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I am having shingles delivered. The truck weighs 62,000 lbs, will this crack my concrete slab driveway? Also, they plan on a dump truck in the driveway to throw shingles from the roof. I am not sure what weight the dump truck is.

Glorfindel
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Ruth Blanch
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    Where do you live? What's the thickness of the driveway? What's the makeup of the concrete? Is there steel mesh or rebar located within the slab? Are there any existing issues with cracking, settling etc of the driveway? What type of base is under the concrete? As you can see, we'll need far more information before anyone can even imagine trying to come up with an answer. – stevieb Mar 26 '19 at 15:16
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    Non technical answer: The roofing company does this all the time, and they don't want to break your driveway. It will _probably_ be fine, but as mentioned you need a lot more data to be sure. Ask them what happens if their big heavy trucks damage your driveway and see what they think. – JPhi1618 Mar 26 '19 at 15:44
  • @DMoore, I'll agree with that. Even if they said they would fix the driveway, they would probably want to do it the easy way and then fight against anything else. – JPhi1618 Mar 26 '19 at 16:08
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    @JPhi1618 - if driveway broke, homeowner should expect two bags of quickcrete patch repair and a guy missing half his teeth making $10 an hour reading the instructions, mixing it and spreading it on with a trowel. Not even exagerating on this one. – DMoore Mar 26 '19 at 16:13
  • if in doubt, you can half the weight by having it run the passenger-side tires on the grass. – dandavis Mar 26 '19 at 17:33
  • In my experience, they bring the truck up close and use an extension lift arm or crane from the truck to get everything up on the roof. The big trucks can easily do that from quite a distance - shouldn't need to be on your driveway unless your house is **way** back from the street. Then there was the crane for working on a tree last year - parked on the grass in front of my house and the crane extended **over** my roof into the back yard - incredible! – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Mar 26 '19 at 21:51

2 Answers2

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Unless your home is a 20 bedroom mansion I would simply tell them to keep that off your driveway period. You can't tell what load it will take because it depends how packed it still is, what condition it is in and how thick it was poured (and if this was uniformly done). Often these large trucks will crack driveways in the corners of their pours since the depth in the parts are tapered even by the most reputable companies and can get to 3-4" inches with poor contractors.

So just don't let them on driveway or make that a risk their insurance will pay for. I have roofers at sites all the time. I hardly ever let them on the driveway. With a crew of 4-5 they can carry the stuff/wheelbarrow/whatever and it is done in 20 mins. Stay off my driveways, don't break them, don't drop crap from your trucks, don't spit mud everywhere - not my problem.

If my front lawn is not in great condition and it is dry I tell them to use that. That is all I offer. If they have a regular truck then fine. Even a bobcat I will not let them go up and down the driveway unless they are paying for repairs.

Bottom line is you paid for a new roof. Their deal to get shingles to your house. Not saying to be unreasonable - I try to make things easy for trades to get future discounts but you must use common sense. There is a good chance that crew suggests pulling truck next to house and then if the owner came out he would yell at them (worried about being liable for damage). Yes of course a truck that big could damage a good percentage of driveways.

Addition for dump truck: This depends on size. I have never had a roofing company use a dump truck at my site. These are less risk because of wheel sizes but still not letting a full size one on my driveway. Most roofing companies for a residential house use dump trailers that are a lot less invasive and they are lower to the ground so you can get these really close to house so there isn't a ton of stuff in the gap.

(FYI this size truck is about the same size the big boxes use to deliver bulk drywall. The operators of these trucks will not come on your driveway if you request that they do. Simply they know the chance for damage is high and they would probably be liable and get fired. That is why they use a forklift. If there was no risk then these huge companies would be instructing their operators to save time by driving as close as possible - big companies micromanage these processes to make money.)

DMoore
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    Tell them to use a forklift – Tony Stewart EE75 Mar 26 '19 at 16:26
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    edification: the thickness of the concrete doesn't matter much; most of the strength in a road/lot is from the base+sub-base material; thickness and quality (particularly gradation and compactness). 4" of concrete on 10" of limestone will be much stronger than 6" of concrete on 4" of base. I've seen crack-less decades-old hotmix surfaces, you can thank a non-chincy base for that. In short, don't judge a surface by the surface; look deeper. – dandavis Mar 26 '19 at 17:40
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    @dandavis I was about to say the same thing. The base is what matters here, a properly laid slab can handle that kind of load no problem... but concrete has poor tensile strength, so what you have to worry about is base deformation which would force the slab to act like a bridge in certain areas – TheCatWhisperer Mar 26 '19 at 18:06
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    @dandavis - great comment. Most of the issues are on edges where the base has separated from the submaterial. Thickness matters but you are right, it isn't the main part of the equation. – DMoore Mar 26 '19 at 18:06
  • @DMoore I guess we all have a concrete idea of what's going on ;) I did a quick and dirty repair of the sidewalk going to my door. Everyone said the repair would crack within a few months because the pour was way too thin. But the base was solid and I properly formulated the mixture. 7 winters and not even a hairline crack :) – TheCatWhisperer Mar 26 '19 at 18:22
  • I can confirm that a dump truck can also destroy your driveway. Had a bunch of trucks deliver dirt while building a pool and they cracked it pretty good. Keep the trucks off. – Gary Bak Mar 26 '19 at 21:17
  • @GaryBak - have seen it 10-15 times. Just happened to next door neighbor. Also someone made comment about half on and half off.... They did that next door and when the truck was going to the grass the corner broke by the curb. – DMoore Mar 27 '19 at 04:38
  • @dandavis is spot on - at my last place, the slabs where we were to put our bins each week were just laid on sand, and a delivery truck backed over the edge and cracked a few. A couple of weeks later, they were replaced, again, just onto sand. My Father visited, and on leaving he cut the corner. The weight of the one wheel of his Discovery cracked the slab again... With a proper foundation, that wouldn't have happened. – Baldrickk Mar 27 '19 at 14:40
  • @Baldrickk: a fool builds his bin slab on sand, a wise man on stone; crushed and properly graded. If you can find DOT-approved material in your area, that _usually_ means it will work well. A good test is to fill a bucket half with base, then top off with water. Give it a swirl and dump; if the last of the water is muddy the base is no good, but if it's merely a bit cloudy you're good to go, so long as the fines and big pieces are in decent balance to form a solid matrix. – dandavis Mar 27 '19 at 18:28
  • @dandavis - I don't want to get too complicated or opinionated but FROM WHAT I HAVE EXPERIENCED... if a pour is thin the home owner is probably using cheapest available service, this service probably has a crappy crew and use the least expensive materials and does not prep the pour correctly. This is what I would assume. I know it isn't 100% but if someone told me that a house I was buying had a 3" driveway poured 3 months ago, my assumption is driveway is pure crap. And I know it could be done right, but in my area it is 1 in 50. – DMoore Mar 27 '19 at 18:32
  • @dandavis I didn't build it - it came with the development, or I would have done it properly. – Baldrickk Mar 28 '19 at 09:14
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Roofers are notorious for the taillight warranty, working high (not high up) and just being generally unprofessional. I have many roofer friends and family members to. When customers ask, do you have a roofer? I say no. Because I've been embarrassed so many times. Many of them don't care about anything below the eavestrough. Be clear up front about them not using the driveway. It may change the price because it may change their method for doing the job but that's okay. Any decent tradesmen should be able to accommodate you as long as you are upfront about your request and are willing to pay a small compensation. Remember if it takes a couple hours longer with a crew of guys, that translates to several hundred dollars in extra wages.

Joe Fala
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