Your driveway pavement can feel like it’s not a part of your home, yet it actually does contribute much to your living experience. This is because your pavement can impact not only your safety but also concerning your chances of selling your property.
It’s crucial to keep your driveway safe to avoid any unnecessary repairs, such as drainage issues and accidental damage to your car. Driveway damage usually comes from different sources that build up over the years. It could be from spilled motor oil, cold temperatures, and even the burden of holding the weight of your vehicle.
Conducting a driveway diagnosis
Depending on how you treat your pavement, its lifespan can last from 20 to 30 years. Though you might not be a pavement contractor, you can still easily see the signs of a deteriorating driveway if you know where to look. In this article, we will share with you five tell-tale signs of a pavement that’s in urgent need of an upgrade:
- Small cracks
Cracks are the first signs of a pavement that’s about to give you many pavement renovation costs. It’s best to fix cracks before they grow wider than a quarter of an inch as they can quickly spread through each other and lead to deeper cracks in your driveway.
- Problematic potholes
It can be easy to pay no attention to one or two potholes in your drives. Given enough time, however, they could lead to draining a hole through your wallet through constant renovations. Keep in mind that potholes are a sign that your top layers are weak due to the heavy load or poor installation.
- Sunken areas
Sunken areas usually pop up close to your garage doors or your parking areas. This is due to a load of carrying the weight of your car. You can opt to put a band-aid solution of patching it to keep it level to avoid any scratches or bumps to your vehicle.
- Faded colors
It’s a natural sign of aging for driveways, but it can also be an indicator of your remaining good years with it. The typical concrete driveway has a lifespan of over 20 years. Furthermore, different materials have shorter or longer lifespans depending on the maintenance and quality of the installation. A professional pavement contractor can estimate whether the color change is nearer or farther from its expiration date based on the material it’s made of.
- Crumbling edges
If your driveway is filled with more dust than usual after cleaning, then it could be the result of the asphalt breaking off from its borders. Crumbling edges are a sign that the contractor’s application of asphalt is too thin. You can readily fix the issue of crumbling edges by adding an additional layer of edging, but it’s only a budget solution over resurfacing your entire pavement.
Conclusion
Repairing your driveway is the way to go if you’ve only assessed minimal damage to the entire area. If more than 50% of the surface area leads to constant renovations, however, then it might be time to resurface it entirely. Skilled paving contractors can assist you with this if you have trouble repairing the driveway yourself.
Resurfacing overhauls your entire pavement by replacing its top layers instead of patching up small damaged areas. This essentially allows you to save more in the long term by refreshing your driveway’s lifespan.
If you think it might be time for a minor fix-up or a significant overhaul, our team of professional paving contractors in New Jersey is ready to give you a helping hand. Let us deal with your pavement issues with ease by contacting us today!