Eau Claire, WI · Northwestern Wisconsin Closed now (715) 450-9897
(715) 450-9897

Asphalt Repair and Patching in Eau Claire

Asphalt Repair and Patching in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Pothole, patch and sinkhole repair in Eau Claire, cut back to sound material and rebuilt properly.

Get a Free Estimate Call (715) 450-9897

4.7 from 18 Google reviews

Home base. Free estimates, and a straight read on whether it needs doing yet.

A Bobcat skid steer beside two saw-cut sections of asphalt on a commercial parking lot, work area coned off while cars stay parked around it.
72,331 People in Eau Claire
4.7 Google ratingFrom 18 reviews
2-3 yrs Reseal cycleIn Eau Claire
400°F Crack fillerDirect-fire rubber

What an Asphalt Repair and Patching Job Looks Like in Eau Claire

The valley soils along both rivers are sandy outwash, in places tens of feet deep. Sand drains well, which is good, and it also migrates when water is moving through it, which is why so many failures here start at a catch basin or a downspout outlet rather than in the middle of a lot.

The other thing worth knowing about Eau Claire is the grade. A driveway on the Eastside Hill or up toward Putnam Heights sheds water quickly and wears at the bottom; a flat lot down near the confluence holds it. Those two need different answers, and quoting them the same way is how a contractor ends up sealing over a drainage problem.

Asphalt Repair and Patching specifically in Eau Claire

The failures that most often have to be cut out in Eau Claire sit at the bottom of sloped drives and at downspout outlets, both of which are really drainage problems showing up as asphalt damage. Patching one of those without fixing where the water goes just moves the date.

The Driveways and Lots in Eau Claire

Eau Claire sits where the Eau Claire River meets the Chippewa, on the northern edge of the Driftless Area. That matters for pavement more than it sounds: the city runs from river flats up steep slopes toward the east and south sides, so grade and drainage vary sharply from one neighborhood to the next. Clairemont Avenue, Hastings Way and the North Crossing carry most of the commercial traffic.

The most mixed stock in the valley. About a third of Eau Claire's houses were built before 1960 and nearly a fifth before 1940, while the single largest cohort is the 1970s at roughly 16 percent of all housing. In practice that means we work on everything here: narrow pre-war drives in the Third Ward and Randall Park, wide 1970s suburban aprons, and new construction on the edges.

It's also a heavy rental market. Close to a fifth of the housing sits in buildings of five units or more, which is why so much of our residential work here is actually small commercial: apartment lots and converted properties around the university.

Where we work in Eau Claire

  • Third Ward
  • Randall Park
  • Eastside Hill
  • North River Fronts
  • North Side Hill
  • Shawtown
  • Putnam Heights
  • Sherman Creek
  • Upper Westside

Around Eau Claire: Carson Park, Phoenix Park, Pablo Center at the Confluence, Banbury Place, Half Moon Lake.

Eau Claire averages 55.4 inches of snow a year against about 33 inches of total precipitation, so snow outweighs rain. Wisconsin's building code sets footings at a minimum of 48 inches below grade for frost, which is a fair proxy for how hard the freeze works on anything above it.

From our jobs

Job Photos

Two fresh asphalt patches laid in a worn parking lot, cones still around them
Full-depth patches laid and coned off
A crew member kneeling at a stall line working patch material by hand
Hand work at the stall lines
A fresh full-depth asphalt patch coned off in a commercial lot outside an industrial building with dock doors
A full-depth patch outside the dock doors

All job photos

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.

What Decides the Price in Eau Claire

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.

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.
  • The garage apron has sunk where it meets the concreteCommon and fixable. Usually settlement under the transition, cut out and rebuilt.
  • Cracked into squares in a few areas, sound elsewhereCut those areas out full depth, patch, then seal the whole surface.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Photos of the worst two areas are usually enough for us to tell you which it is.

How the Work Goes in Eau Claire

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.

Booking sealcoating and striping through October · Call (715) 450-9897

Questions We Get in Eau Claire

What Eau Claire calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
Do you work on the hills, or only flat driveways?
Both, and they're genuinely different jobs. A steep drive on the Eastside Hill sheds water fast and wears hardest at the bottom where everything collects. On the steepest ones cure time matters more, because sealer needs to sit still while it sets, so plan for the drive to be off limits a little longer.
We manage an apartment building near campus. Is that residential or commercial?
Commercial, and we quote it that way. Around a fifth of Eau Claire's housing is in buildings of five units or more. On apartment lots the bid puts in writing which areas get worked, so the manager can tell residents what to expect.
Why does our 1970s driveway look worn out when the neighbor's 1990s one doesn't?
Because it is worn out on top and probably fine underneath. The 1970s is the single biggest decade in Eau Claire's housing, so there are a lot of drives at exactly the age where the surface has oxidized past its wear layer while the base is still sound. That's the best case sealing has. A 1990s drive simply hasn't got there yet.
How much does pothole repair cost?
Square footage and depth, mostly. A pothole that stops at the surface is a different job from one where the base underneath has gone, and you cannot tell which you have until it is opened. What we can tell you before that: several repairs done on one visit come down substantially per repair, because the trip and the mobilisation are already paid for. The assessment is free.
Why does my patch keep failing?
Almost always because it was filled rather than repaired: no clean cut, no removal of the failed base, and nothing bonding it to the asphalt around it. The failure was underneath and it's still there.
Can you repair a sinkhole in a driveway or lot?
Yes, and quickly. Our newest review is a sinkhole repaired within seven days. A sinkhole means material is being washed out from underneath, usually by drainage or a failed pipe, so the repair includes finding out why.
Is it cheaper to repair the asphalt or repave it?
Repair, until roughly a quarter to a third of the surface has failed. Past that you're patching patches and an overlay becomes better value. The estimate measures how much of your surface has actually failed.
How soon can we drive on a new asphalt patch?
Hot mix takes traffic as soon as it has cooled, usually a few hours. That's the material rather than a schedule: what a specific repair means for your lot is one of the things the estimate works out.

Get a Free Estimate in Eau Claire

Tell us what it looks like and we'll come measure it. You get a written price before anything starts.

(715) 450-9897
  • Free on driveways and lots anywhere in the service area
  • A photo of the problem helps, and it can go in the message
  • Surfaces that are not ready yet get told so at the estimate

Get an estimate

Send the form and we'll call you back. The estimate is free.

By submitting, you agree to be contacted about your asphalt repair and patching job. Text messages only go out if you checked the box above. We don't sell your info, ever.

Other Work We Do in Eau Claire

Asphalt Repair and Patching in Nearby Towns

Everything about asphalt repair and patching, including how the work goes and what changes the price