Resurfacing Your Driveway
The driveway to your home gets a lot of use. While not quite as much as the area inside your front door, the use it gets is heavier and dirtier. In addition, it is outside in the elements trying to withstand wind, rain, and temperature changes. This means that with time you are going to need to do some maintenance on it. At first, you may be able to simply do some small repairs to little cracks or have the asphalt seal coated. However, when the asphalt has a lot of cracks, or potholes, or is holding water in places, you should consider resurfacing it. Here are the steps to resurfacing.
Clean
The first thing you must do is powerwash the entire driveway. Pull up any weeds that have grown through the cracks and be sure to clean them of debris too. Getting the greasy stains off the asphalt will help the patch material and new asphalt adhere better so it will not need to be redone in the near future. Once the whole area is completely clean, you need to let it dry. It is best to this the cleaning on a warm, sunny day with no wind. If you must wait for the drying on a windy day, try putting some tarps down to keep debris from blowing onto the driveway.
Repair
Once the area is dry you can start to do repairs. You can fill cracks with a crack filler. This is similar to caulking a seem in a wall. Use a putty knife to smooth the filler and make sure it is pushed into the crack. Potholes and low dips can be filled with a pourable patching substance. Spread the patch material with a trowel and smooth it out. Once it is semi-dry, you need to tamp it down. If the holes are still there, add more patching material. Keep repairing and filling the damaged areas until the driveway is completely flat and has no holes or cracks.
Resurface
Resurfacing is down with new asphalt. It needs to be applied in small areas at a time. Once the asphalt is poured you need to brush it with a driveway coating brush straight across the area. As you add a new area, make sure to go back over where the two areas meet to keep it smooth.
Unless you have experience with asphalt, it is a good idea to go ahead and get the driveway clean and dry then let professionals do the actual repairs and resurfacing. Set up an appointment for the work to be done and then do the cleaning the day before they are coming.