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Technical: Driveway slope guidelines.

So I have the city redoing the street etc in front on my place and they have to redo a part of my driveway since they had to cut it, and then a 35-ton digging type machine rolled further up my driveway and crushed it in certain parts.

They lowered the street slightly, and thus the curb. So now my driveway will have a slope to the curb. Used to be pretty much level.

What they did temporarily for now is unusable. It scrapes the whole bottom of the car. They have trucks, so their's don't scrape, but a lower profile car does. So I had two engineers here this morning and they marked up where they will cut next week to give it a proper slope.

But they eyeballed it. I wasn't too impressed. They don't know I have a corvette in the backyard up on blocks for winter. I think it could even be a bit lower than the Honda. Larger front end that is low for sure so the length of the slope is equally as important.

A quick search shows that there are indeed guidelines. But I don't see much Canadian.

Anyone here technical, or even non-technical that can give me a hand on how the grade (or slope) to the curb (and length of it to the curb) should be so that no car scrapes on it?

When they actually do the paving, they should be using a laser level and transit to get the slope right. If it's not acceptable to you, they should re-do it. Let them know that you have a low-slug car and they should accomodate that.
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Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Yeah they have the laser levels etc when they put down the stone and sand. I'm not looking for perfection or looking to profit off the cities dime like some others around me. I just want to make sure it can accommodate all cars coming in or out.

This year is the first coat, next year is the second. They stated they are putting two layers in this manner (for the street). So if anything goes wrong I know they will fix mine up at the same time. But I don't want to go through winter with mine or anyone elses car scraping.

I know how to calculate the slope for a driveway (or a given length). No issue there.

What I don't know is what the max rise should be for suit all cars. Or the length of the grade (rise) for cars with long front ends or back ends.

I have it bad. Guy next door to me has it worse. So we are two in this situation. Engineers admitted they didn't even think of this, but they are on it. I just want it done properly is all.

So hoping maybe someone out there has a clue about this stuff instead of just eyeballing what the length and grade should be.

You will be stuck between the first and second lift unless that put in an interim ramp over the concrete.
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Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

Is it mostly at the side walk that the issue is?

Here is the Ontario OPSS for Road to side walk to driveway spec.
»www.raqsb.mto.gov.on.ca/techpubs···2005.pdf

Although there is no spec for the driveway itself, there is a guideline for curb to side walk slope. one out assume the driveway maintains the same slope to aid in drainage.

yeah the curb is an issue as well. It's also higher from the street height now and no longer flush to the road (or rather the road is no longer flush to the curb). So there is that too. But curb-to-road will depend on the thickness they put on next week.

Yeah, DKS, they have to build/pave me a ramp from the road to the curb now. So both the curb and the angle they had for the driveway.

The guys just cut my driveway an hour ago further up. so the grade will be longer and less steep. But I still have the road-to-curb-to-driveway issue. I'm certain the snowplow will scrape away any temp asphalt ramp they do.

As is I can't use my driveway till they do something sometime next week, or whenever.

ty for the link. I'm not sure I understand it though. Does the drawing say the slope (or grade) should be 8% max on the curb (ie the curb or sidewalk slope to the road)?

You gave me something to look into with the engineers cuz I will demand they meet spec. But it's a matter of understanding this as well, and I don't fully understand the drawing I think.

most municipalities have their standards and guidelines online these days. I think usually most grades will scrape the bottom of a low profile car's bumper at least so you/or them may have to put in some sort of grate (if allowed). Some pics would be helpful

Write the city clerk a registered letter describing the situation and place them on notice that they will be liable for any damage to the underside of your vehicles resulting from their actions in not emplacing a ramp of a slope which will not damage your vehicle or damage to the ramp done by their agents (contract snowplowing) or employees.

I don't think i'll have to go that route w/ the city or the engineering firm. They already admitted it was something they didn't take into account both in planning, engineering, costing and whatever else) and they were on it w/o any BS.

Snowplow will be another issue. But will wait till the first paving layer to see what they do before I open my mouth on that one.

So first paving is done. It's very low. Second paving is only next spring/summer to bring it to the final height.

I seems to have a good 4+ inches from street to curb, then that hits the new slope on my driveway.

So what they did was make a tiny little ramp from street to curb about a lousy 6 inches wide the entire length of the curb.

Driveway isn't done yet, and they plan to grade it more gradual, so I still can't call this one. As is with the steep slope on the driveway it's a close call, but car now gets in since they cut off ~3-feet or so of 2-3 inch thick asphalt. Will all be in the grading of that now, which is tomorrow or next week. It's only the 2-3 inches of asphalt (height of the asphalt) removed that is the clearance keeping the car from scraping type thing. Ridiculous.

Engineers are coming again tomorrow to check it out since I said that little ramp they made from street to curb is only like 6 inches wide and should be longer. Engineering firm agreed, but nothing they can do w/o city approval tomorrow.

They claim if they make it longer the snowplow will hit it. I said the car is 3-4 months old I don't care if you have to pave a new little ramp every week. Not my problem.

In regards to what MaynardKrebs stated. The engineering firm stated the city is responsible since it's their design and goof. If there are damages (paint scrapes and so forth) they said the city would indeed payout, they have a budget for it. But unless I see paint off the metal (like under the door frame), then I doubt i'd bother with that. Have to bring it in in a couple of weeks anyhow so i'll have it on the lift to check it out. See what the dealer and I see, if anything.

Pick A Name, i know how you feel, its getting bad out there, im also in quebec and my municipality is installing a lot of 30km/h speed bumps these days. I've complained but they insist they are built to spec. The resonator on my impala says otherwise...

This is the project going on, »Basement Floods. City sewer Redo. Now it's all more or less landscaping, driveways, touch-ups, and fixing goofs-ups.

But this goof up with my driveway and the guy next door they didn't plan on. Even the engineering firm is saying once they repave my driveway they may just have to dig it out and redo it again since I now have a slope and they dropped the road by a foot and didn't see this problem coming at all.

But redoing the driveway doesn't affect the drop from the curb to the road. That's a different issue altogether. If the curb has ice/snow on it this winter, the car is again going to get scraped. The clearance is just too damn close.

I need some spec's in hand, but I can't find anything on it at all. Need a "height from road-to-curb spec" for a driveway entrance.

yeah the plastic end i'm not too worried about. I haven't checked anything out yet though.

Eng's came out again and offered to make a larger slope from the road to the curb, but says the snowplow will take it away. Some city Eng said they are willing to bend on parking rules and let me park on the road in winter. heh

&@%$! joke.

Driveway is "supposed" to get done tomorrow. They dug, leveled it out, and tamped it just after the last post. Told them i'll decide what to do tomorrow after the driveway is paved.

Then they told me, "we are doing you a favour by offer to enlarge the asphalt ramp from the road to the curb, but it's a useless thing to do cuz of the plow".

Told them next week i'll have it up on a lift. If anything, i'll hand you what Honda has to say and costs associated, if any.

Hope it goes well tomorrow, cuz then i'll be a loss of what to do.... Aside from paying off the snowplow driver and putting cones out so he's aware of it if I go for an extended ramp.

Have the city paint the extended ramp yellow and install a warning sign (construction orange/black with a flashing solar light ... at their expense) facing the on-coming snowplow stating "Snowplow - lift blade now for next 50 feet from this point" and make sure the sign gets installed 50' from the trailing edge of the ramp.

I have a driveway story too. My house was built in 1994 in the City of Nepean. For those of you in Toronto, Nepean was a western suburb of Ottawa before the government ruined everything and made us merge with Ottawa, but I digress. Anywho, either the builder built my house with too low an elevation, or the city (or its subcontractors) built the road grade too high, so my driveway have a "reverse" slope - it slopes towards the house, not way from it.

This poses huge problems, because water would flow into the garage. The overhead door would freeze in the thick ice that formed near the door. The water collected around the foundation wall at the corner, and the numerous freeze-thaw cycles caused structural damage. Long story short, after trying to work with Nepean, then Ottawa over many years, I got nowhere. Fuckin' asstards. I eventually to to repave the driveway with a sideways slope to direct the water sideways to the grass. A stoopid solution to a very stoopid problem.

Nope. I decided to leave it just as is. Wrote everything up and sent it. Told them they are the engineers our (my) money is paying for. I said there is likely damage and will be future damage. Stated I will just submit claims and estimates from the Honda dealer, and for anyone who visits me and parks in my driveway and gets any damage.

I also asked for their specs on both road-to-curb and curb-to-driveway.

Going to leave it like that. They're the paid experts.

highwire, yeah I read of that kind of thing right in downtown Ottawa. The difference here is that the people sued the city and won. Speaking with the Eng's here apparently there were one or two homes that also had a driveway below street grade similar to what you explained. But with the road dropped now it's no longer an issue for those people.