A paved driveway in your front yard helps to complete the look of your home's appearance and provides a pavement for your vehicles and other traffic. Whether your driveway is made of concrete or asphalt, it can become worn out over the years, looking cracked from freeze-thaw winter cycles, and pitted to form holes. Here are some tips to help you make repairs to and resurface your paved driveway to make it look great and last many years more.

Asphalt Repairs and Maintenance

An asphalt driveway in front of your home provides a flexible surface that gives slightly to withstand cracking, but as it ages it becomes brittle and loses that flexibility, resulting in inevitable cracks. For this reason, it is important to resurface your asphalt with a seal-coating treatment every few years, which you can hire with a local asphalt professional.

Your professional asphalt crew will clean and prepare your asphalt, filling any cracks with appropriate filler material and patching compound, depending on the size of the damage. Then, they will coat your pavement in a protective layer of tar emulsion, sealing in any small cracks and restoring its color and moisture.

If you choose to apply your own seal-coat treatment, be sure you clean your driveway with an asphalt cleaner to remove oil stains and other vehicle fluids before applying the seal coat. It may be necessary for you to cut out and remove an area of asphalt pitting due to damaging vehicle fluids. This can occur when gasoline, oils, and brake fluids leak onto the asphalt's surface and begin to break down the asphalt's binders and erode through its layers.

Concrete Surface Maintenance

A concrete-surfaced driveway can become cracked as it ages and the soil beneath it settles along with northern winter freezing conditions, allowing dirt to settle into the cracks and allow weeds and other vegetation to grow. Vegetation growing within the cracks of your driveway not only looks unsightly and shabby, but it can worsen the damage to your concrete and enlarge the cracks. 

Fortunately, you can patch and resurface your concrete driveway of its cracks and restore its appearance and structure without removing the entire slab. First, remove any vegetation growth and clean out the cracks using a pressure washer or the pointed end of your screwdriver to dig out the debris. You can fill the cracks with a concrete repair sealant from a tube or mix up a big batch of concrete patch material. Depending on the size and the number of cracks covering your driveway, select a repair option that you can complete easily on your own.

Finish this up with an application of a concrete resurface product over its entire surface. This will seal in your patched cracks and restore the appearance of your concrete with a seamless look.

Get in touch with a local paving contractor, such as Plehal Blacktopping LLC, for more information and resources.