What are you doing right now?

[drjeff]

Have you resealed your driveway before? How much effort does that project take?

Yup, this will be my 3rd resealing in the 9+ years I've owned my house (original asphalt is 27 years old) - the 1st time I did it was a big chore as the driveway hadn't been sealed in a LONG time - lots of pre sealing prep work, and the asphalt just soaked up the sealer like a sponge - took me just under 12 buckets of sealer (my driveway is about 200 feet from my garage to the street - about 2/3rds is single car width and 1/3rd about 3 car widths wide) and most of a Saturday to get the job done. 2nd time around, much less prep work, "only" 8 buckets of sealer and about 3 1/2 hours of work.

I've got 9 buckets of Latex-ite Ultimum sealer sitting in my shed ready to go (I'd rather have to return a bucket than make a trip to Home Depot with about 10 feet of driveway to go ) And based on the forcast, *if* my day tommorrow shapes up like it appears it may, I'm going to seal tommorrow, so if the fringe effects of Earl are in my area Friday it won't matter!

 

[o3jeff]

What are you using to fill in the cracks, I know they sell those expensive little buckets of filler but i'd probably need a pallet of it since I think mine is probably too far gone! Just wondering if there is something else out there.

 

[wa-loaf]

What are you using to fill in the cracks, I know they sell those expensive little buckets of filler but i'd probably need a pallet of it since I think mine is probably too far gone! Just wondering if there is something else out there.

 

[wa-loaf]

I'm wondering if the Meatheads DVD I ordered will ship on Sept 1st?

 

[severine]

Getting ready for my daughter's 1st day of Kindergarten. Then I need to do homework...

 

[drjeff]

What are you using to fill in the cracks, I know they sell those expensive little buckets of filler but i'd probably need a pallet of it since I think mine is probably too far gone! Just wondering if there is something else out there.

I've tried a bunch of stuff over the years at the homes I've lived in, but what I've found that works the best over time is those buckets of patch. Just scoop some out with a trowel and spread smooth. Holds up much better long term IMHO than the liquid crack fillers where you just squirt it right out of the glorified gallon jug into the crack - that product tends to be too liquidity IMHO, and for larger cracks (more than say 1/2" or deeper ones i've found that it tends to wash out over the course of the 1st winter/spring seasons) For larger/deeper cracks (not big enough to warrant some actual asphalt patching) or if I'm working around an area where do to a tree root/something else that caused an elevation in the asphlat in addition to the crack, I've used in the past with a good amount of success a product from latexite called pli-stix. It's basically a 1/2" diameter flexible rope of asphalt that you first cut + bend to fit the crack and then heat it with a hand held propane torch to melt the rope and fill the crack - really durable, but also takes a bunch more time than the trowel patch to place.

I've realized that with my driveway, this is likely the last time that I'm sealing it in it's current form, as it's heading on 30 years old and there are getting to be more and more portions where the amount of repair work needed and/or the longterm performance of the repair materials isn't that good and I'm likely looking at getting my driveway repaved in the next few years, as a bunch of my neighbors that didn't do as much driveway maintence over the years have, in the last couple of years - the vast majority of the roughly 40 homes in the development I live in were all built within the same 5 year period in the early 80's

 

[bvibert]

Is it just me or are they paving right over the top of the grass?

The house we're living in is in serious need of having the whole driveway replaced. No amount of patch or sealer could come close to helping it now...

 

[drjeff]

Is it just me or are they paving right over the top of the grass?

...

I was thinking the same thing when I saw that picture! And if those guys didn't "alter course" slighty to the left real soon, my guess is that mailbox about 100 feet ahead was going to loose the battle with that dump truck/paver! :lol:

 

[RootDKJ]

Yup, this will be my 3rd resealing in the 9+ years I've owned my house (original asphalt is 27 years old) - the 1st time I did it was a big chore as the driveway hadn't been sealed in a LONG time - lots of pre sealing prep work, and the asphalt just soaked up the sealer like a sponge - took me just under 12 buckets of sealer (my driveway is about 200 feet from my garage to the street - about 2/3rds is single car width and 1/3rd about 3 car widths wide) and most of a Saturday to get the job done. 2nd time around, much less prep work, "only" 8 buckets of sealer and about 3 1/2 hours of work.

I've got 9 buckets of Latex-ite Ultimum sealer sitting in my shed ready to go (I'd rather have to return a bucket than make a trip to Home Depot with about 10 feet of driveway to go ) And based on the forcast, *if* my day tommorrow shapes up like it appears it may, I'm going to seal tommorrow, so if the fringe effects of Earl are in my area Friday it won't matter!

I really need to do this. I have no idea when the last time my driveway has been sealed.

 

[wa-loaf]

The house we're living in is in serious need of having the whole driveway replaced. No amount of patch or sealer could come close to helping it now...

My driveway is concrete and cracked all to hell. It's not big, but will still set me back about $2k to do, so I'm putting it off for now.

 

[wa-loaf]

Is it just me or are they paving right over the top of the grass?

I guess they do things differently in Oklahoma.

 

[drjeff]

I really need to do this. I have no idea when the last time my driveway has been sealed.

It does make a difference. Not to push their products, but atleast through their website, Latexite (latexite.com) has some good info from "how too" to a # of buckets of sealer needed calulator, etc.

Pretty much though if you can dump some sealer out of a bucket, and then drag a squeegee along, you'll have no problems - just like most things though, the most important thing is very often the prep work

 

[bvibert]

My driveway is concrete and cracked all to hell. It's not big, but will still set me back about $2k to do, so I'm putting it off for now.

In addition to being cracked to hell and falling apart (the kids like to play with the chunks of asphalt as they come up) the section that runs by the house is rutted up big time from years of cars driving over it. My car bottoms out on it almost every day. It's a fairly big driveway that's tight in spots, I bet it would be pretty costly to replace. Luckily we rent so I don't have to foot the bill, but on the other hand I doubt our landlord will ever do anything about it anyway...

 

[severine]

Waiting for the school bus....

 

[hammer]

It does make a difference. Not to push their products, but atleast through their website, Latexite (latexite.com) has some good info from "how too" to a # of buckets of sealer needed calulator, etc.

Pretty much though if you can dump some sealer out of a bucket, and then drag a squeegee along, you'll have no problems - just like most things though, the most important thing is very often the prep work

Never put sealer on for the 15 years I've had my house...driveway looks OK. Read somewhere that the sealer is primarily cosmetic...sure there are arguments either way.

And I hear you on the prep work...trying to do some minor paint touch up on a wall (had new stairs installed and the rails moved) and the underlying patch job wasn't entirely smooth, so it's back to step 1.

 

[drjeff]

Never put sealer on for the 15 years I've had my house...driveway looks OK. Read somewhere that the sealer is primarily cosmetic...sure there are arguments either way.

And I hear you on the prep work...trying to do some minor paint touch up on a wall (had new stairs installed and the rails moved) and the underlying patch job wasn't entirely smooth, so it's back to step 1.

The main thing that driveway sealer does, is to prevent, and in some cases hopefully succesfully repair, any cracks in the pavement that can lead to water seepage which can undermine the base that the asphalt sits on, thus further enlarging the cracks and potentially causing pieces of the asphalt to come up. If those cracks happen to be in an area where you have either a high traffic volume (for a driveway right where the tires drive over all the time) or where you get natural water runoff, then the chances of a shortened lifespan of your driveway increase - atleast that what one of my patients who owns a paving company told me a couple of years ago

Me personally, I just like spending a few hours every couple of years smelling fresh driveway sealer

 

[Glenn]

For cracks, I use Pli-Stix. You can get them at the Depot or other places I'm sure. I've filled some good sized cracks and this stuff just hold up really well. I use an old set of pruners to cut it and an old screw driver to push the stuff down when needed.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Swimming off the dock again today man its 95 but the breeze here on the River is awesome . Did some kayaking earlier 'nother primo day on the water

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

still in 'margaritaville'....post jimmy concert last night at Jones Beach...the blender was fired up and poured copious amounts of blended concoctions to friends and strangers...great tailgating and show....moving slow this morning.....

 

[gmcunni]

i just moved my home office from my office to my bedroom where i have air conditioning.