Asphalt driveways laid new, resurfaced, or dug out and rebuilt, across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. Around Detroit the enemies are water that cannot drain away through heavy clay, a winter that keeps freezing and thawing, and the salt that follows every car up the drive. Here is how to judge what yours needs and what goes into doing it properly.
The deciding question is not how bad the drive looks from the street. It is whether the damage stops at the surface or goes all the way down.
Much of metro Detroit is flat land with dense clay soil, and clay holds water instead of letting it soak away. A drive built on that ground stays wet underneath after every thaw and every heavy rain, and wet ground under asphalt is soft ground. It rises a little when it freezes and sinks back when it thaws, and each round loosens the stone base above it.
That is why a proper rebuild here is mostly earthwork. The old asphalt and any contaminated base come out, soft clay is dug out where it has pumped up into the stone, and a thicker layer of crushed aggregate goes back and is compacted in lifts. Just as important is the finished shape. With so little natural slope on many lots, the drive has to be graded deliberately so water runs to the street or the lawn, never back toward the garage slab or the house.
Michigan roads get salted hard all winter, and the brine rides into every driveway on tyres and wheel wells, then drips off onto the asphalt. Salt keeps melting snow liquid at temperatures where it would otherwise freeze, so the drive spends more of the winter wet, and more of that water finds its way into cracks and the base below. The salty slush that lands on the apron from the street plow adds to it.
A new driveway cannot be salt-proof, but it can be built so water leaves quickly, and it can be sealed once it has cured so the surface stays closed. Those two things matter more in this climate than the particular asphalt mix.
The stretch between the sidewalk and the road, usually called the approach or apron, normally sits in the public right-of-way. Cities around Detroit generally want a permit before it is removed, rebuilt or widened, and some also want the contractor registered or bonded with them. Where the approach meets a county road, the county road agency issues the permit, and a state trunkline goes through MDOT. A few communities also want a permit to replace a driveway on private land.
Every paving quote says which permits apply, who applies for them and whether the fee is inside the price. The county pages list what each city publishes: Wayne, Oakland and Macomb.
Paving is priced per job, once the drive has been seen, because most of the cost is underground or at the edges.
You receive one written price with the scope spelled out: what is removed, how much base goes back, the asphalt thickness, and what happens at the street.
Hot mix has to be laid and compacted before it cools, so frozen ground, cold nights and a raw wind all work against it, and asphalt plants in the state scale down or close over the winter. Residential paving here runs roughly from spring into late autumn, and the last weeks before the cold fill quickly because everyone wants the drive done before the first snow.
Fresh asphalt should not be sealed right away. It needs time to cure, commonly six months to a year. The sensible plan is to pave this year and seal next year, then keep to a sealing schedule.
On a parking lot or a condominium community's roads the same judgement is made area by area. Usually one part needs rebuilding, another can take an overlay and the rest just needs patching, sealing and new lines. Tackling the worst first keeps the spend in proportion. Parking lot sealcoating and striping and condominium and property manager work explain how that is scheduled.
Fill in the form, pick paving, and say briefly what you are seeing. Someone measures and looks at the drive and tells you plainly whether it needs paving at all. If it does, you get the scope in writing and one price. Paving is carried out by a local independent paving contractor.
