Repairing Your Asphalt Driveway – I Can Do It, so Can You

Four years ago, my asphalt topped driveway was beginning to crumble. I made a few calls to local contractors who installed and repaired driveways, but the lowest estimate that I got was for $2500. I did not have $2500 and if I had had that amount of money, I really would not have wanted to spend it on my driveway. It wasn’t THAT bad.

So instead I went to the local Home Depot to see what a housewife who knew absolutely nothing could do to fix a crumbling asphalt driveway by herself.

Of course, Home Depot had the answers for me. First of all, I must say kudos to the salesman who did not bat an eye at a chubby, middle-aged woman claiming that she was going to fix her own crumbling driveway. He took my request for help very seriously, asking me questions about the type and size of cracks in the driveway. He then showed me two products to use to patch the driveway. The first was a bucket of ‘cold patch’ – asphalt is usually hot when it is installed – and then a squirt bottle of liquid asphalt for the smaller cracks. He also recommended weed killer for the nasty weeds that were growing out from between the cracks, and a spatula for spreading the cold patch.

So off I went, ready to fix my driveway, and – frankly – expecting to make a royal mess of it. I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew when it comes to home improvement projects.

The first thing that I did was to pull the weeds that were growing from between the cracks. I then took a flat-head screwdriver and really worked at getting all of the roots out of there. Then, as instructed by the helpful gentleman at Home Depot, I sprayed out all the cracks. When this part of the process was complete, I gave it an hour to dry – it was in the 80’s that day, so it dried fairly quickly – and then doused the weed-infested areas with weed killer. So far so good. Then, for the deep cracks, I used some sand from the abandoned sandbox in the back yard and filled them to within ¼ inch of the top. When I had finished with this, I then proceeded to fill the deep cracks with cold patch and smooth it out with the spatula-type tool. The smaller cracks got the asphalt-in-a-squirt-bottle. It took me the better part of a day to complete this process, but it was looking pretty good by the time I was done. I allowed it to cure for a week – just to be on the safe side – and then cleaned the entire driveway and gave it a coat of sealant. This entire process cost me less than $200, and the end result was wonderful! Not, I’m sure, as great as having a professional do the job but for a $2300 savings – well, it is certainly a job that I could live with.

It is now four years later, and I will be investing another $200 to fix more cracks and crumbling, and to give it another coat of sealant. Again, had I had it done by a professional, perhaps it would have lasted longer than four years. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have. One way or another, if I can repair my own driveway – anyone can.