New asphalt driveways, overlays, aprons and full rebuilds in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk. Sealing looks after asphalt that is still sound. When a driveway has gone soft, broken up or started holding water, it needs new asphalt, and on the low, wet ground of South Hampton Roads how that asphalt is built underneath matters more than anywhere we work.
The right answer comes from what is under the surface, so the first look is about the ground, not the colour.
Norfolk's official elevation is under seven feet, the land under the region is slowly sinking, and the tide gauge at Sewells Point has measured the water rising against it by nearly two inches a decade over the past century. Much of South Hampton Roads is the same flat, low ground. Stone laid where the soil stays damp does not stay as firm as stone laid on dry ground, and the asphalt on top can only ever be as strong as what holds it up.
So a rebuild quote here is mostly about three things. How much soft or wet material comes out before the new base goes in. How thick the compacted stone goes back, and whether a fabric layer goes under it to stop the stone pressing down into the soil. And where the water goes afterwards: the finished drive has to fall away from the house toward somewhere that drains, or it will stand in water every storm.
A driveway can also only be as high as the ground around it allows. Where the street floods at high tide or in a storm, raising the driveway is sometimes possible and sometimes just moves the water onto a neighbour or into the garage. That gets settled before paving, not after.
Norfolk averages about 35 days a year at 90 degrees or more. Asphalt softens in that heat, and a surface that is too soft shoves and ruts under parked cars and wheels turned on the spot. A drive that carries a work truck, a boat trailer or a camper parked in one place needs a base and a thickness laid for that weight, and the quote should say so. Once the new drive has cured, a seal coat also shades the binder from the sun that dries it out and turns it grey.
The apron between the sidewalk and the road sits in the city's right-of-way, and each of the five cities runs its own permit for it. Norfolk issues a free zoning certificate for a new driveway and then a separate right-of-way apron permit. Chesapeake requires a Driveway Entrance Permit even to replace an existing entrance. Suffolk has a combined driveway apron and culvert permit that has to be applied for well ahead. The city pages give the detail: Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk. The quote names the permit, who pulls it, and whether the fee is included.
Adding new asphalt, rather than replacing old, raises two more questions. Every city here has Chesapeake Bay Preservation Areas along its shorelines and wetlands, and new hard surface in the protected buffer is restricted or needs the city's approval. And Norfolk, Chesapeake and Suffolk all bill a stormwater fee by impervious area, which counts driveways; a house pays one flat unit, but a commercial property that paves over grass pays for it on the utility bill.
Virginia requires a contractor license for jobs over $1,000, in classes set by the size of the job, and the state board has a specialty written for this exact trade: asphalt paving and sealcoating on driveways, parking lots and subdivision streets. Chesapeake's entrance permit can only be issued to the landowner or a contractor licensed in Virginia. Whoever you hire to pave, it is a fair question to ask which class and specialty they hold, and to check it on the state board's lookup.
Paving is priced per job after a look at the drive and the ground. You receive one written figure with the scope spelled out: what comes out, how deep the base goes, how thick the asphalt is, where the water goes, and what happens at the street.
Winters here are mild, so the paving year runs longer than it does further north. Hot asphalt still needs a dry surface and ground warm enough to compact against; Virginia's own road specifications will not allow most mixes onto a base colder than 40 degrees, and forbid paving on standing water or mud. Late summer and early autumn bring the region's tropical weather, which is what moves most paving dates.
A new driveway is not sealed straight away. It needs six to twelve months for the oils in the mix to work out, so the first seal coat goes on the following year.
A lot or a community street is judged section by section: rebuild where the base has gone, overlay where it is firm, patch the rest, then seal and restripe the whole surface together. See parking lot sealcoating and striping and pavement care for HOAs and property managers.
Send the address through the form and mention paving. A photo taken after rain helps more than one taken on a dry day. The drive is measured and looked at, you are told honestly whether it needs paving or whether a patch and a seal will do, and if it needs paving you get a written scope and one price. The paving is done by a local independent paving contractor.
