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AsphaltPavingIndex

Parking lot paving cost calculator

A lot is not one number, it is six. Paving, removing what is there, catch basins, manholes, curb and markings, each sold in its own unit. Put quantities against all six and you have a scope a bidder can be held to.

Last updated: By The Pavement Desk

$3–$6

per square foot, commercial asphalt paving

$6,800

per catch basin, in the City of Toronto's own estimate

The lot

Full-depth removal is priced by the square metre at $40.80, the City of Toronto’s own rate for taking out asphalt pavement and concrete road base together.

Drainage and curb, the lines bids leave out
Markings

A $250 minimum and a $150–$350 mobilization fee apply to any striping visit, which is why a small lot costs nearly as much to mark as a large one. Fire routes, hatching and curb lines are priced separately by the linear foot at $0.20–$0.75.

Lot scope, HST included

$338,219 to $481,638

over 42,000 sq ft (3,902 sq m). The municipal rows are the City of Toronto’s own unit prices for the same physical work, not a parking lot quote.

Asphalt paving
$126,000–$252,000
Full-depth removal of what is there
$159,199
New catch basins
$13,600
Line striping, minimum and mobilization in
$510–$1,430
Before tax
$299,309–$426,229
Ontario HST at 13%
$38,910–$55,410

Paving rate from Empire Paving (Toronto and GTA commercial paving contractor)

Removal, catch basins, manholes and curb from City of Toronto (Broadview Avenue Extension, Municipal Class Environmental Assessment, preliminary cost estimate)

Striping rate and floor from Zusashi Maintenance and Toronto Line Painting, two GTA ranges widened

Build spec worth writing into the tender: 8–12 in of excavation and granular base, asphalt in 2–3 in lifts.

Where a lot budget actually goes wrong

Not on the paving rate. Empire Paving’s $3 to $6 per square foot is a published number, easy to compare, and three bidders will land near it or explain why. What separates a bid that comes in on budget from one that does not is almost always drainage, and drainage is the line a thin proposal leaves vague.

The City of Toronto’s own preliminary cost estimate for the Broadview Avenue Extension prices a new catch basin at $6,800 and a catch basin manhole at $24,480, with subdrain along the curb line at $47.60 per metre and concrete curb and gutter at $122.40. Those figures were read directly out of the City’s published PDF for this page. They are road-construction unit prices rather than a parking lot tender, so they are what a municipality pays a contractor for the same physical work, and a benchmark rather than a quote. Note that the same estimate then adds 25% for minor items and a further 30% contingency and 15% engineering on top of its own unit prices, which is worth remembering before treating any municipal unit rate as a ceiling.

The second place a budget goes wrong is assuming the old surface stays. Full-depth removal of asphalt pavement and concrete road base together is $40.80 per square metre in the City’s estimate, which on a 42,000 square foot lot is roughly $159,000 before anything new goes down. A bid that has no removal line and a lot that plainly needs one are not describing the same job.

Striping has a floor, and it surprises people on small lots. Two GTA contractors publish $3 to $9 per stall for a restripe, with the per-stall price already covering the two side lines and the end line. On top of that, Zusashi Maintenance states a mobilization fee of $150 to $350 and a $250 minimum job charge. The arithmetic consequence is that a twenty-stall lot costs nearly as much to mark as a fifty-stall one, so striping is work to bundle into a visit a crew is already making. Fire routes, hatching and curb lines are priced separately again, by the linear foot at $0.20 to $0.75.

The last thing worth writing into a tender is not a price at all. AsphaltWorkx, a GTA commercial contractor, describes the standard commercial build as excavating the existing surface and unstable soil to 8 to 12 inches, installing and compacting a granular subbase, grading for drainage, then laying asphalt in lifts of 2 to 3 inches each with a coarse base course under a finer surface course. It states that the layering is what creates a load-bearing structure rather than a slab that cracks under heavy traffic, and that subbase compaction is non-negotiable. Two bids at the same rate per square foot with different lift counts are not the same bid, and only one of them is going to be there in fifteen years.

The full row-by-row market picture, including the asphalt cement price index that moves quotes between the estimate and the crew arriving, is in the Toronto parking lot paving cost guide.

Sources

Canadian dollars, August 2026. Six of the rows on this page are single published municipal figures and are shown as single numbers rather than padded into ranges the City never stated.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to pave a commercial parking lot in Toronto?

Empire Paving, a Toronto and GTA commercial contractor, publishes $3 to $6 per square foot for standard commercial asphalt paving. On a 42,000 square foot lot that is $126,000 to $252,000 before Ontario's 13% HST. It is one contractor's published price rather than a market survey, and it excludes drainage structures, curb work, striping and removal of what is there now, all of which are separate lines on this page.

What does drainage add to a parking lot paving job?

More than most bids show. The City of Toronto's own cost estimate prices a new catch basin at $6,800 each and a catch basin manhole at $24,480. A lot with several low points needs several structures, and a subdrain along the curb line is another $47.60 per metre. Retrofitting drainage after the asphalt is down costs more than installing it before, so the number of structures a bid assumes is worth asking about explicitly.

How much does it cost to restripe a parking lot?

Two GTA contractors publish $3 to $9 per stall for a water-based restripe of an existing lot, with the per-stall price already covering the two side lines and the end line. On top of that Zusashi Maintenance states a mobilization fee of $150 to $350 and a $250 minimum job charge. That floor means a 20-stall lot and a 50-stall lot cost far more similar amounts than the stall counts suggest, which is why striping is work to bundle into a visit the crew is already making.

What does it cost to remove the existing pavement first?

The City of Toronto's own construction estimates price full-depth removal of existing asphalt pavement and concrete road base at $40.80 per square metre. That is a separate line item from the new paving, and a bid that quietly assumes the old surface stays and gets paved over is pricing a different job. On a 42,000 square foot lot, full-depth removal at the municipal rate is roughly $159,000 on its own.

How thick should a commercial lot be built?

AsphaltWorkx, a GTA commercial contractor, describes excavating to 8 to 12 inches for commercial work, installing and compacting a granular subbase, then laying asphalt in lifts of 2 to 3 inches each, with a coarse base course under a finer surface course. It says the layering creates a load-bearing structure rather than a slab that cracks under heavy traffic, and that subbase compaction is non-negotiable. Two bids at the same rate per square foot with different lift counts are not comparable.

Does this include HST?

The calculator shows it as its own line and adds it to the total; the published rates it is built on are all quoted before tax. Ontario's HST is 13%, which on a $200,000 lot is $26,000. Confirm with each bidder whether their number is HST-in or HST-out before comparing, because 13% is usually larger than the honest spread between competing bids on the same scope.

Send the same six lines to three bidders

A scope built the way this page builds one is the whole trick to comparable bids: the same area, the same number of catch basins, the same stall count, the same removal assumption. AsphaltPavingIndex tracks 92 parking lot paving contractors across the Greater Toronto Area, ranked by the published score.

See all 92 ranked parking lot paving contractors