Sealcoating is easy to sell and easy to do badly, and the difference does not show for a year. These are the questions that tell you which one you are buying, and what a straight answer to each sounds like.
Every sealer has a dilution ratio set by the manufacturer. Adding water past it makes the drum go further, makes the driveway look black on the day, and takes years off the coat. You cannot see the difference in the first week and you can see it clearly by the second spring.
A good answer names the product and gives you a ratio. An answer that gets vague at the word water is the answer.
One properly applied coat on a residential driveway is normal and it is what most quotes assume. Two coats cost more material and more time, and some quotes advertise two while pricing one. The number matters less than the quote matching what gets done.
A good answer states the number of coats and puts it in writing next to the price.
This is where surprise invoices come from. Sealer is not a filler, so the cracks get filled first or they come back through the new coat within weeks. Some companies include the crack work, some charge it by the linear foot on top, and both are fine as long as you are told before the job.
A good answer tells you which it is and roughly how many feet of cracking your driveway has. Ours is included in the price we quote.
A price for a driveway is a price per square foot times the area, with the condition of the surface and the amount of hand work factored in. Anyone quoting without knowing the size is guessing, and a guess is either padded or is about to become a change order.
A good answer includes your square footage. If a contractor cannot tell you the size of the thing he is pricing, he cannot tell you why the price is the price.
Sealer needs a dry window to cure. Rain too early takes the coat off in patches. The question is not whether they can control the weather, it is whether they will move the day rather than push on to keep the schedule.
A good answer is that they watch the forecast, they will move the day for free, and that the price does not change when they do.
Usually 24 to 48 hours, longer in shade or humidity. The useful part of this question is whether you are told before the day, because two cars need somewhere to be that night.
A good answer comes with a warning about turning the wheel while stopped in the first week of hot weather, which is what causes scuff marks in a new coat.
Sealer splashes, and it does not come off a garage door, a car panel or siding easily. Plenty of one truck operators carry no cover at all, which is worth knowing before somebody is spraying next to your house rather than after. This is a fair question to ask anybody, and the answer is a yes or a no, not a speech.
A good answer is a yes and an offer to send the certificate.
Coats fail for reasons that are somebody's fault and reasons that are nobody's. A coat that peels because it went down on a dirty surface, went down too thin, or was released to traffic too early is the contractor's to redo. A driveway that cracks again in a new place over a winter is the asphalt moving, and no sealer prevents that.
A good answer draws that line out loud before the job rather than after, and does not promise that sealing stops cracks appearing. Anyone who tells you their coat will keep the driveway crack free is selling you something asphalt does not do.
A quote conversation that only runs one way is a warning of its own. Before the day they should be telling you to move both cars off, to keep pets and children off the surface until it is cured, that the basketball hoop and the trailer need to be somewhere else, and roughly what time the crew will arrive.
If you have a gate, a shared drive with a neighbour, or a delivery expected that day, say so when you get the quote rather than on the morning. Almost every job that goes badly goes badly because one of those turned up as a surprise.
Everything above is worth asking us too. If you want to know what the answers cost, the price page shows how we work it out, and the downsides page covers the times we would tell you not to bother this year.
