Most homeowners often overlook roads and driveways, and rarely consider the importance of using quality commercial or residential paving materials for their driveways.
If your concrete driveway starts to form cracks and crumble, it’s high time you consider asphalt paving which offers excellent driveability, improved appearance and lasts longer than other paving materials. Asphalt is also one of the most cost-effective residential and commercial paving driveway material.
Components of Asphalt Cement
Asphalt driveway paving material is made with 5% asphalt material from petroleum and 95% aggregates, which includes tiny rocks, gravel and fine sand. Asphalt concrete becomes liquid when hot, and when mixed with the aggregates it firmly bonds together to form strong pavement surface.
Whether you’re looking for commercial or residential paving solutions, asphalt proves to be the most ideal choice not only for driveway resurfacing or replacement, but also for paving parking lots, racetracks or airfields. In fact, more than 90% of parking areas in the U.S. are surfaced with asphalt pavement, the material of choice for most development owners.
Residential Paving and How It’s Both a Diy Project and Project for Experts
As a homeowner, it’s easy to fix asphalt driveway provided you have the basic knowledge on construction, and a few of handwork skills up your sleeves.
However, when your driveway needs a complete overhaul and new asphalt paving has to be laid, it’s better to leave that to the experts. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a poorly paved driveway that ends up cracking and crumbling within no time.
Benefits of Asphalt Paving Driveways
There are numerous advantages associated with asphalt paving for a new driveway.
- Cost-effective paving material: The initial cost of installing an asphalt driveway may be high, but when compared to concrete it’s cheaper. The maintenance cost of an asphalt paving is also significantly low than some materials.
- Quick Installation: The process of installing a new asphalt is pretty fast, and it also takes a few days for the surface to harden.
- Flexibility: Since asphalt is made from composite materials, they are more flexible than concrete and therefore it doesn’t crack easily.
- Cool and hardens: Unlike concrete which needs time to cure, asphalt cools down immediately and solidifies. So during winter conditions, an asphalt driveway becomes harder and less likely to be affected by rock salt and other de-icing products.
- Resale value: If you’ll be looking to sell your house and move to a new place one day, consider improving the resale value of your house by repairing or installing a new asphalt driveway. It will increase the value of your home significantly and fetch a good deal when it comes to selling it.
- Enjoy a DIY project: Asphalt driveway resealing and resurfacing can be turned into a fun DIY project, but concrete resurfacing can only be done by experts.
Three Types of Asphalt Paving Installation
When repairing your driveway, consider the integrity of the base as it will determine the quality and durability of your asphalt driveway. Here are three ways asphalt is used for the base installation.
- Asphalt can be paved over an existing driveway if it’s not damaged completely by cracks. However, you need to consider the height of the new surface so it doesn’t interfere with doors, floors and other household structures.
- Asphalt can be paved to create new driveways. A hot mix asphalt paving of about 4″ to 6″ is laid directly over the subgrade soil.
- Asphalt can be paved over an aggregate base if a driveway only suffered damage on the surface. The old driveway is removed exposing the base which will later be filled with new asphalt paving.
Finally, you want to make sure that your driveway is properly fixed by hiring a professional and experienced asphalt driveway paving contractor. Consider your options carefully and do a little research on asphalt paving so you can, at least, be on the same page with your contractor. A good contractor will also advise you on the best residential paving material to use.