Asphalt Driveway Repair

[Tom Bender]

My driveway goes uphill. It is 35 years old and still in pretty good shape so it was installed pretty well. 15 years ago we had a 1 1/2" topping installed. It has developed a few cracks across it. We fill these in the summer and in winter they open up again, a little wider. The number of cracks is increasing. Now the filler is as much as 2" across. The filler doesn't come out, just settles. What are my options?

[Larry Frank]

Time to redo the driveway. My drive was about the same age and had a lot of cracks. The freeze thaw and ground heave eventually destroys them. I took good care of mine with sealing it and filling cracks but just wore out.

I had the driveway redone this last summer by the same guy who did it before and looks good.

[Lee Schierer]

Your driveway is doing the same thing highways do. Cracks develop, water gets and freezes, which creates a bigger space so more water gets in, just like pot holes on your local roads. Patching will never fix the problem.

[Ronald Blue]

I think Lee pretty well summed it up. It's a losing battle now with the cracks getting so large. It's probably going to require a major redo.

[Ole Anderson]

Mine was 30 years old and had been topped once when I had it torn out and replaced with concrete.

[Jim Becker]

As has been noted, just like the highways, there's an eventual time limit to how long you can just fix before you mill it off and replace it with all new asphalt. It "dries out" and gets less and less interested in staying together. I'll likely be going that here at our new place once my shop building is up because the level of cracking and deterioration at the edges in some places is beyond a simple fix.

[Tom M King]

I have one I'll be needing to do in another year. I remember there is some sort of fabric to help, but I haven't looked for it lately. It's put down before the next layer of pavement.

edited to add: found this: http://www.roadfabrics.com/paving-fabrics/

[Lee Schierer]

If you decide to get your driveway redone, check with near by neighbors and relatives and sometimes they offer discounts for several driveways in the same neighborhood.

[Andrew More]

FWIW, you might be better off trying to patch it. I agree with the other comments about it likely needing to be replaced, but at the same time it's a serious pain to get anybody to come out to do anything. I called every concrete contractor I could find to pour an extended foundation for my garage, and only got one offer about 2x what most considered a reasonable price for the work. Everybody who can lift a hammer is being pulled into building houses, and home builders are less hassle to deal with than home owners. You might have better results in a year or two when things settle down, or they could be even worse, hard to say.

[dennis thompson]

I had pavers installed rather than replace the blacktop. More expensive for sure, but good for a lifetime with no maintenance required

[Jim Becker]

Have you not had any movement issues with the pavers, Dennis? Your contractor must have done a masterful job with a compacted base for sure!

[dennis thompson]

Have you not had any movement issues with the pavers, Dennis? Your contractor must have done a masterful job with a compacted base for sure!

No movement at all. When the contractor was doing the job he found that he didn't need as much base as he has estimated, he told me that and reduced his price by $800. If he had said nothing I would have never known anything. We need more contractors like him.

[Tom Bender]

Well it's not terrible yet, will probably wait a few years more.

[Alan Lightstone]

Have you not had any movement issues with the pavers, Dennis? Your contractor must have done a masterful job with a compacted base for sure!

I've never had an issue with movement with pavers in several houses. Unless, of course, you count my last neighborhood where the developer insisted on 4 oak trees next to the sidewalks in front of every house. True idiocy. The development spent $100K YEARLY on road and sidewalk repairs, but the residents had to repair their pavers. Had to do that twice near one of the trees. Nowhere else was it an issue after 20 years.

The pavers on my present house are 13 years old, and outside of a few chipped ones show no movement at all. And I'm on the Gulf of Mexico. So I'm pretty pro-pavers. But they are real costly and demand quality installation.

[Jim Becker]

In general, pavers are pretty resilient. Under vehicles, however, they base really has to be done correctly because of the weight that has to be supported as those tires roll across them and sit in one place. That was the gist of my question.