Getting three real bids on asphalt paving

Empire Paving, a commercial paving contractor in Toronto and the GTA, lists standard commercial asphalt paving at $3.00 to $6.00 per square foot. That range is the only GTA figure identified on this site, and it reflects a single contractor's price sheet. The test is three bids on one identical written scope.

A single published rate is useful as a fixed reference point but poor as a benchmark. Empire Paving lists $3.00 to $6.00 per square foot on its own site, which means the figure reflects how one contractor prices its own work, in its own market, under its own assumptions about crew size, plant access and job mix. It does not average the region. The site includes no second GTA contractor publishing a comparable commercial paving rate to set beside it.

The band also contains a known gap. No accountable source lists a separate GTA rate for heavy-duty design, so the thicker asphalt and base that a lot requires where loaded trucks turn or a loading dock bears weight are not priced separately. A quote above Empire Paving's published band may be charging for exactly that work, and a bid that does not say so leaves the buyer guessing about the reason. The band has only a narrow practical use: a bid far outside it in either direction is worth a question, and the answer belongs in the bid, not in a phone call. The full breakdown appears in the parking lot paving cost guide.

All three bidders must be asked the same question for their bids to be comparable. Paving quotes differ much more in scope than in rate. The first dividing line is whether the job repaves over the existing base or removes what is already there. The City of Toronto's own construction cost estimate prices full-depth removal of existing asphalt or concrete pavement at $40.80 per square metre, as a line item separate from any new asphalt. A bid that keeps the old surface and a bid that takes it out are not two prices for the same job.

Depth is the second fork. AsphaltWorkx, a GTA commercial asphalt contractor, says a standard commercial process includes 8 to 12 inches of excavation and granular base, with asphalt applied in 2 to 3 inch layers, about twice the depth used on a residential driveway. Fixing the base depth and the number of asphalt lifts in the scope removes the most common quiet difference between two bids. Drainage is the third fork. According to City of Toronto unit-price estimates, a new catch basin costs $6,800 each, so a lot with several low points can carry a five-figure drainage line the asphalt rate never touches. The fourth is line painting. Every source on this site prices it separately from paving.

Accessible stalls belong in the same document because the required count is set outside the contract. Under Ontario Regulation 191/11, section 80.36 (1), made under the AODA, four per cent of the total is required where a lot holds between 13 and 100 spaces, and this requirement applies when a parking facility is newly constructed or redeveloped. Inside Toronto, under Zoning By-law 569-2013, regulation 200.15.10.10, the requirement is instead one accessible space for every 25 effective spaces across that same 13 to 100 band, applying where a building is erected or enlarged. A project may be subject to one rule, both, or neither, and when both apply, the higher count takes precedence. This site keeps that detail in the line marking cost guide rather than repeating it.

After the scope is set, each line is compared one at a time, and published unit prices provide a reference for each line. The City of Toronto's Broadview Avenue Extension cost estimate lists HL-8 asphalt surface course at $142.80 per tonne, HL-1 binder course at $183.60 per tonne, and Granular A base material at $34.00 per tonne, plus tack coat between layers at $1.36 per square metre. These are municipal road-building rates, not parking lot tender prices, so they reflect the raw material within a bid, not the bid as a whole.

Published rates exist for line painting. Zusashi Maintenance, serving Markham and the GTA since 2007, charges $4 to $9 per stall for water-based restriping of an existing lot, and adds a $150 to $350 per project mobilization fee regardless of the number of stalls. Toronto Line Painting lists restripes for small plazas with 20 to 30 stalls from about $3 to $5 per stall. Laying out a new lot costs more than restriping, since there are no existing lines for the crew to follow. The line marking cost guide covers both, and when an overlay is being considered instead of new paving, the asphalt resurfacing cost guide provides the milling and overlay costs.

There is another number that changes beneath everyone's feet. The Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council tracks Ontario's asphalt cement price index; in June 2026 it stood at 1569.50. Every tonne of hot mix contains asphalt cement as the binder, and that binder is priced separately from aggregate. For this reason, a quote can shift between the estimate and the day the crew arrives. When a bid states its price validity window, it answers that in advance.

Among all categories in this index, asphalt paving has the deepest bench. Of the 376 companies listed, 181 fall under asphalt paving and 92 under parking lot paving; many records appear in both. Across the site, asphalt paving is the largest category by a clear margin, with sealcoating next at 96, parking lot paving at 92 and asphalt repair at 87. The pages for these categories are asphalt paving and parking lot paving.

Depth varies by location. Vaughan has 32 companies, Islington-City Centre 27, Brampton 21, Mississauga 20, Burlington 18 and Willowdale 15. Oshawa has 14, Richmond Hill 13, Oakville 12, Agincourt 11, Whitby 9 and Markham 8. You can find three bidders within a short radius easily in the northwest of the region, but at the eastern end you need to search more widely. A company recorded as Empire Paving Ltd. appears in the Willowdale entries, in asphalt paving and parking lot paving, at 4.8 across 132 reviews; the index does not link its listing records to the contractor price pages this site cites, so that record and the published $3.00 to $6.00 band are two separate pieces of information.

The listing data is deliberately thin, and the missing fields show which questions a bid comparison can settle and which it cannot. For none of the 376 companies does the index contain a licence status, warranty terms, completion history, revenue, employee count, or years in business. The index also lacks email addresses: 358 records carry a phone number, 299 carry a website, and none carry an email.

Public answers for two of those gaps already exist elsewhere. Any business that repaves residential or commercial driveways and lots in the City of Toronto must hold a Driveway Paving Contractor licence; the City requires identification, a criminal record and judicial matters check, business registration, and at least $2,000,000 in commercial general liability insurance; the application and licence together cost $495.12, and the annual renewal is $293.14. The province's own HST page confirms Ontario's HST rate of 13%, which equals $6,500 on a $50,000 job and can reverse the ranking of two bids that treat it differently. The bid can answer both questions in writing, which is the same standard the scope itself has to meet.

One limit in the rating data should be named before it is used to pick three names. Of the 376 records, 352 include a rating and a review count. Across those 352 rated companies, the mean is 4.46 and the median is 4.8, with a median review count of 15. As a result, the feedback base is small for half of the rated records. That amount is enough to reveal a pattern, but it is not enough to settle a purchase; the three written bids serve that purpose.