New asphalt driveways, overlays, aprons and full tear-out and replace, across Greater Dayton and Greater Cincinnati. Sealing looks after a surface that is still sound. When a driveway has gone past that point, it needs new asphalt, and this page covers how that decision gets made, what a paving job involves, and what moves the price.
Four different jobs, and the honest answer depends on what is happening underneath the surface, not on how the top looks.
An asphalt driveway is two things: a compacted stone base that carries the weight, and the asphalt surface on top that keeps the water out. Almost every driveway that fails early fails from the bottom. Water gets into the base, freezes, lifts it, and the surface breaks along the lines where it was pushed.
That is why the quote for a replacement is mostly about the ground work. How deep the old material comes out, whether soft spots in the subgrade get dug out and filled with stone, how thick the base goes back and how well it is compacted, and which way the finished surface sheds water. A drive that pitches water toward the garage or leaves it sitting in the middle will not last however good the asphalt is.
In the Miami Valley the freeze and thaw cycle is what does the damage, so drainage and compaction matter more here than the brand of asphalt.
The apron, the stretch between the sidewalk and the road, usually sits in the city's right-of-way rather than on your property. Most cities around Dayton and Cincinnati want a permit before anyone replaces it or changes a curb cut, and several of them require the contractor doing the work to be registered or bonded with the city first.
That is handled as part of the job, and the quote says who pulls the permit and whether the fee is included. If a company offers to replace an apron and nobody has mentioned a permit, ask. An apron redone without one can end up being torn out again at the owner's cost.
Paving is quoted per job after the drive is measured and the base has been looked at, because two driveways of the same size can be very different amounts of work.
You get one written price, with the scope spelled out: what comes out, what goes back in, how thick, and what happens at the apron.
Hot asphalt needs warm ground and warm air to compact properly, and local asphalt plants cut back or close for the winter. In practice paving runs from spring into late fall, and the last weeks of the season book up first.
New asphalt should not be sealed straight away. It needs time for the oils in the mix to work out and the surface to harden, and most manufacturers put that at six to twelve months. The right plan for a new driveway is paving this year and a first coat of sealer the following season, which is how it lasts for decades rather than years.
The same questions apply to a lot, at a larger scale: which areas need rebuilding, which can be overlaid, and which only need patching and a seal. A lot rarely needs all of it at once, and the cheapest plan is usually to rebuild the worst sections, patch the rest, and seal and restripe the whole lot together. Parking lot sealcoating and striping covers how commercial work is phased around a business that stays open.
Send the address through the form with a line saying you are asking about paving. The drive gets measured and looked at, you are told honestly whether it needs paving at all or whether a patch and a seal will do, and if it does need paving you get a written scope and one price. The paving itself is done by a local independent paving contractor.
