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izzie_gw

seal coat and gravel on driveway

izzie
13 years ago

I need to seal coat my asphalt driveway. I done it before but needs it again. A neighbor of my dads years ago would seal coat and then put on a small dark gray colored gravel stone/chips every few years. If seen this type of gravel available for landscaping purposes. It would stick to the surface. pretty much like the cities and counties do on the roads. He would do 1/2 of the driveway one day and do the other 1/2 soon after. His driveway always looked new. Is that all there is to it. Should I use more that the "normal" amount of asphalt sealer then spread some gravel on it. Would it make my driveway rough? It kind of is now anyway.

Has anybody done this? Any tips? Specific products used?

Comments (3)

  • maryland_irisman
    13 years ago

    izzie,

    What you describe sounds more like tar and chip.

    Your post makes for a lot of questions to be answered such as how old is the driveway, what type of weather conditions, have you ever seal coated it before, along with several other questions.

    What type of seal coating are you planning to use? There are several types.

    One of the biggest attacks on an asphalt driveway is sunlight and then chemical salts and acid rains. The next, depending where you live could be freeze/thaw movement, causing cracking. The sunlight and years of use will cause the asphalt and binders (small particles between the stone) to deteriorate and dislodge to the point they wash away. Then the larger stones become loose and start washing away or being pushed away during use.

    Many people use a sealer from the big box stores and local hardware stores which is a latex base. It's the equivalent of painting the driveway, in a way. The more the sealer costs, the better it usually is. That is because the more expensive sealers also include clay, which fills in the spaces and cracks and makes the asphalt appear smooth. Once you have used a latex based product, you should continue using it in future applications. The more expensive types have a 5 year warranty (or more) and the cheaper versions have a lesser warranty. There are also cheaper sealers which use an oil or, coal oil base. It does more for coloring than it does for sealing and has to be applied every year.

    My personal opinion is, to maintain asphalt, you need to do it with asphalt based products. I personally use an asphalt based product from a company named "Seal Master" (I wish I had stock in the company). You can get a better explanation of the products by visiting one of their web sites. A 5 gallon bucket is mixed with 10 gallons of water and it is a proprietary asphalt based product. It runs about 30 bucks for a 5 gallon container. Your particular driveway sounds like it needs the binder replaced. You merely mix a 5 gallons of the product with 5 gallons of water (50/50)for the initial application. With that, you mix sand and squeegee the slurry onto the driveway. This mixture fills in between the aggregate on your driveway, the asphalt base then binds with your driveway and serves to hold the stones in place for many years, as good as it was when it was new. You should let it cure for 3 days. I usually then mix the 10 parts water with 1 part binder and give it one more coating. The driveway is a nice black, skid resistant surface and doesn't have to be bothered with for many years.

    There are municipalities and states in harsh weather, high salt use areas that use this method on their roads.

  • izzie
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I live it near Minneapolis. There is a Seal Master distributor in St. Paul. I will have to remember this.
    Thank you irishman

    Also, do you think using the SealMaster stuff and rock chips would be ok?

  • maryland_irisman
    13 years ago

    The rock chips would have to be small to hold up over any length of time. I should add, the sand I used was a course black sand called "black beauty". It is just a few cents more than regular sand.

    I think I know what you are trying to do. To do that, you'll have to do it in a multi-step process. The first would be to lay down what is known as a "tack" coat" Mix a 50/50 mixture, and using a driveway sealer bristle broom, apply it onto the driveway. Within a few hours, put down the very small chips and spread and tamp them evenly. Then within the same day, coat it again with a 50/50 mixture, to coat and bond.

    I still think you would be better off with the sand. It will prevent water from settling into the pores and loosening the stone during freezing. Also, if you plow the snow, any protruding chips will be dislodged. The sand allows the plow to glide over the driveway with no removal of the application. I had some snow drifts (several times) on my driveway this past winter that were 5 feet and more. I had to use a front end loader to move them. It did no damage to the driveway and right now, it looks as good as it did when the sealing work was done. By the way, it took me, 2 sons and 2 nephews about a week to do my 600 foot driveway and parking area, working on it about 4 hours a day, doing sections at a time so we could still use the driveway during the curing period (3 days).

    Minnesota is a big user of the Seal Master product. Even though they sell it in 5 gal. buckets, they also sell it in drums and even tankers full.