Residential FAQ
How often should I seal my driveway?
We suggest every three to five years on average. As you drive on your driveway, you will start to wear down the sealer. Driveways with heavier traffic flow will wear off faster. Snow plowing can also scrape off the sealer. The average driveways will still be a vast majority of the sealer left after three years.
What can I do about the grass growing through the edges of the driveway?
This is a very common problem, because wire grass grows in so many yards here. It unfortunately will grow up under the edge of the driveway and push up through it. The best thing to do is make sure you are trimming back the grass along the edges of your driveway on a regular basis. This enables you to see if any grass is growing through. If there is spray it with a grass killer such as Round-up. This will not hurt the sealer at all. Once grass has grown through the driveway, there is no long lasting way to patch where it might have damaged it. Sealer will coat it and protect it as well as making it look better.
What can be done about the cracks in my driveway?
Virtually, all driveways will develop cracks in them as they age for various reasons. Most of the cracks are surface cracks that do not go completely through the asphalt, but some cracks will go through the driveway. Cracks are more of a cosmetic problem than a structural problem in most cases. Your driveway can have a lot of cracks in it and still be structurally sound: it just does not look as good. We have tried for years to find a product that you can put in cracks in your driveway that will hold up any length of time, to no avail. When most driveways are put in they are compacted down to just a thickness of about two inches, unlike parking lots and roadways which are much thicker. Because of this driveways will expand and contract more with the temperature changes. This causes the crack filler to open back up in a very short time, so now you have crack filler on your driveway and your cracks are coming back. It actually looks worse than if you had just applied the sealer. Sealer will seep down into all the surface cracks and coat them, but you will still see the cracks. Some customers will try to fill their own cracks and then have it sealed by us, which is not a problem. Just know that the cracks are going to reopen. The only real solution to cracks is to repave the driveway which is not an inexpensive solution. If there was a product that truly worked for cracks in driveways we would be using it. Our goal is to prolong the life of your driveway and improve your home’s appearance.
Do you apply sealer by spray or by hand?
We apply the sealer by hand with brushes along concrete edges, sidewalks, close to the house, and anywhere else that we want to ensure sealer does not get on. We then spray sealer on the rest of the driveway. By spraying on the sealer we are able to apply more sealer and leave no brush marks, giving it a more even appearance.
What kind of sealer do you use?
We use a commercial grade coal tar sealer that meets or exceeds all federal specifications and standards. Coal tar will dry on top of your driveway and form a barrier between the driveway and the elements thus helping prolonging its life. We use the same sealer mix on your driveway that we use on our parking lots.
What if my driveway is on a hill?
We add sand to all our sealer to help prolong the life of the sealer and give some traction. When you have a hill, we will add even more sand to the mix to help give you plenty of traction when driving or walking up your driveway.
