Asphalt Blacktop – Approved Paving and Construction, LLC – Call 571-338-4610
Many residential and commercial driveways are made with asphalt or concrete. Although both options are cost-effective, asphalt provides more benefits. If you are planning to pave a driveway or need to refinish your current driveway, you might be curious about the advantages of this versatile material.
For most installations, our team can complete an asphalt driveway in a day or two. (Depending upon the layout and size.) Concrete, however, can take quite a while longer to install and set.) An asphalt driveway is usually ready to use within 48 hours after completion. With concrete, you might have to wait for up to one week until it’s ok to drive on.
Unlike concrete, an asphalt driveway is not vulnerable to surface flaking because of faulty installation or inaccurate preparation of the mix. Flaking – also referred to as spalling – is an ongoing issue with concrete driveways, particularly ones that are not properly installed. Also, thanks to its flexible qualities, asphalt is less likely than concrete to crack and break apart over time.
Asphalt Blacktop
If your driveway does begin to show some cracks, it is easy and inexpensive to get them repaired. Crack sealant is widely available at home improvement outlets, don’t cost a lot and is easy to apply even if you do not have previous expertise with asphalt surfaces.
In addition, you can prolong the lifespan of your asphalt driveway with some regular maintenance, such as sealcoating, crack filling and sweeping. Concrete is typically more challenging to maintain, since it cannot be repaired as rapidly as asphalt pavement.
An additional advantage of asphalt is that its deep black color attracts and holds more heat. In the wintertime, that means snow will tend to melt faster on asphalt than it will on concrete. This improves safety for both residential and commercial settings. It also makes maintenance much easier!