OT: Asphalt Driveway Sealing, yea or nay? DIY or Professional?
- Thread starter Langmuir
- Start date
Big difference between a street and driveway. My driveway is 30 years old and looks like the day it was paved. Many people do it on the cheap and don't get it thick enough. Mine has a 2" layer of stone, 4 inches of base asphalt and 2 inch top layer of asphalt. Sealed every 4 years.In Edwardsville, PA in the early 60's, we still had brick roads throught the town, eventually over the years they were paved over.
Asphalt must be replaced every 15 years (+/-) and bricks will last more than 100 years, bricks are less expensive over the life-cycle of the street. If the life of asphalt pavement downtown is only 15 years, the streets would need to be repaved more than 6 times in 100 years.
As a state, West Virginia has had many “firsts.”
One of those is being home to the first brick-paved street in the United States.
According to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, in 1870 a Charleston man by the name of Mordecai Levi had an idea that would improve the hard-packed dirt streets of the city.
Nancy Wilson Cassady, one of Levi’s granddaughters, wrote a letter to the Centennial Commission of West Virginia on June 7, 1962, explaining why Levi started paving with bricks and how it was done. She wrote that Levi wanted something that wouldn’t turn to mud in the spring like dirts roads would. As the Division of Culture and History explained, this was a time when horses and carriages were popular and automobiles were decades away.
That year was also the year Levi experimented with brick roads by paving Summers Street in Charleston. He finished the block in 1873.
Cassady mentioned in her letter that Dr. John Hale paid for the brick. Hale had applied to the city council for permission to lay the brick at his own expense.
Levi later got a patent for the paving method he invented. That was after he changed the way of preparing the planks used under the bricks and sand, improving the method.
Well WD, looks like you had your pavement design mix as similar to bituminous mixes as Penn DOT local roads design.
The pavement damage inflected by heavy truck loads is the difference why your pavement performance is outstanding versus local and collector streets in towns and cities, aside from the fact that your driveway is designed like a local borough street.
The relationship between axle weight and inflicted pavement damage is not linear but exponential. For instance, a (10,000 lbs) single axle needs to be applied to a pavement structure more than 12 times to inflict the same damage caused by one repetition of an (18,000 lbs) single axle. Similarly, (22,000 lbs) single axle needs to be repeated less than half the number of times of an (18,000 lbs) single axle to have an equivalent effect.
- An (18,000 lb) single axle does over 3,000 times more damage to a pavement than a (2,000 lb) single axle – automobile (1.000/0.0003 ˜ 3,333).
- A (30,000 lb) single axle does about 67 times more damage than a (10,000 lbs) single axle (7.9/0.118 ˜ 67).
- A (30,000 lb) single axle does about 11 times more damage than a (30,000 lb) tandem axle (7.9/0.703 ˜ 11).
- Heavy trucks and buses are responsible for a majority of pavement damage. Considering that a typical automobile weighs between 2,000 and 7,000 lbs (curb weight), even a fully loaded large passenger van will only generate about 0.003 ESALs while a fully loaded tractor-semi trailer can generate up to about 3 ESALs (depending upon pavement type, structure and terminal serviceability).
short answer. Yes. get it sealed. in my area (Northern VA) companies will come by and do it for ~$100-120 depending on the size. Absolutely no reason to do it yourself at that cost.
But, but, but...step says the far superior brick paving has 10-12" of stone, not 2. Huh. Makes you wonder if it's not a whole lot more expensive, too.
Many people have no choice as the driveway usually comes with the house and they’re not about to bulldoze it and redo it to better specs.
Fairgambit Professional Sealcoating, LLC. Best in the business. Always has a lot left over from other jobs he has to "use up." Gave me a good deal.
The work related to the asphalt paving is not easy and the repair services of it are also not that much easy that anyone can do it. The experts and professionals are required to execute the repair and maintenance services. The blacktop long island company provides the efficient services of paving and its repair.
Sealing a driveway is basically cosmetic. Lots of people like the darker look that it provides. Structurally, not much benefit. Basically just a bandaid for cracking and raveling problems. If I were selling my house I would put a sealer on the driveway. Looks good for awhile.
My advice: Get it done
Get references
Pay cash (many will take 20% off)
Don't pay till job is finished
Get references
Pay cash (many will take 20% off)
Don't pay till job is finished
If you get your driveway sealed regularly it doesn’t crack. If you let it go, it eventually falls apart. Have you ever looked at the parking lot in front of a commercial property that has been vacant for a long time? The asphalt cracks, cracks more, plants start growing up through the cracks. Eventually it’s beyond repair. Pay the couple hundred bucks every 3-5 years and you’ll never have to replace your driveway.
Is there a sealer better than the rest. I find the AVIATION GRADE sealer a joke because most airports use concrete because jet engines do not like the little things from asphalt that pop in to engines. Thank you for your input.In Edwardsville, PA in the early 60's, we still had brick roads throught the town, eventually over the years they were paved over.
Asphalt must be replaced every 15 years (+/-) and bricks will last more than 100 years, bricks are less expensive over the life-cycle of the street. If the life of asphalt pavement downtown is only 15 years, the streets would need to be repaved more than 6 times in 100 years.
As a state, West Virginia has had many “firsts.”
One of those is being home to the first brick-paved street in the United States.
According to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, in 1870 a Charleston man by the name of Mordecai Levi had an idea that would improve the hard-packed dirt streets of the city.
Nancy Wilson Cassady, one of Levi’s granddaughters, wrote a letter to the Centennial Commission of West Virginia on June 7, 1962, explaining why Levi started paving with bricks and how it was done. She wrote that Levi wanted something that wouldn’t turn to mud in the spring like dirts roads would. As the Division of Culture and History explained, this was a time when horses and carriages were popular and automobiles were decades away.
That year was also the year Levi experimented with brick roads by paving Summers Street in Charleston. He finished the block in 1873.
Cassady mentioned in her letter that Dr. John Hale paid for the brick. Hale had applied to the city council for permission to lay the brick at his own expense.
Levi later got a patent for the paving method he invented driveway coating st augustine fl. That was after he changed the way of preparing the planks used under the bricks and sand, improving the method.
Very good estimate for a quality contractor. NEVER trust the Friday afyernoon "deal" that someone knocks on your door to offer.
Mine is 300 feet long and had already been cracking since before we bought the house in 2002. A buddy who does sealcoating told me he wouldn't touch it because it was so far gone.
Been using the son of the guy who did my dads for years...typically go every other...highest bill ever was $375 cash in Chester County Last Fall. Well worth it.
And the driveway keeps on chugging.....
It's 100% essential to seal the asphalt.
I once thought about doing it myself and then realized that the companies do it so cheap, vs what your spend in sealant, tools, and time, that you'd be crazy to do it yourself.
I work for the Town of Mooresville in NC. We just started a program that seals town streets within 4 years of being resurfaced. It’s supposed to extend asphalt life by 10 years. If you’re interested, I can send you video talking about what happens to asphalt as it ages. It looses binding agents that slowly degrade the condition of asphalt.
Always thought if one could invent a sealer that would dry and be safe to drive on in an hour or less it would be worth billions. Especially if it could be applied over night when traffic is low.
We’re using a product that does exactly that. It soaks into the asphalt. If the road has pavement markings it won’t permanently cover the markings.
Silly question, but why should this be done, I'm in SW FL so no threat of freezing. Timely topic as i was just discussing this with a local handyman (oops, guess that should be person). He mentioned different procedures. We have pavers for the driveway and pavers on a fairly long walk to the house. Suspect we will have this done, would appreciate thoughts on procedures.
A couple cracks would be ok, if thats all that happened. If left unchecked, freeze thaw cycles will break it apart. At that point, it will need repaved. Water will wash out your base, causing further damage when driven over.
I blame these on popping up on the similar threads list on the bottom (at least on my phone). I'm guilty of not looking at the date.
what comes out of a bucket isn't the same as what the pros use. You need real petroleum based products that are heated and sprayed or spread on. Your replacing the asphalt on the surface of your pavement that's wearing away and also sealing small cracks so they don't collect water and become large cracks. That crap from the buckets isn't much more than driveway paint.
The UV rays in sunlight breaks down the surface. Even in areas that never freeze the surface will then wear away leaving small stones of the aggregate loose on the surface. Eventually the entire asphalt would fall apart.
2 reasons for that - it varies based on the size of your driveway, and frankly, it's so cheap, it costs more in time to calculate the cost than it does to have it done.
But sure, I'll bite. My last house in VA had about a 40' driveway, roughly 2 cars wide. Price was under $200. The DW at my current house in STL is more than double the last house. Cost is just over $400.
The DW sealing business is all built around efficiency and volume. They pull up in a truck with a tank on the back filled with sealer. They blow off the driveway, apply the sealer efficiently, tie up the caution tape, and and are gone quickly. The trip to get to your house almost costs more than the work or material. Businesses that are established and cranking even try to schedule based on proximity. If they can cut travel and add 1 extra driveway in a day, that job is almost all profit.
Bottom line: it makes no financial sense to seal your driveway yourself...unless you place zero value on your time.
Theres lliterally 2 to 4 companies on east coast who can spray the material down. Very specialized work. Our town only had 1 bid to do the work. Typically need 3 bids for a contract to be awarded. Due to lack of qualified companies we were able to bypass the 3 bid requirement. Think this is our first or second year trying this material. We apply it to 2/3 years after fresh asphalt is put down. Be interesting to track how well this works. Guess we’ll find out in 10 years.
Me too which is why I'm trying to call out the zombie threads when I see them. I just don't want people wasting time responding to a point / argument from years ago when there's zero point zero chance of the original poster seeing the response.
We have H&C Solid Color Water Based Stain Coating on some areas of our concrete driveway. It faded, we hate it. We removed about 45% back in 2013 using a very harsh chemical stripper. Now hoping there is a newer, reasonably priced, easy to use stain removal product available. Truly hope someone can help.
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