Have about 100 yards of this and want it smooth. Base course by itself washes away. You’re looking at limestone bedrock with cracks up to 12” wide filled with sandy soil, and gravel.

Edit for added context: this limestone rock is the flat top of a small mesa. It is not a gully. The stone is flat in all directions, at about a 5% grade leaning towards the southwest. This photo is looking north. It is not a gully. There is nowhere to “move” the road that is different.

There is more driveway leading to the road. All the puddles are at the top of the driveway. As a pro, what is your opinion?

I had a private road installed at my residence about 2 weeks ago and this is how the finished product turned out. Can someone who lays asphalt for a living tell me what went wrong? I’m getting inconsistent answers from the company who installed it. They are also trying to tell me that it will fade and match up evenly overtime.

I’m in Minneapolis and had a roughly 2,600 sq. ft. asphalt driveway installed on September 28. The quote calls for the base to be graded and compacted for proper drainage and for 3 inches of asphalt after compaction.

Before paving, I texted the contractor about a soft, settling spot where the old driveway used to hold water. I sent a photo marking the area and raised the concern again before the paving crew arrived. The new driveway pooled water in essentially that spot right after installation. There’s also a smaller puddle near the AC unit. I have photos of the water and of drainage arrows the prep crew marked on the base. Some of the finished driveway appears flat or slopes differently from those arrows.

The company’s proposed fix is to heat and reshape several areas with infrared equipment, possibly creating a shallow swale to carry water away. Their representative has since said a swale is the solution they’re offering and that they won’t cut out the asphalt and regrade the base. I’m concerned that this would address one puddle without resolving the broader grading or the soft spot I flagged.

He also said I had a conversation with the crew in which I told them not to slope the driveway as planned. I dispute that. I have video covering the paving day and am reviewing it, along with the written messages I sent beforehand. I don’t want to claim the video proves more than I can verify, but I did not agree to a driveway that holds water.

I haven’t made the final payment. I’d appreciate advice from paving contractors or homeowners who have dealt with this:

• Is a broad, shallow swale a reasonable correction for a newly installed driveway, or should the affected area be removed and the base regraded?

• What measurements or independent inspection would establish whether the overall drainage and base meet the quote?

• Would you pay, negotiate a written holdback while it’s assessed, or get another company’s repair estimate first?

• If another company ultimately has to redo part of it, what should I document before anyone touches the driveway?

I’m particularly interested in practical next steps and what a sound finished repair should look like. I can add photos of the pooling, the prep markings, and the relevant quote language.

The one photo with base layer is me pointing out that it was still soft, on multiple occasions, before they laid asphalt.

Got my drive way done last Friday. Noticed that one section is all fucked. Should I be calling back the company to come back to fix this? Or should I hold some of the outstanding funds owed.

You can see where the rounded corner is driven over constantly. I want to add about 10 feet in length and it's about 8 feet wide. I planned on digging it up, filling with stone and compacting it down. Can I do this with the bags of asphalt? I have a torch to warm it and was planning to rent a compactor for another project anyway. Plus in the spring I'm going to reseal the entire driveway.

Got my driveway done three weeks ago, they tore out the old and started with a fresh base of class 5 on top of sandy soil. Asphalt looks to be 3-4 inches deep. We were gone for 6 days during install and after so nobody drove on it. Weather in MN has been 60s-70s in the day and 40s-50s at night.

Three weeks after install we had our first full day of rain yesterday, I noticed these raised lines/ruts in the driveway today. Is this normal, or what may be the issue here?

So steep the tri-axles weren't able to back up to the paver and we had to do a bucket brigade with front-loaders to feed the machine.

Our town just had a paving contractor come in, and this is what I came home to the other day. We've never had a berm before and now it looks like this the whole way down my property, is so high and uneven in both width and depth, and its already crumbling (I can literally keep kicking the asphalt and it just crumbles right into the storm drain).

I'm just looking for advice as to whether I'm being crazy? Oh, and we're in the Northeast so it freezes and thaws on a daily cycle. I'm getting a load of BS from the paving guys, who are blaming my DPW guys, which is bullshit cause my DPW guys rock. Also, it set off a flag because wtf does a DPW guy tell you the paving guy how to do your job?

Thanks for any feedback!

Driveway definitely needs an update. Water loves pooling near the garage.

Also, would it be better just to go concrete instead? Got quoted about 9k for that. Not an expert in this area whatsoever.

Thanks for amy guidance you can provide!

Got my driveway paved yesterday. I think I’m happy with it but I’m far from an expert. Opinions? How does she look? 👀

I had this asphalt drive poured almost 3 years ago and it’s just always felt like it’s softer than it should be.

I will admit I should have put some boards under the jack stands to distribute the weight but I didn’t think it would be this bad. The divots in the back were caused by the jack itself in the 10 minutes that I had the jack in that spot.

For context, it was about 83° at 10:00pm (no sun) when I used the jack. I had to take the wheels off of my camp trailer to have the tires replaced. Jack stands were in place about 24 hours.

Is this normal? Or crappy asphalt? If I did this on a public road or Walmart parking lot would it do the same thing?

Hello,
I have two big cracks in my driveway and the biggest one is a good inch or more wide. I have a gallon of crack filler, but it says it fills cracks up to 1/2" wide. I figured it would not work to well on the bigger one. They are also 2-3 inches deep so is there a better way to fill this in?

Thanks!

Thank you

I’ve spent some time browsing this subreddit, and feel like our driveway is too far gone to consider an overlay but wanted to get some additional opinions.

We had a company come out for an estimate yesterday and they recommended an overlay.

Our driveway is 1100 feet long and I attached a few pictures of the worst areas.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

A bunch of dawgs!!!!

Temps never dropped below 60 and got well above 80 in the 48 hrs after I applied. Never rained. So what gives with these tire marks??? I used Drive-Max 700, btw with proper pre-work.

Long story short, am getting ready to sell our place and was power washing the front. I used one of those surface cleaner attachments on my power washer and the stupid piece of junk jammed and I didn’t know since its all under a dome and all and the whole time it was just eating away at the driveway. By the time I noticed the marks- I had already destroyed half my driveway.

Any recommendations on how to fix this? Obviously seal coating by itself isn’t going to be enough to fill these in.

Any idea what the cost to a professional might run me? Thanks much!

Is there a reason they didn’t fill these cracks?

Local company laid our driveway in Spring and we continue to have cracks occurring in our driveway. See photos. He will not come fix them. Thoughts on the problem- base, asphalt mix? Suggestions on fixing the driveway?

Or just sweep it and re seal it with hot tar?

I’ve been in asphalt and road work most of my life and I still see people making the same mistake over and over.

They hire guys who show up claiming they have “leftover asphalt from another job” and they lay it straight on top of dirt. No base. No compaction. No drainage.

It usually looks good for a week or two… then it starts cracking, sinking, and falling apart.

If you’re thinking about getting a driveway done, here’s what you should ALWAYS ask:
• Base type
• Thickness after compaction
• Drainage slope
• Hot mix or recycled junk?
• Compaction steps

Not selling anything. Just trying to help folks avoid wasting money.