How Much Does Asphalt Paving Cost in Riverside, CA?
Elite Riverside Asphalt prices most residential driveways at $4 to $8 per square foot, the band where Riverside's two published cost sources meet. Three things move a job inside that range: how much tear-out and base repair the old surface needs, how thick the new asphalt is poured, and how easy the site is to access and grade. Riverside also averages more than 21 days a year above 100 degrees, and heat oxidizes and cracks a thin section fast, so a heavier base and thicker lift here is pricing for a harsher season, not padding the bid.
This guide breaks asphalt driveway cost and asphalt paving cost down by size, explains what drives the number, and covers parking lot, sealcoating and striping pricing for Riverside and the Inland Empire. Every figure below is a published local or regional price, with its source noted in the text. For an exact number, call [PHONE] and ask for a free on-site measurement.
Asphalt Driveway Cost in Riverside by Size
20x20 Driveway (400 Sq Ft)
A 20x20 driveway cost, at 400 square feet, runs about $1,600 to $3,200 at Riverside's $4 to $8 per square foot band. A close published match, a 360 square foot Riverside drive, is priced at $1,700 to $2,900.
1,000 Sq Ft Driveway
A 1,000 sq ft driveway cost lands around $4,000 to $8,000 at the same band. The nearest published total, a 960 square foot two-car driveway, the most common size in the city, runs $4,400 to $7,800.
2,000 Sq Ft Driveway
At 2,000 square feet, a double-wide driveway or short private road section runs roughly $8,000 to $16,000 on the same band. No Riverside source publishes a total at this size, so treat it as a straight multiple of the per-square-foot band, not a quoted price.
Per Square Foot vs Per Ton
A per square foot number is how a homeowner thinks about a driveway. A paving crew thinks in tons, because hot-mix asphalt is bought from the plant by the ton, and material tonnage is what the labor gets priced around. The per-ton math further down this page is what sets the floor under every square-foot price above.
| Size | Estimated cost | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| 400 sq ft (20 ft x 20 ft) | $1,600 to $3,200 | Tear-out and disposal of any old surface, base grading and compaction, new hot-mix asphalt |
| 1,000 sq ft | $4,000 to $8,000 | Same scope, sized for a large two-car driveway |
| 2,000 sq ft | $8,000 to $16,000 | Same scope, sized for a double-wide drive or short private road section |
What Drives the Price of a Riverside Driveway
See the full build on our asphalt driveway paving and installation page.
Tear-Out and Disposal
Riverside's anchor cost report prices driveway paving as tear-out and install together, $2.99 to $5.03 per square foot, since demolition, disposal and grading are rarely billed separately here. Removed asphalt is not landfilled. Regional plants grind clean broken asphalt into RAP, reclaimed asphalt pavement, for reuse in new mix. A bare lot with nothing to remove skips that cost entirely.
Base Depth and Compaction
The base decides how long the surface lasts. Riverside County's own paving specs treat base and compaction as engineered steps: county slurry and cape seal work is capped at strict daily production rates specifically to keep compaction consistent. A soft or thin base is the single biggest reason a job comes back as alligator cracking within a few years, no matter how good the surface lift looks.
Thickness: 2 Inches vs 3 Inches
Riverside's two published driveway sources disagree for a reason worth knowing before comparing quotes. The $2.99 to $5.03 per square foot figure covers a thinner section, while the $5 to $8 per square foot figure is stated for 3 to 4 inch asphalt built to carry a car and a truck. A 2 inch section can work for foot traffic on a rock-solid base, but a driveway that parks vehicles is built to 3 to 4 inches in this market.
Access and Grading
A driveway a paver can drive straight onto costs less to grade than a tight side yard the crew has to hand-work with a plate compactor. Slope, drainage toward the street, and proximity to a fence, gas meter or property line all add labor time before a single ton of asphalt gets laid, and none of it shows up as its own line on a published price list.
Asphalt Per Ton in Southern California
No Riverside or Riverside County plant publishes a per-ton price. The nearest supplier network serving this region, with plants in Rialto, Redlands and Cabazon, publishes no rates either. The closest published Southern California per-ton list, from a Downey plant, prices conventional PG 64-10 hot mix, the standard binder grade sold across the region, at $101.00 per ton for regular mix and $107.00 per ton for finer gradations. Cold mix runs $149.00 per ton, base rock runs $16.00 per ton, and tack coat runs $12.00 per gallon in bulk or $85.00 for a 5-gallon bucket.
Tonnage, not square footage, is the estimator's real unit. Compacted hot-mix asphalt weighs roughly 110 pounds per square yard per inch of thickness, so 1,000 square feet takes roughly 12 tons at a 2 inch lift and roughly 18 tons at a 3 inch lift. At the $101.00 Southern California rate, that is roughly $1,200 in material alone at 2 inches and roughly $1,800 at 3 inches, before base rock, labor and equipment.
Resurface or Replace: The Math
Not every worn driveway needs a full tear-out. A 2 inch overlay over a sound base is published at $2 to $4 per square foot, roughly half the $4 to $8 band for a full tear-out and replace. A separate Riverside page prices resurfacing up to 1,000 square feet at $1,500 to $3,500 total, and a standard residential resurface at $2,000 to $4,000 total.
The condition test decides which number applies. Surface-only fading and shallow cracking over a base that has not moved is an overlay candidate. Alligator cracking through the base, standing water, or sunken sections mean the base has failed, and an overlay laid over it just cracks again within a season. See our asphalt resurfacing, overlay and milling page for how we make that call on site. At 1,000 square feet, that puts an overlay around $2,000 to $4,000 against roughly $4,000 to $8,000 for a full replace, and only the base condition decides which one pencils out.
Parking Lot Paving, Repair and Striping Costs
New Lot Per Sq Ft
New commercial asphalt paving in this region runs $2 to $4.50 per square foot for a standard lot, and $5 to $12 or more for a small lot or oversized driveway, published as a Southern California band on a Riverside-addressed page. See our commercial asphalt paving and parking lots page for how new construction and truck yard paving are scoped.
Resurfacing
Riverside publishes parking lot resurfacing at $4,000 to $12,000 total for a 1,000 to 5,000 square foot lot, and $10,000 to $25,000 for a full commercial lot; private road resurfacing runs $15,000 to $50,000.
Patching and Pothole Repair
The only patching figure published across our market tiers is a California statewide rate of $3.00 per square foot to patch. No Riverside or Riverside County contractor publishes a price per pothole or per patch, since a single repair scopes on depth and base damage more than area. Our asphalt repair and patching page covers what changes that number on site.
Striping Per Stall and ADA Add
Standard paint restriping over visible lines runs $3 to $6 per stall in Riverside. Thermoplastic striping costs 2 to 3 times as much as paint but lasts 3 to 5 times longer. A full ADA accessible space, symbol, border and lettering included, runs $60 to $175 per space in the Riverside County market. Our parking lot striping and ADA layout page covers signage and access aisle pricing in full.
Sealcoating Per Sq Ft
Commercial sealant alone runs $0.15 to $0.30 per square foot in Riverside, and a full package of crack filling, sealcoating and re-striping together runs $0.65 to $0.90 per square foot. A 10,000 square foot lot is published at $1,700 to $3,500 total, and a 25,000 square foot lot at $4,250 to $8,750.
| Service | Cost | Market |
|---|---|---|
| New parking lot paving | $2 to $4.50 per sq ft | Southern California |
| Parking lot resurfacing, 1,000 to 5,000 sq ft | $4,000 to $12,000 total | Riverside |
| Pothole and patch repair | $3.00 per sq ft | California |
| Striping, standard repaint | $3 to $6 per stall | Riverside |
| ADA accessible space painting | $60 to $175 per space | Riverside County |
| Sealcoating, sealant alone | $0.15 to $0.30 per sq ft | Riverside |
Sealcoating and Crack Sealing Costs
Driveway sealcoating in Riverside is published at $0.26 to $0.53 per square foot, sealer and cleanup included. By total, a seal job runs $300 to $600 up to 600 square feet, $600 to $1,000 for 600 to 1,000 square feet, and $1,000 to $2,000 for 1,000 to 2,000 square feet. Crack filling runs $1 to $3 per linear foot.
Sealcoat protects and restores the surface's appearance. It repairs nothing structural and does not fill cracks, which is why crack sealing is priced and scheduled as its own step, not a substitute for it. Commercial lots here are resealed every 2 to 3 years; new residential asphalt can go up to 3 years before its first seal, then annually as it ages. Sealed asphalt is safe to walk on in 4 to 8 hours and open to traffic in 24 to 48 hours.
A do-it-yourself bucket of driveway sealer is not on any published Riverside price list, and for a reason. A hand-rolled coat skips the crack prep, edge work and cure conditions a crew controls, so it covers less ground per dollar and needs redoing sooner. Our asphalt sealcoating and asphalt crack sealing and filling pages cover what a professional job includes.
Riverside Permits and Other Line Items
Most driveway and parking lot paving in the city requires a City of Riverside Public Works Construction Permit, issued for work preparing sub-grade, paving, or building curbs, gutters, driveways and sidewalks; work that opens the street itself needs a separate Street Opening Permit. Both require a state-licensed contractor holding the applicable class license and, where traffic is affected, a plan built to the WATCH Manual or MUTCD standard. Street opening permits are typically issued within 7 to 10 business days and stay valid for one year. The City sets fees by staff review of the scope of work rather than a published schedule, so we pull the permit and confirm the fee for your address before it becomes part of your quote.
Haul-off is priced into the job, not billed separately, on every published Riverside driveway figure on this page, since the anchor cost report already treats demolition and disposal as part of the rate. Night or weekend street work still needs the same approved traffic control plan as a daytime job; ask us whether yours needs it before assuming it adds cost.
Asphalt Cost FAQs
How much does a 20x20 asphalt driveway cost?
A 20x20 asphalt driveway, 400 square feet, runs about $1,600 to $3,200 at Riverside's $4 to $8 per square foot band. The closest published Riverside total, a 360 square foot drive, runs $1,700 to $2,900. Tear-out of an existing surface pushes the number toward the higher end.
How much is 1,000 sq ft of asphalt?
A 1,000 square foot asphalt driveway runs roughly $4,000 to $8,000 in Riverside, tear-out and install included. The nearest published total, a 960 square foot two-car driveway, is priced at $4,400 to $7,800. A 2 inch overlay instead of a full replace runs closer to $2,000 to $4,000 for the same footprint.
How much does it cost to pave 200 feet of driveway?
Two hundred linear feet is not a full price by itself, since cost is set by area, length times width, not length alone. A 200 foot drive at a common 10 foot width is 2,000 square feet, which runs roughly $8,000 to $16,000 at Riverside's $4 to $8 per square foot band. A narrower or wider drive at the same length moves that total directly.
How much does 1 ton of asphalt cover 2 inches thick?
One ton of hot-mix asphalt covers roughly 80 square feet at a compacted 2 inch thickness, based on the standard estimating weight of about 110 pounds per square yard per inch. At the $101.00 per ton Southern California plant rate, that works out to a little over $1.25 per square foot in material alone, before base, labor and equipment.
Is it cheaper to pour concrete or asphalt?
Yes, asphalt is typically the cheaper material to install for a driveway of the same size. Riverside asphalt driveway installation, tear-out included, is published at $2.99 to $5.03 per square foot, and the crew and equipment work faster than a concrete pour-and-cure cycle. Asphalt also needs resealing over time, which concrete does not.
What is the average cost of asphalt per ton in California?
A Southern California plant price list puts conventional PG 64-10 hot mix at about $101 per ton with tax included, on a list effective August 2026. That is the material only, picked up at the plant. Trucking, the crew, base rock and compaction are what turn a per-ton material price into the per-square-foot installed rates above, and the thicker the section, the more tons a driveway takes.
Get a Written Asphalt Quote in Riverside
Every number on this page is a published range, not your price. The only way to get an exact number is a free on-site measurement: we walk the site, measure the actual square footage, check the base, and hand you a written scope before any work starts. Call [PHONE] to schedule yours, or tell us the job type when you call and we will bring the right crew and equipment the first time.
Get a Free Asphalt Paving Quote
Square footage, base condition, thickness and tear-off decide most of your price. Tell us the property address, the job type (driveway, parking lot or repair) and a rough size, and we call back within one business day to schedule a free on-site measurement.