Sealcoating
Is sealcoating worth it?
Sealcoating is worth it while the asphalt under it is still sound, and it is money wasted once the base has failed.
The numbers
- Worth doing: a surface that is graying, has tight surface cracks, and feels solid underfoot.
- Not worth doing on its own: areas that flex under your weight, potholes, or cracking broken into squares.
- Repaving costs many times what a maintenance cycle costs over the same years.
The test that decides it
Stand on the worst part of the surface and shift your weight. If it feels solid, the base is intact and sealing is buying you years. If it gives, the stone under the asphalt has moved and nothing you put on top will change that.
The second test is the cracking. Tight lines running with the drive are surface cracks and they seal fine after they are filled. Cracking that has broken into a network of squares is the base telling you it has already failed under that area, and that section has to be cut out and rebuilt.
What the money buys
A driveway kept sealed and crack filled from new goes a long way before it needs replacing. The same drive left alone gets there much sooner, because once water reaches the base every freeze pushes it apart a little more.
So the value is not in how the drive looks the week it is done. It is in not buying a new one.
When to skip a year
A drive sealed last season does not need it again. Sealing every year is money spent on a coat the old one had not finished wearing off, and the film gets thick enough to crack on its own.
Two to three years is the cycle in northwestern Wisconsin. A drive under trees, or one a truck turns on in the same spot every day, comes up sooner in the spots that take it.