How much does it cost to pave a parking space?

HomeAdvisor's national guideline is $400 to $1,130 per space. A standard stall is 9 by 18 feet, about 162 sq ft, but drive aisles and entrances add more paving than the stalls themselves, so price per space only works as a first check. Contractors bid lots by total square footage.

How thick should a commercial parking lot be?

HomeGuide puts commercial lots at 4 inches of asphalt or more, against 2 to 3 inches for a home driveway. Lanes that carry trash trucks, deliveries or buses need more, and the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association's guide designs those heavy-duty sections separately. Ask for the thickness of each area written into the bid.

Does a parking lot project need a stormwater permit in St. George?

If it disturbs one acre or more, or belongs to a larger development plan of an acre or more, yes. Utah requires UPDES construction stormwater coverage at that size, and the City of St. George reviews the project's SWPPP and holds a pre-construction meeting before work starts.

Can a parking lot be paved in stages?

Yes. Planned stage construction lays most of the asphalt depth first and the final surface course later. The Colorado guide's example places 4.5 inches when the building opens and a 2-inch top course at a set date, while truck and dumpster areas get full depth from day one.

How soon can a new parking lot be striped?

Usually after a few days. The Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association's parking lot guide says new asphalt should cure for several days before traffic paint goes on for best results, or the lot can be marked with cold-applied tape. Ask the contractor to schedule striping as part of the paving timeline.

Parking Lot Paving in St. George, UT

Typical cost: national guides put asphalt lots at $2 to $4.50 per sq ft, or about $400 to $1,130 per parking space.
Project range: most lots run $10,000 to $150,000, averaging $75,000.
Thickness: commercial lots take 4 inches of asphalt or more, thicker in truck lanes.
Timeline: 2 to 4 weeks from site prep through paving, cure and striping.
Lifespan: 20 to 30 years, with resurfacing every 15 to 20.

Property owners and managers reach a commercial paving contractor through St. George Asphalt Co., a free line for new parking lots, full-depth rebuilds, expansions and heavy truck lanes. Send the site plan or a rough stall count, what the lot is surfaced with now and how delivery and trash trucks use it, and the contractor can walk the site before bidding.

Parking Lot Paving Types for Commercial Sites

Graded and compacted gravel base for a new parking lot beside a stucco office building, a paving machine at the far end

New lots on raw ground

A new lot is mostly earthwork. The Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association's design guide lists the steps before any asphalt: strip topsoil, rock, debris and vegetation, treat the ground against regrowth, and compact the subgrade until it no longer yields. Its specs give a measurable standard to put in the bid:

Subgrade compaction: 95% of maximum dry density
Subgrade tolerance: within ½ inch in 10 feet of the planned grade
Aggregate base: 4 inches minimum for ¾-inch material, more for coarser stone
Silty or clay subgrade: consider a separation fabric under the base

Old parking lot asphalt being removed down to the base beside a stucco retail building

Full-depth reconstruction

When the base under a lot has failed, an overlay can't fix it, since resurfacing doesn't address what's underneath, so the old asphalt and failed base come out. The Colorado guide names drainage as a frequent cause of lot failure, especially water from sprinklers in landscaped islands and medians: once the subgrade is saturated it loses strength, and the pavement above breaks up. A rebuild is the time to fix that. Where the base is still sound, parking lot repair covers patching and resurfacing instead.

Newly paved parking lot expansion joining an older gray asphalt lot beside an apartment building

Lot expansions and added stalls

Adding stalls means tying new asphalt into the old. HomeAdvisor counts about 162 sq ft per 9 x 18 ft stall, with aisles making up the rest, so 10 spots take roughly 4,000 sq ft and run about $10,000. Ask how the seam between old and new asphalt will be cut back, tacked and compacted so it doesn't open into a crack. More stalls can also change how many accessible spaces the lot needs; the count table is on parking lot striping.

Thick asphalt truck lane leading to a loading dock at the back of a stucco warehouse

Heavy-duty lanes: loading docks, dumpster pads, warehouse yards

Truck traffic breaks a lot built only for cars. The Colorado guide calls for thicker sections in lanes to loading areas, dumpster sites and equipment yards. It also makes a cost point: on a small lot that gets a weekly or biweekly trash truck, building the whole lot to truck strength can cost less than one heavy lane, because a lot not built for trucks keeps paying for repairs. Ask the contractor to show which areas get the heavy section.

Small roller compacting fresh asphalt on a residential driveway

Why St. George homeowners and property managers call St. George Asphalt Co.

The estimate costs you nothing and commits you to nothing
Ask for thickness, base depth and tear-out on the written bid
Your job goes to one paving contractor, never a lead auction
Property owners pay nothing for the introduction

Parking Lot Paving Cost and Timeline

HomeAdvisor's national figures split the $2 to $4.50 per sq ft into $1 to $2.50 for materials and $1.50 to $2 for labor. By lot size:

10 spaces, about 4,000 sq ft
around $10,000
100 spaces, about 30,000 sq ft
around $75,000
200 spaces, about 60,000 sq ft
$150,000 and up

Most lots take two to four weeks from material orders and site prep through paving, curing and striping, longer for big sites or weather delays. Plan the work in phases if the business stays open. After paving, a lot needs resealing on a schedule set out on parking lot sealcoating.

Commercial Lot Design: Thickness, Slope and Drainage

HomeGuide sets commercial lots and heavy-vehicle areas at 4 inches of asphalt or more. Slope matters as much as thickness. The Colorado guide's minimum is 2%, or ¼ inch per foot, because flatter surfaces are hard to build without bird baths, small dips that pond water. Runoff should go to curb and gutter, along the gutter's flow line rather than the seam where asphalt meets the curb. St. George gets little rain, but it comes in hard bursts; driveway drainage has the rainfall and monsoon figures.

Owners on a tight budget can use planned stage construction. In the Colorado guide's example, a store lot designed for 6.5 inches of asphalt gets 4.5 inches when the building opens and a 2-inch surface course at a set later date, with the truck loading zone and dumpster area paved to full depth from the start.

Stormwater Permits and Paperwork for St. George Lots

Stormwater permit
Projects that disturb one acre or more, or are part of a larger plan of an acre or more, need UPDES construction stormwater coverage. The City reviews the SWPPP and holds a pre-construction meeting before work starts.
Accessible stalls
The required count depends on total spaces; see parking lot striping.
State routes
A lot entrance on a state highway involves UDOT; see private road paving.
Contract and license
Ask for the contractor's Utah license number and check it with DOPL; the license class is explained on driveway replacement.

See parking lot striping for layouts, fire lanes and ADA stalls once the asphalt is down.