Warren County sits between Dayton and Cincinnati and straddles both interstates. I-75 runs up the west side through Springboro and Franklin, I-71 cuts through the middle past Mason and Lebanon, and the Little Miami River winds down between them. We sealed a driveway in Oregonia on 11 September, and the step by step photos of that job are on the projects page.
Mason, Lebanon, Springboro, Franklin, Carlisle, Waynesville, Morrow, South Lebanon, Maineville, Harveysburg, Oregonia, Deerfield Township, Hamilton Township and Clearcreek Township. A few places sit across county lines: most of Springboro is in Warren with a piece in Montgomery, Loveland reaches in from Hamilton and Clermont, and Middletown's east side is in Warren while most of the city is covered on the Butler County page.
The west of the county, around Franklin and Carlisle, is Great Miami valley: flat, open and quick to build on. The middle and east are different. The Little Miami has cut a deep, wooded valley through the county, deep enough that Fort Ancient, near Oregonia, sits on a hilltop high above the river. Caesar Creek Lake fills another valley in the north east.
That matters for a driveway because the valley side of the county has slope. A drive that climbs from a township road to a house on the ridge moves water fast, which is good, but it moves it down the surface and along the edges, and where it runs it scours. The places to look are the bottom of the drive, where runoff from the whole length arrives at once, and any bend where the water leaves the asphalt and cuts into the shoulder.
Warren has been one of the fastest growing counties in Ohio for years, and Mason, Deerfield Township, Hamilton Township and Springboro are full of neighbourhoods where every house went up in the last few decades. Young driveways raise questions older ones do not.
When to seal it the first time. Not in the first six to twelve months, while the fresh asphalt is still giving off oils and hardening. After that, the earlier the better, because a first coat on a tight surface with almost no cracks is the cheapest coat the driveway will ever get.
The dip by the garage. On a new house the ground dug out for the foundation and the utility lines is filled back in, and filled ground keeps settling for a few years. On a drive that shows as a shallow dip near the garage or a line sinking across the drive where a trench ran. That is movement in the ground under the asphalt, not wear on its surface. Sealing makes it look better and fixes nothing; if it is still moving, it is a patch once it has finished.
The apron, curb and public sidewalk are right-of-way, and a city permit covers any work on them. The two cities here whose rules we have read in full:
Sealing a driveway that stays behind the sidewalk is not something Mason or Springboro list as permit work.
Yes. The Oregonia drive on 11 September is on the projects page with photos.
Very likely. Past a year, a drive that has gone from jet black to charcoal and lets water soak in rather than bead is ready for its first coat.
Usually a utility trench settling under the asphalt. It gets patched once it has stopped sinking; sealing over it only hides it.
The broken area can be cut out and rebuilt, and the quote will say where the water is coming from, because without dealing with that the new edge goes the same way.
North of here: Montgomery County and Greene County. South: Hamilton County.
