This isn't my driveway, but is that of a neighbor who served with me on the HOA board for a couple of years. He wanted to improve the appearance of the driveway, but avoid spending the $15,000 to $26,000 he was quoted for new asphalt or concrete driveways, respectively. He is the General manager of a car dealership and while business has been exceptional, he is concerned about the coming years, thinking that his industry could see a real slump for a number of reasons.
We looked over the driveway carefully and it had several major issues. It had potholes, 4 of them ranging from a small one at 12" in diameter and about 2" deep to the largest one was 30" in diameter and 5" deep.
There is extensive alligator cracking, which is a sign of base failure and often from the failure to maintain the asphalt and make repairs when cracking starts. This driveway hasn't had any maintenance done in over 18 years, its simply been used and abused.
I will show before and after pictures of the areas of the most challenging repairs. The owners goal with this project is to delay the replacement of the entire driveway 3 years or more and also stop driving through potholes and bumps and humps. He also wanted to stop the edge fracturing of the driveway where the parking pad is and where the vehicles are parked. The family often sits on this area of the driveway in lawn chairs and its adjacent to a hammock and fire pit area, just out of the pictures.
Starting at the end of the driveway by the street, here is the before picture and the after picture.
![Road surface Asphalt Grass Natural landscape Woody plant]()
![Plant Tree Natural landscape Shade Road surface]()
While taken from different angles, the before picture is taken from the lawn area looking across the drive and the finished picture is from the street, looking down the driveway. But the pot hole areas shown in the before photo are in the area of the after picture, in the sunlight. Those repairs were done with the product Aquaphalt which is about $60 for a 3.5 gallon bucket of the asphalt material. I used a total of 2 buckets of the product and then used a trowel grade mastic type material to feather in the edges and blend away the transition lines. The end results look very good.
The large cracks were filled with the hot rubber crack filling machine, which is a professional tool most homeowners won't have access to, but I happen to own one due to the maintenance of our HOA roads. The machine is ideal for repairing cracks with special high flex rubber which is applied at 450 degrees. It does a very nice job and professionally seals the cracks. While they are visible in some locations through the seal-coat, the repairs hold very well when done correctly.
Area two of the driveway, which had serious issues
![Plant Road surface Asphalt Grass Tar]()
And the repaired area.
![Plant Road surface Asphalt Branch Tree]()
For these repairs, a combination of products were used from a Texas based company called Pave Patch using both their Pavement Patch and their Alligator cracking repair products. These products are not cheap, but they are extremely strong. The two products both require mixing by the end used and blending in activating agent products to activate the curing process.
The pavement patch was used in an area which was actually a series of dips that were between 1" and as deep as 4" before returning to the driveway level. This part of the driveway caused my tractor to rock side to side so much when driving over these "swails" that you could bang your head on the side of the cab if you weren't careful. In a full sized SUV, the swaying isn't as severe, but still quite annoying. Needless to say, it makes riding bikes and skate boards much more hazardous.
The Pavement patch has a different textured finish when the topping sand is applied, which can be seen in the repaired photo. But the dips are largely gone, with 90% of the surface showing level on a 6' level across both directions of the driveway.
If you should use either the Pavement Patch or the Alligator Cracking repair product, you need to carefully follow the directions and be ready to immediately apply the product to its site as in the 90 degree heat I was working in, the product sets up in about 10 minutes and in half an hour, you can walk on it. In an hour, you can drive on it. The pavement patch is another way to blend in a repair like the aquaphalt, but I didn't use the Pavement patch with another product and applied it directly to the original asphalt.
![Plant Road surface Asphalt Tar Grass]()
![Plant Leaf Asphalt Road surface Natural landscape]()
A combination of the Gator Patch product and the mastic material was used in this section to effect the repairs. The alligator cracking was severe and the mastic was used as both a binding agent to help hold the pavement together, but also to help seal out water from further eroding the driveway base. All in all, the improvement to the drive was what I was hoping to achieve.
![Plant Black Road surface Wood Asphalt]()
Although taken from a different angle, you can see the same areas before the repairs and after the repairs, shown below.
![Plant Bird Green Road surface Leaf]()
![Light Road surface Asphalt Tar Wall]()
This area of the driveway had the most Polymeric product used to address the extensive alligator cracking and the deteriorating surface, but also because its where the vehicles are parked and the family often sets chairs on the driveway, etc. as the chairs are shown off to the side.
This area had NO mastic material used and only those Polymeric products were used. A combination of the Pavement Patch and Alligator crack product were used to provide a solution for this section of the driveway. I avoided the mastic material and the blending materials used to feather edge other repairs as they don't harden as solid as the polymeric repairs and frankly, the mastic materials are designed to remain flexible and parking on them or turning the front wheels of a full sized vehicle could skuff the mastic. But not the polymeric material, as it cures to a very strong repair, yet won't pop or separate from the orginal pavement if applied correctly.
All total, I had $1,235 in Polymeric materials and another $165 in other repair products between Aquaphalt and mastic material and then $180 in the commercial grade seal coat, which I purchase from the manufacturer in a 275 gallon tote I already owned. I used about 80 gallons of seal coat on this driveway and brush applied it, verses using a squeegee. Total materials to undertake this project were $1,580.
I spent 1 hour making the repairs using the Aquaphalt and the blending mastic to feather in the repairs. If you haven't used the Aquaphalt product for fixing potholes in asphalt, you are using the wrong product. It's a great repair for potholes or dips in the pavement, but the dip needs to be at least 1" deep for it to be practical.
Aquaphalt is water activated and once compacted, it's cures in 20 minutes and can be driven on immediately. It can also be seal coated and mastic blended as soon as it cures, unlike traditional cold patch materials, which take a year of curing before they can be seal coated and mastic blended due to the extreme amounts of oil in the cold patch material. Aquaphalt is expensive, but its a great pothole, void filler and works well on utility cuts, etc. I also used it to fill the "V" shaped cross crack shown in photo number 3 above.
Summary of total labor time to complete the project
Day 1 - 3.5 hours
Cleaning driveway surface with power washer and edging, etc. - 2 hours
Drying areas to make Aquaphalt repairs following cleaning - .5 hour
Applying the Aquaphalt and blending the repairs with trowel grade mastic material - 1 hour
Day 2 - 6 hours
Blending and applying the Pavement Patch products - 2 hours
Blending and applying and "Sanding" in the Alligator Crack Repairs - 2 hours
Mastic Material application and feathering in other repairs - 2 hours
Day 3 - 4 hours
Seal Coating, the entire surface, with 2 coats of seal coat - 4 hours
Total labor over 3 days was 13.5 hours.
Total Material cost of the project was $1,580
It was 90 degrees on day one, 96 degrees on day two and 88 degrees on day 3. High humidity each day.
I was able to time the work with the family out of town until Tuesday afternoon, so the entire driveway will have had 3 days of curing and half a day on Sunday, all day Monday and until late Tuesday afternoon, before being driven upon or parked upon, which is ideal...........
Glad this project is completed. It turned out as I had hoped and the driveways appearance and function are greatly improved. I advised the owner that if he desires to delay the complete replacement of the driveway, he should make sure to have repairs performed as issues arise.
Based upon the amount the homeowner has spent on this driveway project, he is having me plow the driveway from now on, with my rubber plow edge, instead of the steel plow edge previously used by the company plowing his driveway for the last several years. I don't want to see the repairs damaged or the driveway unnecessarily impacted by aggressive plowing, etc. as had previously happened to the driveway.
We looked over the driveway carefully and it had several major issues. It had potholes, 4 of them ranging from a small one at 12" in diameter and about 2" deep to the largest one was 30" in diameter and 5" deep.
There is extensive alligator cracking, which is a sign of base failure and often from the failure to maintain the asphalt and make repairs when cracking starts. This driveway hasn't had any maintenance done in over 18 years, its simply been used and abused.
I will show before and after pictures of the areas of the most challenging repairs. The owners goal with this project is to delay the replacement of the entire driveway 3 years or more and also stop driving through potholes and bumps and humps. He also wanted to stop the edge fracturing of the driveway where the parking pad is and where the vehicles are parked. The family often sits on this area of the driveway in lawn chairs and its adjacent to a hammock and fire pit area, just out of the pictures.
Starting at the end of the driveway by the street, here is the before picture and the after picture.
While taken from different angles, the before picture is taken from the lawn area looking across the drive and the finished picture is from the street, looking down the driveway. But the pot hole areas shown in the before photo are in the area of the after picture, in the sunlight. Those repairs were done with the product Aquaphalt which is about $60 for a 3.5 gallon bucket of the asphalt material. I used a total of 2 buckets of the product and then used a trowel grade mastic type material to feather in the edges and blend away the transition lines. The end results look very good.
The large cracks were filled with the hot rubber crack filling machine, which is a professional tool most homeowners won't have access to, but I happen to own one due to the maintenance of our HOA roads. The machine is ideal for repairing cracks with special high flex rubber which is applied at 450 degrees. It does a very nice job and professionally seals the cracks. While they are visible in some locations through the seal-coat, the repairs hold very well when done correctly.
Area two of the driveway, which had serious issues
And the repaired area.
For these repairs, a combination of products were used from a Texas based company called Pave Patch using both their Pavement Patch and their Alligator cracking repair products. These products are not cheap, but they are extremely strong. The two products both require mixing by the end used and blending in activating agent products to activate the curing process.
The pavement patch was used in an area which was actually a series of dips that were between 1" and as deep as 4" before returning to the driveway level. This part of the driveway caused my tractor to rock side to side so much when driving over these "swails" that you could bang your head on the side of the cab if you weren't careful. In a full sized SUV, the swaying isn't as severe, but still quite annoying. Needless to say, it makes riding bikes and skate boards much more hazardous.
The Pavement patch has a different textured finish when the topping sand is applied, which can be seen in the repaired photo. But the dips are largely gone, with 90% of the surface showing level on a 6' level across both directions of the driveway.
If you should use either the Pavement Patch or the Alligator Cracking repair product, you need to carefully follow the directions and be ready to immediately apply the product to its site as in the 90 degree heat I was working in, the product sets up in about 10 minutes and in half an hour, you can walk on it. In an hour, you can drive on it. The pavement patch is another way to blend in a repair like the aquaphalt, but I didn't use the Pavement patch with another product and applied it directly to the original asphalt.
A combination of the Gator Patch product and the mastic material was used in this section to effect the repairs. The alligator cracking was severe and the mastic was used as both a binding agent to help hold the pavement together, but also to help seal out water from further eroding the driveway base. All in all, the improvement to the drive was what I was hoping to achieve.
Although taken from a different angle, you can see the same areas before the repairs and after the repairs, shown below.
This area of the driveway had the most Polymeric product used to address the extensive alligator cracking and the deteriorating surface, but also because its where the vehicles are parked and the family often sets chairs on the driveway, etc. as the chairs are shown off to the side.
This area had NO mastic material used and only those Polymeric products were used. A combination of the Pavement Patch and Alligator crack product were used to provide a solution for this section of the driveway. I avoided the mastic material and the blending materials used to feather edge other repairs as they don't harden as solid as the polymeric repairs and frankly, the mastic materials are designed to remain flexible and parking on them or turning the front wheels of a full sized vehicle could skuff the mastic. But not the polymeric material, as it cures to a very strong repair, yet won't pop or separate from the orginal pavement if applied correctly.
All total, I had $1,235 in Polymeric materials and another $165 in other repair products between Aquaphalt and mastic material and then $180 in the commercial grade seal coat, which I purchase from the manufacturer in a 275 gallon tote I already owned. I used about 80 gallons of seal coat on this driveway and brush applied it, verses using a squeegee. Total materials to undertake this project were $1,580.
I spent 1 hour making the repairs using the Aquaphalt and the blending mastic to feather in the repairs. If you haven't used the Aquaphalt product for fixing potholes in asphalt, you are using the wrong product. It's a great repair for potholes or dips in the pavement, but the dip needs to be at least 1" deep for it to be practical.
Aquaphalt is water activated and once compacted, it's cures in 20 minutes and can be driven on immediately. It can also be seal coated and mastic blended as soon as it cures, unlike traditional cold patch materials, which take a year of curing before they can be seal coated and mastic blended due to the extreme amounts of oil in the cold patch material. Aquaphalt is expensive, but its a great pothole, void filler and works well on utility cuts, etc. I also used it to fill the "V" shaped cross crack shown in photo number 3 above.
Summary of total labor time to complete the project
Day 1 - 3.5 hours
Cleaning driveway surface with power washer and edging, etc. - 2 hours
Drying areas to make Aquaphalt repairs following cleaning - .5 hour
Applying the Aquaphalt and blending the repairs with trowel grade mastic material - 1 hour
Day 2 - 6 hours
Blending and applying the Pavement Patch products - 2 hours
Blending and applying and "Sanding" in the Alligator Crack Repairs - 2 hours
Mastic Material application and feathering in other repairs - 2 hours
Day 3 - 4 hours
Seal Coating, the entire surface, with 2 coats of seal coat - 4 hours
Total labor over 3 days was 13.5 hours.
Total Material cost of the project was $1,580
It was 90 degrees on day one, 96 degrees on day two and 88 degrees on day 3. High humidity each day.
I was able to time the work with the family out of town until Tuesday afternoon, so the entire driveway will have had 3 days of curing and half a day on Sunday, all day Monday and until late Tuesday afternoon, before being driven upon or parked upon, which is ideal...........
Glad this project is completed. It turned out as I had hoped and the driveways appearance and function are greatly improved. I advised the owner that if he desires to delay the complete replacement of the driveway, he should make sure to have repairs performed as issues arise.
Based upon the amount the homeowner has spent on this driveway project, he is having me plow the driveway from now on, with my rubber plow edge, instead of the steel plow edge previously used by the company plowing his driveway for the last several years. I don't want to see the repairs damaged or the driveway unnecessarily impacted by aggressive plowing, etc. as had previously happened to the driveway.
