Why Asphalt Is the Best Driveway Material

Whether you need to have a new driveway installed or would like to get rid of the old one, one of the first options you will come across is asphalt. Asphalt driveways, when installed properly, perform almost identical to concrete but are much cheaper. Additionally, asphalt is a lot less susceptible to cracking than concrete. There are several other reasons why asphalt should be your first consideration and we will look at these reasons below.

It is Great For The Environment

Although asphalt includes petroleum compounds, it is still great for the environment because asphalt is highly recyclable. Almost 80% of all asphalt is recycled and used to make new roads and pavements. This is a much cleaner process than mining new petroleum products and using them to make new asphalt. Another reason why you should recycle your asphalt driveway is that it helps reduce the amount of materials like rubber and cement that would end up in a landfill otherwise. Being so highly recyclable makes asphalt one of the best paving materials for residential and commercial driveways.

Flexibility and Cracking

Both asphalt and concrete, another popular consideration, will crack under certain conditions, but asphalt is more resistant to cracking than concrete. There are several reasons for this. One, asphalt is flexible whereas concrete is rigid. This means that asphalt can absorb weight and pressures applied to it better than concrete can. This means that if you drive a heavy vehicle, you would be better served by an asphalt driveway.

Second, asphalt expands and contracts a lot more than concrete under extreme temperatures. This means that in cases where concrete would crack due to being too hot or too cold, asphalt performs very well. Even when asphalt cracks, the cracks are usually a lot smaller and shorter than those in concrete.

Installation

Asphalt is a lot easier to install than concrete. You can have an asphalt driveway completed in a few hours, whereas a similar concrete driveway would take a lot longer. Also, asphalt only needs to cool after installation, so you can drive on it about 24 hours after installation. Concrete takes about a week to cure, so you would have to wait for the week to pass before you can drive on your new driveway.

Repairs

When asphalt gets damaged, you only need to resurface or reseal it to give it new life. Because the tar in the new asphalt mixes with the tar in the old asphalt, the repairs can look seamless if done right.

Repairing concrete is a lot harder for larger issues, and for smaller issues, homeowners are limited to sealing cracks using caulk or patching holes in the concrete. Once the repairs are done, it will be very obvious that the driveway has been repaired due to colour differences.

While there are lots of driveway and paving materials you could try, asphalt has several advantages that make it better than the other materials you might consider. It is easy to repair, looks great, can be installed in a few hours, and does not need to cure as a cement driveway does.