Hi everyone;
I know little/nothing about asphalt, other than my driveway needs some help!
Our driveway went in in 2004 when they built the house, and the pavers only laid the base-coat at the time. We are now seeing that the base-coat is cracking in spots (with some grass growing up in the cracks) and there is some other sections where the asphalt looks to be sinking down, other places where its heaved up, etc.
We've gotten a few estimates from pavers and most have simply quoted us a price for shimming up the low spots and laying a 1.5 inch top coat. However, one contractor said the best/right way to fix this is to dig up the cracked/bad sections, lay new base coat in those areas, then put a the new top coat on top of that. He mentioned that the cracks in the base coat will lead to reflective cracks in the top coat after a few years. Obviously this guy's quote is more expensive than the others (but not that much more actually).
So is it worth the extra money to dig up the bad sections or is it OK to slap the top coat over the bad sections? I'm more than willing to spend the extra cash now so I don't have to have the driveway fixed in a few years.
Thoughts?
I know little/nothing about asphalt, other than my driveway needs some help!
Our driveway went in in 2004 when they built the house, and the pavers only laid the base-coat at the time. We are now seeing that the base-coat is cracking in spots (with some grass growing up in the cracks) and there is some other sections where the asphalt looks to be sinking down, other places where its heaved up, etc.
We've gotten a few estimates from pavers and most have simply quoted us a price for shimming up the low spots and laying a 1.5 inch top coat. However, one contractor said the best/right way to fix this is to dig up the cracked/bad sections, lay new base coat in those areas, then put a the new top coat on top of that. He mentioned that the cracks in the base coat will lead to reflective cracks in the top coat after a few years. Obviously this guy's quote is more expensive than the others (but not that much more actually).
So is it worth the extra money to dig up the bad sections or is it OK to slap the top coat over the bad sections? I'm more than willing to spend the extra cash now so I don't have to have the driveway fixed in a few years.
Thoughts?
