That small crack in your driveway is not going to fix itself. If you live in Atlanta, Georgia, you already know our red clay and wild weather cycles love to turn small problems into full-blown craters. When water gets under your pavement and freezes, or when summer heat bakes it day after day, things start breaking down fast. Majestic Asphalt Company has been fixing pavement all over Atlanta, Georgia for years, and the biggest mistake we see is people throwing a bag of cold patch into a hole, packing it down with a car tire, and calling it a day. That does not work.
Spotting the Warning Signs Before Failure
Homeowners in Atlanta, Georgia need to keep an eye on their pavement before it completely falls apart. Alligator cracking, where the surface looks like a turtle shell or a dried-up mud puddle, means the base underneath has failed. If you see depressions holding standing water after a heavy afternoon summer storm in Buckhead or Decatur, your sub-base is washing away. Granules piling up at the edge of your drive or loose chunks breaking off around your garage apron are clear red flags that patching time has arrived for your Asphalt Contractor needs in Atlanta, Georgia.
How to Make Your Asphalt Patches Actually Last
Proper preparation is important when you are patching asphalt. If you skip cleaning out the debris, moisture, and old loose aggregate, your new patch will not bond. You have to cut back the edges of the hole to solid, stable pavement so you have a clean vertical wall for the new material to push against. Majestic Asphalt Company always makes sure the base is compacted properly before any hot mix goes down. Throwing material into a muddy hole is just throwing your money away on Asphalt Repair in Atlanta, Georgia.
Keeping Up With Regular Maintenance
Once you get your patches squared away, you have to protect the rest of the surface. Sealcoating every few years keeps the brutal Georgia sun from drying out the liquid asphalt binders that hold your aggregate together. Keep heavy delivery trucks off your residential driveway, especially right after a heavy rain when the clay soil underneath is soft and spongy. Pull weeds that sprout up in the edges because their roots will tear up the sub-base faster than you think.
When It's Time to Call a Professional
You can handle a tiny localized divot with a shovel and a tamper if you really want to, but larger failures require commercial equipment and hot-mix asphalt that you just cannot get at the hardware store. If your driveway is more patches than original pavement, or if you are seeing massive structural sinking near your foundation, give us a call at Majestic Asphalt Company. Majestic Asphalt Company will come out, look at the drainage issues causing your headaches, and give you a straight answer on whether a targeted patch job will save you or if it is time to mill and repave your Asphalt in Atlanta, Georgia.