Paving Contractors Advice For Asphalt Resurfacing and Parking Lot Striping

Posted by Jerry on April 29th, 2019

Can Resurfacing An Asphalt Driveway Really Prolong It's Life Indefinitely?

You can think of your driveway as being the welcome mat to your home. It's often, if not most of the time the first thing that visitors see as they arrive and it sets the tone for what’s to come. If you have a cluttered, weed filled, grease spotted driveway, they’ll expect the same of the inside of your home as well. However, with just a little tender loving care, you can renovate your asphalt driveway and make it look just like new. Then you can keep it that way with just regular maintenance.

Start By Thoroughly Cleaning Your Driveway

Get rid of all the clutter, old cars, and junk so that you can carefully inspect your driveway. Then, if there are weeds growing through spray a concentrated weed killer that also has systemic action to kill the roots all the way down. Once the weeds have been dead for a few days, pull them out.

Now, take a pressure washer and carefully clean your entire driveway, every square inch. You’ll note that some of the oil stains don’t come completely up. You might have to put some strong detergents on them to soak and then scrub with a wire brush repeatedly to get rid of them. You may then note that the asphalt, which is a heavy oil/tar combination has been leached away and the rocks are nearly bare in that spot.

All of the places around the cracks where weeds were growing will have to be cleaned to eliminate all of the dirt that has accumulated there. Again, you may see areas where there is little or no asphalt left to hold the rock together. This is a sign of neglect and it’s bad for your driveway. Clean the entire driveway all the way to the edge and slightly below so that you can protect it there as well.

Patch All Of The Bad Spots

There is special asphalt driveway patching material that can be painted on to the various spots where the gravel is loose and fill in the cracks. It’s a thicker mixture than the resurfacing compound that you’ll use later. Make sure that the repair patches have plenty of time to dry, read the instructions on how to apply. The trick you should try is to us a small paint roller which works very well since it will squeeze the material down into the cracks where it needs to be. The tip was given to me by one of the pavement specialists at Northern Virginia Asphalt Paving and Sealcoating, a company in Virginia that knows it's asphalt.

Finally, you’ll apply the asphalt driveway resurfacing compound. Sometimes it’s applied with a large roller, like a paint roller but larger, other times using a large squeegee. Follow the instructions if you have doubts, there are different thicknesses of reseal materials that require different application methods. If possible, wait until dry and apply a second coat for longevity.

Some of the newer compounds are very high quality and have longer lifetimes. If you can buy those in your area, that’s the best way to go since you’ll have 5 years before you have to do your asphalt driveway resurfacing instead of just 3.

In the end, if you find that this type of project is just too much work, or requires too many tools that you don’t want to buy, you can pay a professional company to do the job for you. If done correctly, and on a regular schedule, you can prolong the life of an asphalt driveway indefinitely. That’s a real money saver.