What is the easiest (and/or cheapest?) way to save an asphalt driveway myself? It appears some neighbors have perhaps coated and coated and coated with blacktop goo from Home Hepot that it HAS to seal the cracks, right? At least, all the little ones. If I can live with the major cracks which seem too wide to fill, is this a bad approach? In the least, will it slow down the aging process?
I figure I have nothing to lose at this point. If you’ve done this, what are the advantages and disadvantages? …And, will it take forever to dry?
You apply asphalt sealer bought at the lumber yard after using the asphalt patch on large holes or cracks. Keeping the small cracks sealed is very important to making the asphalt last.
We did our driveway a couple of years ago. It was our first time sealing a driveway. It wasn’t bad as far as home maintenance projects go.
Your local big box home improvement store will have liquid (caulk tube type) crack filler for the smaller cracks, and trowel-on crack filler for the larger cracks. It will say on the packages which crack size is suitable for each filler. Cracks large and small should all be filled before recoating with driveway sealer. Also note that the products will say how long the fillers need to cure before sealing (some of them need no time at all, IIRC some of them require up to a week of cure time). These are not very expensive or difficult to use, they just require a little time and effort.
Spread the sealer to a thickness recommended by the manufacturer (it will say on the bucket) and it shouldn’t take too long to dry. (estimated dry times will also be listed - I believe we stayed off ours for a weekend)
Take your time and spend a little more money doing it right and it will be cheaper in the long run. Do it wrong, and you’ll be replacing the whole driveway when it crumbles apart due to water infiltration. That will be much more expensive.