Driveway Repaving After a Bad SealcoatOrmond Beach, Florida
A large Ormond Beach driveway, worn and streaked under an old sealcoat job, repaved with fresh asphalt. The finished driveway is above. The three photos below show it before we started and are labeled.
Project at a glance
- Location
- Ormond Beach, Volusia County
- Property
- Residential, large driveway
- Scope
- Driveway repaving
- Equipment
- Paver, dump trucks and roller
The Old Coat
Why did the old sealcoat look so messy?
Sealcoat is a thin protective coating. It is not a repair. Think of it as the difference between a bandage and a surgeon. In this close view, wavy black lines wander across a pale, cracked surface, with faint swirls where the old coat has worn through.
Cracks wider than a hairline need to be cleaned out and filled before any sealer goes on, or they reopen. Crack filler that ends up on top of the surface instead of in the crack looks exactly like those black ribbons, and it does not keep water out.
Ormond Beach gets the full Florida sun and heavy afternoon rain, which is hard on a coating that was never sealing anything. A coat that goes over open cracks traps dirt and water in them, so the pavement underneath keeps failing while the surface looks finished. Cracks keep moving. Our driveway sealcoating page explains when a coat helps and when it only covers a problem that is already there.
The Decision
When does a driveway need repaving instead of another coat of sealer?
When the cracks have spread into a web across the whole surface. Another coat only paints over it. Think of it as the difference between a bandage and a repair.
This driveway is large, the cracking runs from the garage doors all the way to the road, and orange paint marks dot the surface. At the far end you can see the paver and two dump trucks lined up, with a roller parked at the right, ready to start.
Repaving costs more than a coat of sealer today, and far less than sealing a failing surface every year. Failing asphalt does not get better under sealer. The way to tell is to walk the drive, look at where the cracks run and how wide they have opened, and press a screwdriver into the widest ones to see whether the base underneath is still firm. That is how M&S Asphalt Paving decides, and it is why we give you the reason along with the price.
Before You Hire
What should you ask before someone sealcoats or repaves your driveway?
Ask how they handle the cracks. Ask what thickness they will lay. Ask what the warranty covers in writing. Ask for it all on paper. A written scope is how you compare two quotes fairly.
Our answers are a clean, filled surface before anything goes on, two inches of asphalt as the standard thickness, and a one year material warranty. A surface laid that way gives ten to fifteen years of life. If a contractor cannot tell you how the cracks get treated, the coat will look like the one in this photo within a season or two. Quotes that skip the crack work are cheaper for a reason.
The finished driveway at the top of this page shows what the work should look like: even, black and tight to the edges, with room for a truck to turn at the outbuilding. For a driveway of your own, start with our driveway paving page, then call for a walk-through.
The Result
What does the finished driveway look like?
This is the same driveway from the photos above, finished. The surface is even and black, it runs tight to the edges, and it turns cleanly at the outbuilding. Compare it with the cracked, streaked surface in the earlier frames.
Want to see another Ormond Beach job?
The end of driveway repair shows the smaller version of the same problem, where a new concrete drive meets a worn road.
Is your driveway cracked and past another coat of sealer?
Call and tell us what you are dealing with. We come out, look at the surface and the drainage, and give you a straight price with the scope written out, in English or Spanish.
Call us today (386) 215-7466