How To Seal An Asphalt Driveway

Sealing Asphalt Driveways

Sealing your asphalt driveway is an important maintenance step that’s needed to prolong the life and keep it looking like new. Asphalt driveways are a simple yet effective mixture of asphalt, stone and sand. When properly maintained an asphalt driveway can last 15 to 20 years. Maintenance of asphalt driveways consists of filling asphalt pavement cracks and sealing your driveway.

Sealing your driveway helps protect it in several ways including:

• Protecting asphalt from harmful UV rays from the sun. Ultra Violet rays from the sun can break down asphalt over time causing it to lose strength and become brittle.
• Sealers help prevent water from entering the surface of asphalt pavement. As a driveway ages is develops small cracks and loose surface aggregate which allows water to penetrate it’s surface. In the winter months the water can freeze causing further cracking and deterioration of the pavement.
• Protect your driveway from damaging oil and gas spills. Oil and gas can damage your asphalt driveway leaving stains, holes and soft spots.

It’s very important to note that new driveways should not be sealed. An asphalt driveway should be a minimum of 6 months old prior to sealing. This is important as new driveways have too much oil on the surface which will result in the sealer not bonding properly.

Sealing your driveway is an easy DIY project that can be tackled over a weekend. Below are all the steps you need in order to seal your driveway and keep it looking and performing like new.

Clean Surface Of Driveway

The first step in successfully sealing your driveway is thoroughly cleaning the surface from sand, debris and oil stains. The surface of asphalt driveways is quite porous and able to hold a significant amount of sand, dust, debris and oils. Before sealing the driveway you must remove all of those contaminants.

I recommend using a 3 step process including:

1. Clean any oil / grease / gas stains with an approved asphalt driveway oil remover. Most hardware stores and big box stores sell these products. Be sure to follow the manufactures recommended application.
2. Blow off a majority of the debris with a leaf blower. I’ve found that using a gas powered leaf blower significantly improves how well you can clean the driveway.
3. Rinse off the driveway with a hose and nozzle or a pressure washer set on a low pressure. Be sure to allow the driveway to dry prior to beginning the sealing process (unless it’s a very hot day).

Calculate Amount of Sealer Required

Before you drive over to the local hardware store or big box store to purchase sealer be sure to calculate the area of your driveway. Driveway sealers list an average coverage on theso you’ll have to do some math in the store. I recommend that you get an additional 10% of product based on the average coverage that they list. The last thing you want is to run short at the very end.

For our driveway we’re going to be using Henry HE130 Asphalt Driveway Coating which says it will cover 400-500 sq. ft. for tightly compacted surfaces (our driveway is only a year old and it has a very tight surface). Our driveway is 3,500 sq. ft so we’ll assume an average coverage of 450 sq. ft. per bucket or 8 five gallon buckets. Just to be safe we purchased one additional bucket as back-up.

Properly Mix Sealer

The day before you seal the driveway place the buckets upside down. This will help mix the sealer and reduce the amount of stirring that’s required. Sealers contain a great deal of solids which settle to the bottom of the buckets so this simple step really helps out the mixing process.

Asphalt driveway sealer needs to be mixed very well before you apply it. Most products recommend stirring it with a stick until the liquid has a consistent viscosity.  I recommend mixing for a minimum of 2 to 3 minutes or longer if large clumps still exist.

Apply Driveway Sealer

One trick that I learned years ago was using a paint brush near garage doors, concrete slabs and walkways that you don’t want sealer on. Before you get going spreading the sealer with the squeegee get the edges along the doors finished first.

Once you’re ready to start sealing the driveway you’ll want to start at one end and work from side to side advancing along the length of the driveway. I’ve found that it works best if you pour about 1/3 of a 5 gallon bucket onto the pavement and work that amount until you need more.

As you can see above you’ll need to be careful when you pour the sealer onto the pavement. It’s fairly runny and will splatter and run quite a bit. Be sure to wear old shoes, old pants and preferably gloves (which I didn’t and now regret!). Once you’ve poured the sealer onto the pavement it’s time to start spreading it using a squeegee. Most home centers sell a combination squeegee and brush. One side has a brush and one side has a squeegee. The squeegee works great for spreading the sealer out while the brush is good for doing a final smoothing pass and along the edges. Below is a short video showing how I spread the sealer in motions from side to side.

As you can see in the video the squeegee makes quick order of spreading the sealer. I like to be sure that each pass overlaps the previous by about half the width of the tool. This helps ensure a good coverage and an even application.

Let The Sealer Cure

Once you’ve finished applying the driveway sealer you’ll want to keep cars off of it for at least 24 hours and preferably 48 hours. It’s also important that you apply the sealer when there’s no chance of rain for 48 hours. I think Fall or Spring is the best time to seal your driveway, I would recommend avoiding extreme heat as the sealer dries very fast making application difficult. If it is really hot most sealers recommend lightly wetting the driveway (no puddles) as it helps slow down the initial cure.

Save your empty buckets and line them up at the end of your driveway to keep  cars off. After about 4 hours the sealer will be dry enough to walk on. This particular driveway (3,500 sq. ft) took approximately 4 hours to seal, 2 hours to prep and $165 to seal which is less than five cents per square foot to seal. This asphalt driveway cost about $5,000 (base coat and finish coat) so a $165 investment every two or three years is short money compared to replacing the driveway.