How You Pave A Driveway.

Background

Materials

• Driveway patch
• Driveway coating (7 year)
• Driveway clean
• Brush/squegee for coating application
• Scrubbing brush

Instructions

1. Barracade the driveway
   Put some large object or objects at the end of your driveway to prevent anyone from driving on it until the driveway is complete and fully cured. As you can see from the picture, I used saw horses as my barracade.
   
   Prep the driveway

   • Use a weed wacker or similar garden tool to remove all grass at the edges of the driveway. Also remove any grass growing out of cracks in the driveway or in cracks between the driveway and the pavement.
   • Use a cement shovel or similar tool to remove any raised sections of gator skin. Make sure that the remaining material is even with or below the surface of your drive. Don`t worry if it is lower than the surface; you will fix that when patching.
   • Manually pick up any large objects especially in damaged sections. Use a shop vac to pick up any loose material in the damaged sections.
   • Thoroughly sweep the driveway.
   • Hose down the driveway with plain water to move any loose material off of the driveway.
   • Hose the driveway using driveway cleaner. Work in small sections. Use a scrubbing brush to scrub the drive to remove any oils or other chemicals left by your cars. Thoroughly hose off all of the soap from the cleaner material.

   

   

   

   Patch the areas requiring patching.

   • Use a trowel to apply the patch material to the damged sections. Use the trowel to smooth the surface of the wet patch material.
   • Allow the patch material to thoroughly dry. Drying time varies but patch material typically takes 24 hours; read the instructions on the bucket. It is critical that the patch material is completely dry before applying the sealer or the sealer will crack as the patch dries under it.
   • If necessary, reapply the patch material in any areas that still show defects. Any large cracks (greater than 1/8 inch or so) will not cover completely with the sealer and should be repatched. If reapplication was necessary, be sure to wait the drying time once again.

   

   Hose down the driveay again just to dampen it so the sealer doesn`t get soaked up completely by the driveway.

   Also hose down the grass and any nearby bushes. This protects the grass from the sealer and it wets loose grass and leaves minimizing the chance that they wind will blow them onto your drive as you work. Unfortunately, I picked a rather windy day at the end of the summer to apply my sealer so I took an additional precaution of covering my bush so that any loose leaves would be caught by my cover rather than blowing onto my driveway. The driveway should be damp but with no puddling.

   Seal the driveay.

   • Dress using old clothes. I have read that tar can damage a washing machine so it may be best on using clothes that you can throw away at the completion of this job. That is what I did because I didn`t want to risk the damage and some tar managed to get on my clothes.
   • Put plastic bags over your shoes. This will probably not keep tar completely off of them but will minimize how much tar gets on them.
   • Open the bucket of sealer and if your sealer requires stirring, stir it. Pour the sealer onto the drive. Work in small sections. Be careful not to splash the sealer when pouring as it can splatter nearby garage doors etc..
   • Use the brush/squegee combo to spread the sealer. The sealer instructions indicated that several thin coats is better than one thick coat. Spread the sealer as evenly as possible. I worked with a partner on this step. I spread the sealer and my partner came behind me smoothing the sealer. We started at the end closest to the house and worked right to left and then down toward the street then left to right continuing in this pattern. We worked in approximately four foot square sections at a time.
   • Allow proper drying time before second application. The sealer that I used required 3 hours drying time between coats.
   • Apply second coat in the same manner as the first coat. I believe that the application of a second coat is required for a higher quality look. It is worth the effort to apply the second coat. The second coat will go on faster than the first. There is no need to hose again between coats; in fact, you do not want to do that. The first coat will prevent the second coat from soaking in to the drive.

Here are some pictures of the drive with the still wet coating.

Here are some pictures of the drive showing the spots that were badly damaged.