Crack filling, pothole and edge repair, and failed areas cut out and rebuilt, across Detroit and its suburbs. A driveway rarely fails everywhere at once. It fails at a few weak points first, and in a Michigan winter each of those points gets bigger every month it stays open.
Cold patch is asphalt mixed to stay soft in the bag, and it has a place: a quick plug in March so nobody drops a tyre into a hole. It does not bond to the sides of the hole, it never packs as hard as hot mix, and it leaves the wet base that caused the hole exactly as it was. Plows, tyres and the next thaw usually loosen it before summer.
A permanent repair cuts square edges back into sound asphalt, removes everything that has broken up, and digs out soft base or clay and replaces it with compacted crushed stone. Hot asphalt is placed and rolled, and the joint around the patch is sealed so meltwater cannot track down the seam. Built like that, a patch behaves like the rest of the drive.
Small patches are included in the per square foot price when the drive is sealed. Larger rebuilds, or repairs without sealing, are quoted as their own job.
Snow melts on a mild afternoon and runs into the crack. The temperature drops after dark and it freezes, pushing the sides apart. Salt tracked in from the road keeps some of that water liquid longer, so it soaks deeper before the next freeze catches it. By the end of the winter the water has reached the base, and the clay under that base is holding it.
That chain is why repairs done in late summer and autumn pay back more than the same work done in spring. Every crack closed before the first snow is a place the winter cannot use.
Spring still matters, because it is when the winter's damage shows. Walk the drive once the last of the snow and the grit are gone. Look along the edge where the plow windrow sat, at the joint with the garage floor, and at any spot that stayed wet longest in March. Those are the places to point out when you ask for a quote, and a photo of each saves a lot of back and forth.
On a lot the heaviest damage gathers at the entrances, along the main drive aisle, where delivery trucks turn, and on the dumpster pad. Those areas are cut out and rebuilt first, then the lot is sealed and the existing layout repainted so the whole surface ages together. For a condominium board or manager, repairs are listed on the same written proposal as the sealing. More on parking lot sealcoating and on condominium and property manager work.
Crack filling and small patches sit inside the one price per square foot for sealing. A repair by itself, or an area big enough to need cutting out and rebuilding, is priced per job after it has been seen, because the size, the depth of the failure and the state of the clay underneath all change the work. You get one written number before anything is done.
Will the patch stand out? At first. New asphalt is blacker and tighter than the old. Sealing the whole drive afterwards brings it back to one colour.
How late in the year can it be done? Crack filling can run later than sealer, as long as the cracks are dry and clean. Hot asphalt patches need dry, unfrozen ground. Anything done before the snow saves the drive a winter of damage.
Is my concrete drive something you repair? No. Plenty of driveways around Detroit are poured concrete, and concrete takes different materials and a different trade. This work is asphalt only.
Can only the approach be fixed? Yes. If it is in the right-of-way, the city or county permit is part of the quote.
Send the address through the form, and a photo if you can. You will hear what the damage is, whether repair and a seal will carry the drive or whether it has gone past that, and what it costs. Repairs are carried out by local independent contractors.
