Plate 03 — Repair & resurfacing
Most driveway damage is a symptom.
Cracks and potholes are what you see. What caused them is almost always water, or a base that was never built to carry the load. We fix the cause, then the surface — in that order.
Reading the damage
What the cracks are telling you.
Different failures mean different things, and the difference decides whether your driveway needs an afternoon or a rebuild. This is how we read one on a site visit.
| What you see | What it means | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Hairline surface cracks | UV oxidation. The binder has dried and the surface is shrinking. | Clean, fill, seal. Caught early this is cheap. |
| Single long cracks | Movement or a joint working. Normal with age, but they let water down. | Route and hot-pour fill before water reaches the base. |
| Alligator cracking | Base failure. The asphalt is flexing with nothing under it. | Cut out the section, rebuild the base, repave that area. |
| Potholes | Water got in, the base washed out, the surface collapsed into the void. | Square-cut, dig to sound material, rebuild, hot mix, seal the joint. |
| Sunken areas | Something below is washing away or was never compacted. | Find the water first. Then rebuild. Surfacing alone repeats it. |
| Crumbling edges | No edge support — the asphalt was laid without anything holding its sides. | Cut back to sound material, rebuild the edge, back up with compacted material. |
The Tampa version
Water is doing this, not traffic.
A residential driveway carries almost no load compared with what asphalt is designed for. Family cars are not what break it. Around Tampa the thing breaking driveways is water reaching material that cannot cope with being wet.
The water table sits high across much of Hillsborough County. Add sandy subgrade, afternoon storms from June through September, and the drainage damage left behind after Helene undercut driveways and washed out culverts, and the failures start from underneath rather than on top.
Which is why we look at gutters, downspout outfalls, the slope of the drive and where water leaves it before quoting any resurfacing. Fixing a surface above a live drainage problem is work you pay for twice.
Send a photo of the worst section.
It is usually enough to tell you whether you are looking at a repair, a resurface or a rebuild.
Resurfacing
When a new surface is the right answer.
Resurfacing puts fresh asphalt over what is already there. It works — but only where the existing structure is sound, the drive drains, and the damage is wear rather than failure. Done in the right situation it saves the tear-out and gives you a driveway that looks and behaves like new.
Done in the wrong situation it is the most expensive mistake in this trade. Every crack, every soft spot and every sunken area under a new overlay carries straight through it, usually within a year or two. You end up paying for a resurface and then a replacement.
Before we quote an overlay we check whether the base is doing its job, whether the drive holds water anywhere, and whether raising the surface causes a problem at the garage threshold or the road apron. If any of those say no, we say so. Full replacement is covered on the driveway paving page.
Straight answers
Repair questions.
Is it worth repairing or should I just replace it?
Rough rule: if the damage covers less than about a quarter of the driveway and the rest sits flat and drains, repair is the sensible spend. Once failure is spread across the surface you are patching a structure that has already given up, and the patches will keep appearing. We will tell you which side of that line you are on rather than quoting whichever is bigger.
What does alligator cracking mean?
Interconnected cracks in a pattern like reptile skin mean the base beneath has failed and the asphalt is flexing under load with nothing supporting it. It is not a surface problem. Filling it or sealing over it changes nothing — the fix is cutting that section out and rebuilding the base under it.
Can you fix a pothole permanently?
A proper repair is a permanent repair. That means saw-cutting to square edges, digging out to sound material, rebuilding and compacting the base, then filling with hot mix and sealing the joint. Cold patch shovelled into a hole is a temporary measure and it will come out again.
My driveway is sinking in one spot. Why?
Almost always water. Something below is either washing out or was never compacted — a leaking line, a bad downspout outfall, a culvert, or in a lot of local cases storm damage. Repaving the surface without finding the water means doing it again.
Do you repair storm damage?
Yes. Helene undercut driveways and washed out culverts across the area, and that kind of damage is a drainage problem showing up as a paving problem. We look at where the water went before quoting the surface.
No obligation
Get the damage looked at.
A photo and a rough idea of the size is enough for us to tell you what you are dealing with.
Rather talk? (813) 285-7026, weekdays 7–6.