What driveway sealers & crack fillers are decent?

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My 50 ft asphalt driveway is near end of life (30+ yrs). It has bulges, cracks, etc. Rather than pay the $3500+ for a complete new driveway, I've been nursing it along with crack fillers and sealers each summer. It gets me through the winter. And the condition hasn't changed much the past 3 yrs since I started doing this. Costs me about $50-$100 each year and a few hours of labor.

I've used the Aiport grade sealers (Latex-lite?) from Home Depot as well as the supposed super-duty Black Jack which is a sand-based gel. The BJ is a bit more difficult to put on because you have to wet the surface first, just right. The problem with that stuff is that it never cures hard. Any time I park my car on it, it leaves 4 sandy tread marks behind. So I'm not using that again. A bucket lasted me 2-3 applications.

I'd love to use the industrial/public works grade heated/rubberized crack fillers but they cost a fortune at the retail outlets, and in very small quantity. I probably need about 150-200 lineal feet of crack filler, same stuff they use on highways and parking lots. I invited a local company to bid to fill the cracks but they said it was a waste of money and they would only replace my driveway. So it looks like I will continue to repair it on my own until a big chunk breaks loose at some point. For now, it's all connected and quite drivable and safe.

So what reasonably priced products, or brands, have others had luck with? Ideally, things that last more than a season in Connecticut. We're lucky that we get more rain than snow in the winter. Still, it takes a good pounding to the asphalt. I have a feeling everything you can get at the big box stores is just temporary junk that won't last past 1-2 winter season.
 
At work they decided to use an acrylic sealer on the parking lots applied by some of our guys, they swept and blew off the asphalt before applying last fall, it's mostly all gone now. Don't know the brand but it was a huge waste of money.
 
Originally Posted By: Rand
Sam's club has 5 gallon bucket for $13 sealer.


Not likely that anything that cheap can be of any decent quality. I figure there must be something a notch better than what is sold at Home Depot, Lowes, Big Box stores, and other retail outlets that can actually hold up. 5 gallon buckets of sealer run about $17-$30 around my way. I was looking at some Latex-lite sealer at Benny's today ($19) but it looked like the gel stuff to me. They did have the industrial grade crack sealer,...but only in a small kit you heat up on your stove for $17. That would only cover about 1/5th of what I need.

OK. No acrylic sealer either.

I've got an old, full 5 gallon bucket of Henry 101 black, non-rubberized, foundation sealer. I'm almost tempted to try that but I don't think it's meant to hold up to any sort of traffic. If anyone in the area wants it...come and get it.
 
Back when Grossman's was in business,they sold a sealer in a steel can with their own brand on it,lasted for years.Alas,the ingredients are probably banned now and Grossman's is long gone.
 
The best crack filler is hot rubber applied by a machine that costs $20,000.

The best a homeowner can do is some of the crack filler you jamb in the crack and heat with propane torch.

I also found some crack filler with Kevlar on Amazon. Have not tried it yet.
 
Would this work?
homedepot.com/p/USEAL-USA-4-lb-Driveway-Crack-Sealer-68118/203309296?cm_mmc=hd_email-_-Ready_for_pickup-_-20170810_PP_ET_Merch_Ready_for_pickup_3054282-_-product_desc__W768609810
 
Originally Posted By: bobbobtar
Would this work?
homedepot.com/p/USEAL-USA-4-lb-Driveway-Crack-Sealer-68118/203309296?cm_mmc=hd_email-_-Ready_for_pickup-_-20170810_PP_ET_Merch_Ready_for_pickup_3054282-_-product_desc__W768609810


You need to heat this stuff on a stove. May need to do it when wife is away or buy a camping stove.
 
My driveway is about 500 feet long, and about 10 years old. Macadam. I am starting to see a few cracks and thinking about sealing it- it has never been sealed before. Will a sealer actually prolong the life of the driveway ?
 
The contractor for my HOA used the OverKote branded sealer. However, we needed the majority of the asphalt to be ripped out and fresh asphalt laid. We literally had areas where the asphalt was just sitting in place like puzzle pieces that could be removed and put back in place. Some of the original asphalt was in good enough condition that they said it was OK to just coat it. They did want the fresh asphalt to weather away a little bit before applying the seal coat. They said that fresh asphalt is generally to oily for the coating to properly adhere.
 
Originally Posted By: rubberchicken
My driveway is about 500 feet long, and about 10 years old. Macadam. I am starting to see a few cracks and thinking about sealing it- it has never been sealed before. Will a sealer actually prolong the life of the driveway ?


A sealer will prolong the life, not forever, but prolong. Deal with the cracks and then seal. The crack filler in the gallon container you pour will not do much.
 
Originally Posted By: bobbobtar
Would this work?
homedepot.com/p/USEAL-USA-4-lb-Driveway-Crack-Sealer-68118/203309296?cm_mmc=hd_email-_-Ready_for_pickup-_-20170810_PP_ET_Merch_Ready_for_pickup_3054282-_-product_desc__W768609810


That's the same stuff I saw in Benny's yesterday. Cheaper too at only $17 on sale. Thing is, it only covers 38 lineal feet for little jugster. That mean's a minimum of 4-5 jugs for my driveway. And no idea on how well it applies pouring out of the jug. I guess for $17 I could try one jug on the worst crack to see how it works.

My widest cracks are only 3/8" wide. Most are just 1/8-1/4". So applying cold patch or fresh asphalt would not be so easy.

Fresh asphalt should be allowed to cure for 6 months before sealing. And from things I've read in the past, best to wait a couple years. But, if you've gone 10 yrs, it's probably long overdue for a seal coat. As long as water (freezing cycles) doesn't get under the asphalt, it should last.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Been looking to do mine recently. I plan to use this product:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rust-Oleum-EpoxyShield-2-Gal-Jet-Blacktop-Coating-247471/100675987


That could be the acrylic type sealer AZJeff mentioned above that didn't work for them. It's basically an acrylic paint that would have to hold up to tire traffic. The SDS only lists 16% in "chemicals" which appear to be methanol, anti-freeze, and petroleum distillates. It says it's made from recycled tires. It must be awfully diluted with water or something to make it spreadable. It gets painted on by a paint roller. So it's not a fast process. And the application conditions are more restrictive....can't apply it in direct sunlight...can't apply it if rain expected within 48 hrs, etc. It doesn't give you as many good days. The regular sealers are good if no rain within 24 hrs. And they pretty much dry up to foot traffic the same day you put them down in summer heat (75-85 deg F).

I agree that crack sealers in a bottle are useless. For fine cracks the sealer coat alone should fill them. For any crack the thickness of my thumbnail I use the paste sealers with a putty knife. That stuff will hold up for 2-3 years on smaller cracks. For anything more than about 1/8", one winter season and it will start spitting out chunks of the old filler the next spring/summer until most of it has been expelled again. That's why the industrial hot rubber crack filler is so much better. It can be scraped up over time with a snow plow blade, but for the most part it will last years.
 
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