. Cut the carpet, with the carpet cutting tool, to the dimensions of the room.

Nail down fastening strips, starting in the corner. Nail the strips along the edge of the floor about 1/4 inch from the wall with the teeth towards the wall. Do this around the entire room. Nail the metal door edgings across the doorway with the open side pointing inside the room and with the teeth pointing out of the room.

Unroll the padding across the room you are carpeting, with the waffle side up. Cut this with a carpet cutting tool; overlap the fastening strips 2 inches along the entire wall. Use the staple gun and heavy duty staples to staple the padding into place, attaching a staple about every 6 inches. When all padding is in place, cut the padding where it meets the inner edge of the fastening strips only.

Unroll the carpet over the padding and pull into position, making sure the carpet overlaps the fastening strips. Slit the carpet at the corners, but do not cut past the overlap into the main carpeted area.

Put on the knee pads. Attach carpet to the fastening strips using the knee kicker. Start in a corner and put the head of the kicker on the carpet about an inch from the wall and aim it down at an angle to the wall. Kneel on the floor in the corner and hold the handle of the kicker with your right hand while using the left hand to hold yourself upright on the floor. Put as much of your weight as possible on the right arm and shove the left knee into the kicker to push the carpet and stretch it into place. Hook the carpet into the teeth of the fastening strips. Do this around the entire room.

Go around the edge of the carpet with a putty knife to push down any hanging threads of the carpet to finish off your carpet edges.

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How to Install a Carpet | eHow