If you've noticed a shallow depression in your asphalt driveway, it's important to fill it as soon as possible. Rain will collect in it, and standing water will cause damage to the asphalt. Filling the depression will allow your driveway to drain normally again, protecting it from being damaged. You can fill the depression yourself for a temporary fix, but you'll need to hire a professional asphalt paving service for a durable repair. To learn more about what causes depressions to form in asphalt driveways and how you can repair them, read on.
What Causes Depressions in an Asphalt Driveway?
Depressions in an asphalt driveway are typically caused by parking a heavy vehicle on the driveway for a long period of time. If you store a boat or an RV on your driveway, for example, a depression can form underneath the trailer tongue jack that you use to tow it. Depressions can also form underneath an RV's wheels. Depressions are more likely to occur when the asphalt hasn't had the chance to fully cure, as uncured asphalt is softer and more pliable. If you're parking a heavy vehicle on your driveway for an extended period, it's a good idea to put plywood beneath the wheels and the trailer jack to stop the weight from pushing depressions into the surface.
How Can You Temporarily Fill Depressions in an Asphalt Driveway Yourself?
Temporarily filling the depressions in your driveway helps protect the asphalt by preventing water from pooling in them. You'll need to purchase tack coat and cold-mix asphalt from a home improvement store to fill them. Wear old clothing that you wouldn't mind throwing away when you're filling the depressions, as tack coat or asphalt that gets on your clothes won't come off when you do laundry.
To fill a depression, you start by applying the tack coat to it. This helps the cold-mix asphalt adhere to the surface of the driveway. Afterward, put a thin layer of cold-mix asphalt into the depression and tamp it down using a plank of wood. Keep putting layers of cold-mix asphalt into the depression and tamping them down until you've filled it and created an even surface. The even surface will prevent water from pooling in the depression.
How Do You Permanently Fix Depressions in an Asphalt Driveway?
If you want to repair the depression in your driveway permanently, you'll need to hire an asphalt paving service. Cold-mix asphalt doesn't bond very well to existing asphalt, so your temporary repair is likely to crack at some point when you drive over it. An asphalt paving service will use a diamond saw to cut out the entire patched area, and then they'll fill it with hot-mix asphalt.
Hot-mix asphalt bonds to an existing asphalt surface much better than the cold-mix asphalt you can purchase yourself. In addition, cutting a deep hole into your driveway around the depression gives the hot-mix asphalt more surface area to bind to. This makes the repair last much longer than temporarily filling the depression on your own.
Overall, whether you do it yourself or hire a professional asphalt paving service, you need to fill depressions in your asphalt driveway as soon as possible to prevent water from causing damage to the asphalt. You can use cold-mix asphalt as a temporary fix, but you'll need to hire a pro if you want a repair that's as durable as the rest of your driveway.
Contact an asphalt paving service to learn more.
