The look of your asphalt driveway can affect the appearance and value of your home. To help you maintain the look of your asphalt driveway, here are three qualities you can use for installation and maintenance of your drive:

Proper Slope

When you consider the surface of your asphalt driveway, you may regard it as a completely flat surface. Although you do want your asphalt's surface to be completely smooth, its elevation does not need to be consistently the same. In fact, you will want the asphalt to have a slight slope over its surface to help water run off its surface.

When water is allowed to remain on the surface of your asphalt, it will eventually make its way into small cracks on the surface. Over time, especially during winter's freezing temperatures, the cracks will enlarge and become a larger problem as the surface of the asphalt deteriorates.

During installation of your asphalt driveway, it is recommended to build the slope on the surface by creating a center ridge and sloping the surface off either end. Or, you can build a slope to your driveway to progress from the top of the driveway down to the bottom of the driveway's length to help move water from its surface.

Durable Shoulder

The edge of your asphalt pavement needs to be built in the proper manner so it can withstand the pressure from vehicles driving upon its surface and off its edges. For this purpose, it is important to have your asphalt's edges tapered off at a 45-degree angle. Installing your pavement's edges in an uneven edge or an edge that slopes off dramatically can cause the edges to give way under the pressure of a vehicle and crack.

An added step you can take to make sure your asphalt's edges are durable is to move soil back onto the sloped edges of the asphalt after installation. This makes an even and smooth transition from the asphalt to the surrounding landscaping and prevents a low shoulder in comparison to the asphalt's high elevation. If you don't want to edge your asphalt's landscaping with soil, you can add gravel, paving stones, or other rock to provide strength and durability to the edges of the asphalt and prevent its deteriorating over time.

Sealed Surface

Another way to make sure your asphalt remains a strong surface is to keep its surface protected with a seal coating application. This application seals your asphalt with a liquid tar emulsion, which seals in cracks and crevices and restores the waterproof barrier on your asphalt. You can hire a professional asphalt seal coating company to apply a new layer every few years, or as often as your asphalt begins to dry out and oxidize from the sun.

Contact a company like Imperial Paving for more information and assistance.