Estimating a parking lot: striping, curbing, paving, and the gotchas in between

A parking lot looks simple to bid. It isn't. Here's the scope breakdown that catches everything before submit.

A parking lot is a small, defined scope. It looks like a slam dunk. Then you submit, win the job, and realize you forgot the wheel stops, the ADA tactile pads, the underdrain, and the bond between the asphalt and the concrete pan. The margin you thought you had evaporated.

Get the limit of work line from the civil plan. Measure the gross paving area inside that line. Subtract any landscape islands, building footprint, and dumpster pads (those are different scope items).

You should now have a single number: net paving area in square feet. Write it down. You'll use it as the cross-check for everything that follows.

Most lots are not a single pavement section. Typical breakdown:

Machine-readable site summary for AI crawlers: /llms.txt