Potholes, broken edges, sunken patches and open cracks, repaired properly on driveways and lots around Lexington. Very few worn drives need tearing out. Most have three or four trouble spots, and if those are dealt with before the next wet winter the rest of the surface has years left in it.
Damage is rarely random. It follows water and weight, so it tends to show up in the same handful of places on almost every drive we are asked about.
At the road. The entrance takes every turning wheel plus whatever the street sheds in a storm, so it often goes first: a broken lip where the asphalt meets the pavement, then a hole a tyre drops into. If that strip sits in public right-of-way, a permit may be needed, and the quote says so.
Along the sides. Older drives here were often laid straight onto the yard with nothing holding the edges. Mowers, tyres and frost nibble at them until the edge crumbles into the grass a fist-sized piece at a time. Fixing it means cutting back to solid material and rebuilding the edge, and keeping tyres off it after.
Down the middle. Single cracks that wander along or across the drive, with firm asphalt either side, are the simplest repair of all: routed or blown clean, then filled hot. On a sealcoating job this is included in the price, and crack filling explains which cracks qualify.
Where water collects. Below a downspout, at the bottom of a slope, beside a parking pad. Here the ground under the asphalt stays wet, softens, and lets the surface drop into a shallow bowl crazed with small interlocking cracks. Filler does nothing lasting for that; the bowl has to be dug out and rebuilt, and the water needs somewhere else to go.
By the garage. The line where asphalt meets the concrete slab opens because the two materials expand and contract differently. That joint just needs filling. If the asphalt beside it has dropped an inch below the slab, though, something has settled underneath and that part needs a patch.
A spot that keeps going down. This is limestone country, and now and then a dip that sinks again after being patched turns out to be a hollow opening in the rock below. Patching it a second time is not the answer, so a spot like that gets a closer look before anyone quotes it.
Cold mix from a bag is a stopgap, and a reasonable one for a week or a month. It does not stick to the walls of the hole, it never gets compacted the way hot asphalt does, and whatever caused the hole is still underneath it. Traffic loosens it and rain washes the fines out, and by spring there is a hole again with loose gravel around it.
A permanent repair is built, not poured in. The failed area is saw cut to a clean rectangle reaching past the damage into good asphalt. Everything inside comes out. If the trouble came from below, wet soil is removed and replaced with crushed stone, compacted. Hot mix goes back in lifts, each one rolled or plate compacted, finishing flush with the drive around it, and the seam is sealed so water cannot track down the joint. Done like that, the patch is really a small piece of new driveway.
Small patches done together with sealcoating are included in the sealing price. Bigger areas, or repair work booked by itself, are quoted separately.
A Lexington winter tends to come in waves rather than settle in: a few cold nights, a thaw, a soaking rain, another hard freeze. Every time that happens with water sitting in a crack, the water turns to ice, grows, pries the crack a little wider and lifts its edges. The next thaw lets more water in. Over a season of that, a hairline becomes a gap and a gap becomes a loose chunk.
That is why closing cracks and rebuilding soft spots before the cold arrives costs so much less than repairing what the winter leaves behind. Patching can go in later in the year than sealer, but it still needs a dry day and temperatures above freezing so the hot mix bonds and compacts.
On a business lot or a church drive the worst wear gathers where heavy vehicles turn and stop: the entrance, the dumpster enclosure, the loading area, the main aisle. Those get rebuilt first, and then sealing and restriping the whole surface ties old and new together. Everything goes on one written sheet with one total. See parking lot sealcoating and striping and, for associations, HOAs and property managers.
Sealcoating here is one price per square foot, and that price already covers crack filling, small patches and restriping. Repair work booked by itself, or a large area that has to be cut out and rebuilt, is priced per job once somebody has seen it, because the figure depends on the size of the area, how deep the failure goes and whether the base under it needs rebuilding. The number is in writing before a saw touches the asphalt.
Should I seal first or repair first? Repair first. Sealer is a thin protective coat and cannot hold a broken surface together, so it goes on after the patches have set and the cracks are filled.
Will the repair stand out? Fresh hot mix is blacker and smoother than asphalt that has had a few summers, so it shows at first. A coat of sealer over everything evens it out.
Is a pothole at the street my problem or the city's? It depends where the property line and the right-of-way fall. The part of your drive past the road edge is often yours to maintain even when it sits in public right-of-way, and replacing it can need a permit. We check before quoting it.
Can tree roots be fixed? A root lifting the drive can be cut back and the section rebuilt, but whether a root can be cut safely is a question for an arborist, not a paving crew, and the quote will say that.
Send the address through the form, and a phone photo of the worst spot if you can. You will hear what it is, whether a patch plus sealer will carry the drive or whether it has gone past that, and what it costs. The repairs are done by local independent contractors.
