Asphalt repair - residential and commercial
Asphalt Repair and Patching
Potholes, failed areas, sunken aprons and sinkholes. We saw-cut back to sound asphalt, dig out the base that failed, rebuild it and compact the patch flush with the surface.
Booking now. Sealer needs warm pavement to cure, so the season closes well before the year does.
Repair or repave?
Most lots that get deferred don't need repaving.
What we look at before quoting either one.
- Two or three potholes, the rest of the surface is soundStraightforward patching. Nowhere near needing an overlay. Repairable
- The garage apron has sunk where it meets the concreteCommon and fixable. Usually settlement under the transition, cut out and rebuilt. Repairable
- Cracked into squares in a few areas, sound elsewhereCut those areas out full depth, patch, then seal the whole surface. Repairable
- That squared cracking across most of the lotThe base has gone broadly. Patching it becomes a rolling cost with no end. An overlay or a rebuild is the answer. Needs replacement
- Water sits in the same spot after every rainGrade or drainage, and it has to be solved before any surface work, or the new surface fails in exactly the same place. Depends, send a photo
Photos of the worst two areas are usually enough for us to tell you which it is.
Filled vs. repaired
The pothole that comes back every spring is being filled rather than repaired. Cold patch is a temporary measure and an honest one when it's sold as that: it's loose material tamped into a hole, with no bond to the sides and nothing done about the failed base underneath. It gets you through a winter. A real repair means cutting a clean square back to material that's still sound, taking out everything soft below it, putting the base back and compacting it in lifts, then laying hot asphalt and rolling it. The patch ends up stronger than what is around it, which is why the failure doesn't come back through the middle of it.
Filled
The quick version
- Cold patch tamped into the hole as found
- Ragged edges, so there's nothing to key against
- Failed base left in place
- Back within a season, usually wider
Repaired
What we do
- Saw cut to clean vertical edges, back to sound asphalt
- Soft material dug out until the bottom is firm
- Base replaced and compacted in lifts
- Hot mix laid, rolled, and the joint sealed
Cold patch has its place: it's the right call in February when nothing else can be done. It's the wrong call in July.
From our jobs
Job Photos
What decides the price.
Repairs are priced by area and by how deep the trouble goes, and the depth isn't knowable until it's open. These are the bands most jobs land in.
Single pothole
Up to a few square feet
Measured on site
- Saw cut, dig out, base, hot mix, compact
- Cheaper alongside other work
Failed area or apron
Roughly 50 to 300 sq ft
Measured on site
- The common commercial repair, and the garage apron at home
- Priced per square foot once the area is measured
Sinkhole or subgrade failure
Depth unknown until opened
Measured on site
- Often a drainage or utility problem underneath
- Assessed and quoted before the machine moves
Several repairs on one visit come down substantially per repair, because getting the machine and the crew on site is most of the cost of a small one. If you have three, have them all looked at.
How the Work Goes
Same method on a driveway apron and on a loading dock approach.
Find the edge of the failure
The visible hole is smaller than the damage. We sound out where the surface is still supported and cut outside that, not around the hole.
Saw cut square, clean vertical faces
A patch keyed against a clean edge stays. A patch feathered against a ragged one fails at the joint, which is why so many patches fail in a ring.
Dig out to something firm
Everything soft comes out. If the bottom is wet, that's a drainage problem and the best patch in the world won't last sitting on water.
Base back in, compacted in lifts
Compacted in layers rather than dumped and rolled once. This is the invisible step that decides whether the repair lasts two years or twenty.
Hot mix, rolled, joint sealed
Laid to the surrounding grade so water still runs where it's supposed to, compacted, and the perimeter joint sealed against the next freeze.
Where We Do This
Asphalt repair across northwestern Wisconsin, residential and commercial.
How much does pothole repair cost?
Why does my patch keep failing?
Can you repair a sinkhole in a driveway or lot?
Is it cheaper to repair the asphalt or repave it?
How soon can we drive on a new asphalt patch?
Send a photo of the worst spot.
Free estimate, and a straight read on repair versus repaving.
(715) 450-9897Call and describe it. On a driveway we can usually tell you what you're looking at while you're on the phone.
Get an estimate
Send the form and we'll call you back. The estimate is free.