We only had the driveway resealed once in the last house that we lived in since we were renting it. At one time, we thought about buying the house and we did help keep it up, to a certain extent, while we were living there. I now have a cement driveway.

I get mine once a year, it ends up looking so nice after a long winter. Not too expensive and great clean results.

Every 2 to 3 years.

Sophie, you've clearly never had a driveway.... better luck next life, doll! ;-)

I've had 60 year old asphalt drives, 50year old asphalt drives, and the current drive is 30years old. None have ever been sealed. They were properly constructed from the beginning. That's all that is needed.

Mine is cement. No worries.

The roving scam artists Sophie's talking about are just that. They slop thinned out tar on your driveway then charge you to ' seal ' it. All it does is make it shiny and look black. It's not doing anything to extend the life of the asphalt. In most case it just makes a mess. However if you like the look of having it properly sealed by a professional there is nothing wrong with it. Just make sure they are a professional, not a fly by night group. Check reviews , get references. Make sure they've had a business in town for more than a few months.

For the record ours is cement, it's a mess . It's staying that way until I can afford to pull it up and redo it.

We've lived here 17 years now. Our asphalt is do for a re-do. I love my asphalt. My house is robins egg blue, white trim with black accents. The black driveway enhances our home. I "do not" want it resealed, it looks awful. We're going to do what the main roads professionals do (we personally know professionals).....pull up the old, recycle it, brand new.

That's a good question. We've only been here for four years and resealed our driveway last December so we'll see how long it holds up. I'm not sure if it "needs" it or not for durability, but it's certainly worth it. A beautiful exterior adds value to your house, your neighbors' houses, and to the community it's in.

After waiting 20 years, we paid for a beautiful paver driveway and plan on sealing it every other year. We like "the wet look" as it brings out the stones beauty.

Resealing is the equivalent of a botox job which women do ever so often to keep their youthful looks. Truth be told, aging happens to both people and things. So it is an individual preference to beautify any look.

@1958 Gorgeous, love a paver drive.

Our experience has been to brush our drive with dry cement. It has worked so far. Our asphalt driveway is 10 years old and looks like new. Very inexpensive.

Sophie Wheeler is correct. Several years ago I was on the board for our homeowners' association and we were getting quotes for sealing the asphalt on all the common areas. All of us board members were surprised when the asphalt company said sealing is nothing but cosmetic. Cracked, crumbling, broken asphalt is caused by other things - not a lack of sealing it.

"Sealing" a driveway ( according to our VERY reputable paving company ) IS cosmetic in purpose, and allows water to run off more freely from the driveway....that said, if you have a slope or hill to your driveway, you need a drain for that water at the lowest point ( unless the low point is the street )..........OUR "low point" is at the garage end of our drive, so we have a drain installed in the far corner, and the drive slopes ever so slightly so all water flows AWAY from the house / garages and into the drain....perfect !! However.........

We purchased our home in 2008.....we live in Maine...our Winters are harsh...our driveway is South-facing, so once we use the snow blower, the sun melts the rest of the snow immediately and our driveway is back to black pavement quickly...which is good...............the BAD part of all this, is that we have ONE ACRE of land....all grass....which USED to be ALL TREES...........previous owners had all trees removed and replaced with grass.............not sure HOW they handled the tree "stumps" in the ground, but they DID upset the eco-system...........due to frost heaves and natural movement of the ground, after about 3 yrs. we found a couple of "bumps" in our driveway.....................ROCKS were PUSHING UP thru the pavement!! Not good.....we "let it go" for one year, then had paving company come in and dig up pavement, BOULDERS, etc. at bottom third of our driveway ( in front of garages ) and re-pave that area...I had wanted to "seal" it so it all looked the same, but paving company advised against it...said to wait at least a year and see if this happened again..........in the 4 yrs. since then, our driveway at the BOTTOM ( area which was previously done ) once again looks like a herd of camels are residing there....here a hump, there a hump, everywhere a hump, hump !!!! MORE rocks and BOULDERS are pushing their way thru the pavement.....so time to get it dug up again!! Interestingly, instead of rocks pushing UP thru any "grassy area", we are finding depressions where we suspect there USED to be trees, the stumps of which are now rotting and causing the "holes" or dips in the grassy areas.....

We absolutely LOVE our home and the property and location....but this has taught us a very valuable lesson.....when purchasing a home, what's UNDER the ground is just as important as what's ABOVE the ground !!

Had an individual catch me out in the yard last summer offering a great deal on resealing. I said no, neighbor said yes.

On our slanted yard, rain streams across the top of our asphalt just fine, into the front lawn then across the secondary asphalt driveway (to the walkout basement) to a willow tree at the bottom of our property.

In the almost 3 years we've been here I've seen no degradation of our driveways. Why "fix" what's not broken?

Many sealants are quite toxic, carcinogenic in some cases...bad for your health, as well as for the environment. Read on....
http://invw.org/2012/02/17/toxic-asphalt-sealants-threaten-kids-cause-air-pollution-four-new-studies-find/

There will be far more harm from trucks and vans than anything else (except water) on typically thin asphalt driveways. Moving trucks caused a severe problem, but even U Haul, UPS, trade vans and trucks, and Fed Ex vans hurt. Should you be a backyard mechanic be sure that some substantial sheet lumber is under your jack and jack stands. Remember also that any fuel spillage will start a hole in asphalt in minutes. "Dead" weight (especially in hot months) causes small depressions and cracks that often cause water to pool, which compounds the deterioration. In PA owing to normal freeze/thaw the tear out and redo cycle is about ten years, but with a little vigilance that can almost be doubled.. Makeshift spot repairs make a driveway look like a giraffe's neck and are not a permanent solution.. Make no mistake, coated or not, asphalt will gradually dry out, break down, return to pebble state, and have to be replaced, not covered over with tar.

I have concrete d/w, but our commercial landlord reseals our parking lot about every 5 yrs., and our city our street about every 10. Of course, these surfaces get more traffic & load than does typical d/w.

Our experience has been a waste of money, both times. Promised great, long lasting results. It is the equivalent to painting your house with tempra paint. Fool me twice...

I have to disagree with those who say sealing a driveway is a waste of money. Asphalt crumbles because the oil in it dries out which is why our roads are in Pittsburgh are in need of repair.

There are two basic types of asphalt driveway sealers. The first and usual type are the water based sealers. Most homeowners purchase this of sealer from the local home repair center. These sealers coat over the top of the asphalt claiming to keep out the water. That's great but at the same time, they don't help the asphalt that is breaking down because they seal it off. The second type of sealers are the oil based sealers which re-condition the asphalt by adding oil to the asphalt giving it additional life.

Many states don't allow the oil based sealers. In my state of Pennsylvania oil based sealers are permitted. I did extensive research on which type to use and the consensus is divided. But when I learned that all asphalt has oil in it, which is like a glue that holds it all together, it made sense to use an oil based sealer which doesn't really seal the asphalt but reconditions it.

The final proof was when my driveway was cracking and crumbling and I re-conditioned it with an oil base sealer. It not only came out looking new but a year later the driveway isn't cracking and losing pieces anymore. I saved my driveway from further decay by replacing the oil that had dried out.

I hope this helps. If you're interested here's a link to our very first video of me showing and explaining the steps necessary for a successful job.

Driveway Sealing Video (10 minutes)

If you do need to reseal never use a coal tar based sealant. It releases harmful chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) during rain storms. Some localities have banned the use of coal tar sealants. Abrasion of the surface coat can also release the PAH in dust and particles that you can track into the house. Just google coal tar sealants to see the research on this.

In our climate in Canada the salt from the streets in the winter are atrocious on concrete. The driveway needs to be done every year.

Until we got a new driveway, didn't do it. New driveway last October, sealed in November--good for 6 yrs. min. That's when it needs to be done again.

Drive way was 45 years old, had in asphalt this year,it should last 45 move years.

1958Metro, "wet look" sealer was applied to our entire patio and driveway by the previous owner. It ruined our concrete. Moisture weeps under the sealer lifting it and flaking it, trapping efflorescence under the bits that don't flake away. It also caused spalling where the coating took the surface concrete with it. The patio looks like it has a disease. You can't walk on it barefoot anymore. It will be a major yard re-landscape to fix. The driveway is going to bring an HOA warning soon.

nice

nice

Ouch....that sounds terrible. Ours is great. We did and do our own.

Since there is little else more ugly than a blacktop driveway, wouldn't it be great if someone came up with alternative colors?

do you ever see them doing our highways? not needed, but paint always looks better when new.

FYI: Driveways are concrete or asphalt. "Cement" is a powdery ingredient in concrete.

We have a large flock of sheep...and our gravel driveway is 1/2 mile long. It's rock and we've found a way to prevent gravel runoff. I fleece and rerock about every 5 or 6 years. Actually, i do a section each year which takes 5-6 years to get all the way down the drive. Then i start all over again. First a layer of rock, followed immediately by a layer of fleeces. Drive a dump truck over about 10 times. Add another layer of rock....and, in the case of this slope, another layer of fleece along each edge. So it's rock, fleece....roll, rock, fleece edges. It would keep a flat drive until the gravel crushes to powder. (10 or 15 yrs) and keep a slope about 8 if you're not too picky. (which i am, so i redo in 5 or 6)

NO SHEEP WERE HARMED!! Shearing the fleece off a sheep in the late Spring allows them comfort during the hot summer! So...first a layer of rock, then solid layer of fleece across the whole width of the drive...then drive over it about a week, then more rock. Sometimes, on the worst inclined stretch i will add a second layer of fleece just along both edges after the second layer of rock. I tell you what...>>>this makes a country driveway in great condition for years! (and i made it up... all by my crazy self ;-)

That's amazing, eightpond! You should patent it!

Reseal the driveway every 3rd year in Michigan

Eightpond, that's ingenious. That's the old school way of using what you have. Do you have any wool left over to sell after that?

We shear late May and early November. The Spring fleeces are felted. Good for saddle pads, bath mats, truck seats, tractor seats, dog beds and ....driveways!! Fall fleeces are good for spinning.

Eightpond, that's interesting. I didn't realize that summer fleece was finer. I assumed they just grew slower. Very cool.

My parents' house in central Connecticut- the driveway was ripped up in 1986 when I was 14 and completely replaced anew...30 years later it is still almost brand new condition I'm not exaggerating. The original driveway was horribly lumpy. When it was redone my father hired the most reputable company for the job at the 1986 price of 10,000, not sure what that would be in today's $. He wanted it built to highway standards. It is perfectly level and graded to drain water. One slight depression has formed in one spot all these years later, otherwise no puddles. We seal coated the driveway ourselves with airport grade asphalt sealant the following year and every year thereafter for the first 10 years my father would reseal it. Then every other year over a ten year period now every so many years. Now that he's almost 80 and has age related troubles who knows but it has weathered time excellently because it was done right in the first place and cared for properly. My house I have a crushed white marble stone driveway and don't get taxed like if I had asphalt. It has its own maintenance requirements

My husband has a guy seal the driveway every couple of years. Frankly, I can think of a lot better ways to spend $125!!

Sealants are known carcinogenics. People don't realize they are exposing their pets , children, and neighbors to cancer causing chemicals!!! As a cancer survivor...I wish everyone would stop using them!

Quick point to clear up the confusion... The ones who claim sealing is pointless and unnecessary likely live in warmer climates, and I would agree in those cases. However, if you're in the north, the problem is surface frost damage due to cyclical freeze/thaw expansion/contraction of moisture permeated within the fine pores along the surface. This damage causes the surface to break up, a process commonly known as "spalling". Sealant prevents, or at least greatly reduces, surface permeability and thus prevents surface shear and tensile cracking due to cyclical frost. So... if you have winters, you should seal to prevent or reduce driveway cracking. If you don't, then I agree that it's not very beneficial.