Kettering went from farm township to city in under three years. Voters approved the Village of Kettering in November 1952, the western part split away in 1953 to become Moraine, and by 1955 the village had 38,118 residents, enough for the state to proclaim it a city that June. It kept growing to 54,462 people in 1960 and 69,599 in 1970. The town is named for the inventor Charles F. Kettering, who lived at Ridgeleigh Terrace until 1958. A Kettering driveway dated 19 September is on our projects page.
Exact sealcoating prices are on the instant price page; paving ranges are on the paving price page.
The Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 2024 five year estimates, gives Kettering a median year built of 1961, the oldest of the six towns on this site with their own page. Two thirds of homes, 67.3 percent, went up between 1940 and 1969, with the single biggest decade the 1950s at 31.5 percent. Only 1.1 percent were built in 2010 or later; the city is essentially full. About 69 percent of homes are single family detached, a further 10.3 percent are in buildings of three or four units, 64.9 percent are owner occupied, and the median value is $208,500.
Housing that age often means a driveway on its second, third or fourth surface. Drives of that era were commonly built one car wide. Where one has since been widened with a strip of newer asphalt along one side, the seam between old and new is where water gets in first.
An overlay adds roughly a couple of inches each time. Do that two or three times over sixty years and the drive ends up higher than it was built to be: a lip where it meets the garage floor, a step down onto the public sidewalk, and edges standing proud of the lawn where they crumble. At that point the choice is no longer overlay or nothing. It is whether to mill or cut back the high spots and overlay once more, or to take the whole thing out and start from the base.
Paving has a $2,500 minimum. As rough arithmetic on those ranges, a 10 by 50 foot single car drive is 500 square feet, which overlaid comes to $1,750 to $2,100, under the minimum; widened to 18 feet it is 900 square feet, which as a tear out runs $4,140 to $4,950. Those are not quotes. We call, then look at the base in person, then put a written number in front of you. Trace your drive for a paving range or read the paving guide first.
Kettering handles right-of-way work through its Engineering Department. From the city's construction permits page:
Kettering's page does not say anything about sealing or resurfacing a drive that stays on private property. Questions go to Engineering at 937-296-2436. Apron work only goes ahead with a paving contractor whose bond and insurance are on file with the city.
A widened Kettering drive is two ages of asphalt side by side, and the older strip grays faster. Sealing evens that out and the crack filling closes the seam between them, which is the real point of the job. It is priced per square foot with a $300 minimum and the crack filling inside it, and the exact number for your drive is on the instant price map.
Not without dealing with the lip. The asphalt near the garage gets cut back or milled so the new layer meets the slab flush, or the drive comes out and starts again from the base.
Short term, crack filling and sealing. For good, replacing the drive as one piece, so there is no seam to open.
It can be done, but a shared drive looks and wears best done as one job. Both owners need to agree either way, and the quote can be split between them.
Kettering is part of our Montgomery County area. Neighbors: Centerville to the south and Beavercreek to the east.
Price my sealcoating See my paving range
Sources: City of Kettering right-of-way construction permits; Kettering on Wikipedia; Census ACS 2024 5 year, tables B25035, B25034, B25003, B25024 and B25077, via Census Reporter.
