Potholes and cracks are common problems that homeowners with asphalt driveways have to deal with. You can hire a professional to take care of those types of issues, or you can save some money and make repairs yourself.
Clean the Driveway before You Get to Work
Before you repair your driveway, you’ll need to clean the surface so the material that you use to fix damaged areas can adhere properly. Use a broom or a leaf blower to get rid of any dirt, leaves, and other debris. If there are weeds in cracks, pull them out and apply weed killer so they won’t grow back after you make repairs.
Spraying the driveway with a hose or a pressure washer can also work, but you have to give the driveway enough time to dry completely before you make repairs. If you don’t wait long enough and moisture doesn’t have a chance to escape from cracks in the driveway, you’ll have to deal with more problems in the future.
How to Fix Cracks
Driveways often have a series of cracks that look like an alligator’s back or a spider web. These types of cracks are easy to repair. If cracks are less than ½ inch wide, you can fix them with asphalt crack filler. For cracks more than ½ wide, you’ll need to use asphalt cold patch.
Pour asphalt patch into the cracked area, then use an asphalt squeegee, trowel, or shovel to spread out the patch material to the entire crack. If the crack is deep, fill it in with sand almost to the surface, then apply crack filler.
Spread the patch material at least a foot away from the area that you’re repairing and smooth out the surface. Give the patch material plenty of time to dry, then apply a sealant to protect that area from further damage.
Carefully follow the instructions on the product. You might have to use it when the temperature is in a specific range to get good results. You also need to be sure that you give the product enough time to dry thoroughly before you use that section of the driveway again.
How to Deal with Potholes
A pothole can be a safety hazard, and it can also damage a vehicle. Fortunately, this is the sort of issue that you can handle yourself.
See how deep the pothole is. If the bottom of the pothole is below the driveway’s asphalt layer, start by filling the hole with dirt, sand, or gravel, up to around where the asphalt layer begins. Then, fill the hole with cold pothole patch. Use a little extra so the patch rises above the surface of the driveway, then use a pothole tamper to pound the material into the hole and flatten out the surface.
