Stage one
Hairline
A thread you would not notice if the sun were not low. Nothing is under it yet.
SHOT. Low sun raking a hairline crack, coin beside it for scale.
Crackfill, and that is allAbout $0.55 a foot
Hairline Paving
A crack you can drop a dime into is a three hundred dollar morning. The same crack after three winters is a four thousand dollar tear-out.
Asphalt does not fail all at once. It fails in a known order, and at every step there is still a cheapest thing that will work. The point of this page is to let you walk out, look at your own driveway, find it below, and know roughly what you are in for before anybody stands on it with a clipboard.
Six stages, and the cheapest fix still available at each one
Water is the whole story. Every stage below is water getting further in and then freezing. Stop it early and the surface is a maintenance item. Let it reach the base and it becomes a construction project.
Stage two
Open and branching
Quarter inch, weeds starting. Water is reaching the gravel underneath now.
SHOT. A quarter inch crack with grass coming through it, straight down.
Rout, fill, then sealAbout $0.55 a foot plus seal
Stage three
Spidering
Cracks feeding cracks. The surface is still sound between them, just barely.
SHOT. A metre square of spidered asphalt from directly above.
Fill and a full sealcoat$0.18 to $0.25 a square foot
Stage four
Alligator
A scaled patch that flexes underfoot. This one is no longer a surface problem.
SHOT. An alligatored patch at the apron, with a boot in frame for scale.
Cut out and patch that area$12 to $18 a square foot
Stage five
Pothole
The base has washed out and the top has fallen into the hole it left.
SHOT. One pothole with a tape measure laid across it showing depth.
Dig to base, re-compact, patch$14 to $22 a square foot
Stage six
Base failure
More than about a third of it is moving. Patching this is money spent twice.
SHOT. A whole failed drive from the street, showing the scale of it.
Overlay if the base holds, otherwise replace$2.50 to $7 a square foot
What each of those actually costs, written down
These are the ranges we quote off, not a teaser figure. A quote can land above them for a drive with bad drainage or no room to turn a truck, and we will say so on the spot rather than at the invoice.
| Work | What it is | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Crackfill | Routed clean, hot rubberised filler, walkable the same day | $0.55 / ft |
| Sealcoat | Two coats, squeegee and broom, 24 hours off it | $0.18 to $0.25 / sq ft |
| Patch | Saw cut, remove, compact base, new hot mix | $12 to $18 / sq ft |
| Overlay | New surface course over a base that is still sound | $2.50 to $3.50 / sq ft |
| Tear out and replace | Everything up, base rebuilt, new asphalt | $5 to $7 / sq ft |
| Small concrete repair | Apron, step, a broken section at the garage | Quoted per job |
Where the truck goes
Everything below is inside about forty minutes of the shop, which is as far as a load of hot mix stays workable in the trailer.
- Excelsior Springs and Lawson Same week
- Kearney, Holt, Missouri City Same week
- Liberty, Smithville, Richmond Usually within two
- Past Richmond or Plattsburg Ask, and expect a minimum
What we turn down, so nobody wastes a morning
- Sealcoat over alligator cracking. It looks fixed for six weeks and then it is worse, and you paid for it.
- Anything under about 50 degrees, or on a slab that will not be dry for 24 hours.
- Filling a pothole without opening it up first. That is a shovel of cold patch and it is gone by March.
- Quoting a drive we have not walked. Measurements off an aerial photo are how the number changes later.
Insured, twelve years on our own equipment, and every bid comes as a written scope before anything gets started.