Hello! Is your garden looking a little run down? My name is Jackie and on this new blog, I will be passing on everything I know about how different paving solutions can make your garden look great. Although I am not a professional, my interest in paving began two years ago when I decided to help a friend who was carrying out renovation work on her home. As part of the work, I organised for paving contractors to come in and lay a new garden path. I was so impressed, I hired the same people to work on my home and I decided to learn all I could about the topic.
One of the most common materials for laying a new driveway is asphalt. It's cheap, durable and looks good. If you are the owner of an asphalt driveway, you probably don't have a lot of complaints. However, one thing that asphalt suffers from more than alternative materials for a driveway, like concrete and bricks, is cracks. Pits and cracks usually appear on the asphalt after a couple of years and can be dangerous if not fixed. However, it doesn't take much to repair them, and there are also things you can do to prevent damage in the future.
Before repairing
What's important to remember before you set out to fix your driveway is to make sure it's as clean as possible. Clean it from patches of oil and other fluids so that the material you use to repair the hole doesn't react with the fluids that might have spilled on the driveway. Damages in asphalt driveways are often caused by different types of fluids, to begin with, so clean it off before repairing. To hose your driveway down before you start might also be a good idea to make it as clean as possible. Let it dry before repairing.
Different types of damage
If your driveway is just cracked, there's no need to make the repair too complicated. Just filling the cracks with sealant or different types of latex solutions should do the trick. Larger holes, both more shallow pits and deeper holes, can be fixed with different types of asphalt patch mixes. After filling the hole with the mix, make sure to pat it down as much as possible to avoid bumps in the asphalt. You could put a piece of wood on top of the repaired hole and then put your car on top of it to really make it smooth. Ask for the best solution for your specific problem while purchasing the asphalt patch mix, as the people in the store will know what type of patch works best with different types of damages.
Use sealer
When you've finished your repair, it's time to prevent further damage to happen in the future. Apply a sealer to the driveway to protect the surface from wear caused by weather and liquids spilling out on it. Apply the sealer after your repairs have healed up for the best result. There are many different sealers as well, so ask the people in the store where you buy it for the sealer that will suit your type of driveway the best. Re-apply sealer after a couple of years to preserve its effectiveness.
Share12 October 2018
