How often should you seal your driveway?

Why bother

Sealed cracks don't grow into potholes. A thorough-tier job. Skippable when life's busy, worth it when it isn't.

What the job involves

1. Clean it first, properly. Sweep off the grit, pull the weeds out of the cracks, scrub or strip the oil stains, then power-wash the lot and let it dry all the way through. Sealant over a damp or dirty driveway just peels.
2. Fill the cracks and holes with rubberized asphalt crack filler, bought separately by the tube or jug, and let it set before you seal. Sealant bridges hairline cracks, it does not fill gaping ones.
3. Pick a dry, mild day with no rain coming and spread the sealant in thin, even coats with a squeegee or brush. A 5-gallon bucket covers roughly 400 to 500 square feet.
4. Keep everything off it for 24 to 48 hours while it cures, cars included. A brand-new driveway waits at least 6 months before its first seal so the asphalt can cure first.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

Yourself, for a sound driveway. Materials run about $150 to $200; a pro averages roughly $500 to $545 (typically $250 to $820) and mostly buys you commercial-grade sealant, the gear, and a cleaner finish. Call one in if the surface is cracking through or webbed with alligatoring, which needs repair before any seal.

What skipping it costs

$1,400 to $12,000 is what a full repave runs, and that's the job an unsealed driveway eventually hands you. UV bakes the asphalt gray and brittle, water gets into the hairline cracks, and freeze-thaw prises them open into proper cracks and potholes. The national average to repave sits around $7,075, anywhere from $2,550 to $11,600. Resurfacing first is cheaper, $4 to $8 a square foot, but it's still a job you brought forward by years. A $500 seal every few years is what defers all of it.

Signs it's overdue

• The black has faded to gray and the surface looks dry or rough. That's the old sealant and binder spent.
• Hairline cracks are showing up, or water soaks in and darkens the surface instead of beading and running off.
• It's been more than 3 to 5 years since the last seal, or more than 2 to 3 in hard sun or hard freeze.

When to start thinking about it

Give yourself about 14 days' notice. That's when Grumpty starts grumbling, so it doesn't land on you the day it's due. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 36 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

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