About Your New Asphalt Driveway

1. Please stay off the new pavement for 48 hours.
2. Do not sit in one spot and turn the power steering on any car or truck. If you do, you may cause power steering marks. These will look unsightly and will cause unnecessary worry. Marks will wear away as the driveway starts to age. **Please Note: Your new asphalt needs to go through one full heat season before there is less risk of this not happening. Our rule of thumb is 18 months before your driveway is fully cured.
3. Be careful to not drive off the edges of your driveway with any car or riding mower. These edges will be cured in 18 months.
4. The sides of your driveway should be backfilled with topsoil; 1” down from the top of the pavement; grass should be seeded up flush with your driveway. If this is not done in a timely manner, the edges that are exposed may start to crack. Topsoil and seed to hold the edges in tight.

5. The asphalt will be left ¼ – ½ inch higher than the garage floor. This increase will settle down and they “always do”.

6. Water will bead-up on new asphalt, just like a freshly waxed car. As the driveway cures, this will stop.

7. Sealing: Wait 2 years the first time. Then, every 3-5 years after that. Do not seal every year. Doing so, will smother the driveway and form hairline cracking from over-sealing. Please contact the CPA office to schedule your seal coating for your new driveway.

8. Stakes and ribbons at the end of your driveway we left may be thrown away.

Sealcoat Driveway Care Tips

1. We recommend at least 48 hours of drying time before driving on the driveway. Drying time may vary depending on the temperature and weather, so we ask that you use your best judgment. You may walk on your driveway as soon as it looks dry. Note: shady areas may take longer to dry.
2. You will notice that it appears to be marking from the wheels of your car; this is to be expected. The sand in our sealant mix is loosening at the very top of the coating. This will go away and clean up with time.
3. Power steering scuff marks are caused by making sharp turns or pinwheeling your tires in place. Please avoid this by making sure the car is moving before turning. The scuff marks will usually disappear within a week or less and will not harm the integrity of the sealer. If you make sharp turns while your tires are sitting on the hot crack fill it will leave scuff marks or even pull the crack filler from the asphalt.
4. When we provide a spray application of sealer you may notice a little difference where we had to hand-edge around such things as your house, fence, or walkways. This is necessary to avoid getting any of the sealer on your property.
5. If you have severe oil stains, they may continue to be a problem. We treat these areas with the best materials available to us. In the event, oil penetrates deep into your asphalt, it may be impossible to correct without actually repaving these areas.

Please note: Crack filling is NOT for aesthetic purposes. The purpose of crack filling is to help prevent the crack from getting worse and to help maintain the structural integrity of the asphalt.

If cracks are LESS than 1/4” wide, we typically don’t fill them with crack filler. They are too small to do, so you will still notice them. You will still notice the cracks under the fresh sealer.

SPIDER WEB TYPE CRACKS

Spider web type cracks are cracks that look like a spider web. Spider web cracks consist of many cracks in an area that are interconnecting and spread out in every direction. Hot crack filling is not recommended for these areas. The risk in
crack filling these types of cracks with hot crack filler is that it could potentially stick to the tires of the car and cause worse damage. Proper repair for these areas should be saw cut out and replaced with new asphalt.

CHEMICALS ON DRIVEWAY

One of the main reasons to sealcoat asphalt is to provide a protective coating on the driveway and prevent harmful chemicals from penetrating into the asphalt. Therefore, we recommend that you avoid washing your vehicle, using tire dressings, degreasers, household chemicals, lawn or pressure washing chemicals on your newly sealed driveway. We have found that these chemicals can cause the sealer to turn a blue or gray color. If you do and it causes sealer color to change, we are not responsible. Finally, if you want to extend the look of the nice black look, we recommend no chemicals.

COLD POUR CRACK FILLING AT THE CONCRETE

Crack filling the gap where the concrete and asphalt meet is not a standard line item that is included in any of our estimates. If we feel it is necessary to fill this gap, we will recommend this as an itemized description called Cold Pour Crack filling at the Concrete. We don’t recommend this gap be filled because this serves as an expansion joint between the structure of the home and the driveway. This will allow for expansion with the change in the seasons. If this is an area that receives a lot of water, then crack filling the gap may need to be completed. However, if you would like this gap filled and it is not on your estimate, please call or email and we can provide an estimate.

Free Paving and Sealcoating Estimate

Contact CPA Pavement Services today for a free estimate. Our team proudly serves the Central PA area and is committed to providing top-notch asphalt services.