Cracks sealed shut, soft spots dug out and rebuilt, broken edges and potholes repaired, across Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk. Around here asphalt is worn down less by ice than by water sitting in the ground and a long hot summer. Repairs are about getting the water out and keeping it out, before a few bad spots become a whole driveway.
Cold patch is asphalt mixed to stay workable in a bag. You tamp it into a hole and it fills it, which is exactly what it is for when a pothole needs dealing with today. It does not stick to the old asphalt around it, and nothing has been done about the wet stone underneath that made the hole. The first heavy rain gets under the edges and it loosens.
A repair built to last starts with a saw. The bad area is cut back to firm asphalt on straight lines, the broken material and any saturated base come out, and fresh crushed stone goes back in and is compacted. Where the ground stays wet, the base goes back thicker than it was. Hot asphalt is then laid and rolled in layers until it sits flush, and the joint around the patch is sealed so water cannot track in along it.
When the drive is being sealcoated, small patches like this are done first and are part of the one price per square foot. A large area, or repair without sealing, is priced as its own job.
In a colder city the argument for filling cracks is frost. Hampton Roads does get nights below freezing, but not a winter of them. What it has instead is low, flat ground, a water table that sits close to the surface in much of the region, heavy summer thunderstorms, and tropical systems in late summer and autumn that can drop several inches in a day.
Every open crack is a way for that rain to reach the stone under the asphalt. Stone that stays wet stops carrying weight properly, and the surface over it starts to sag and crack in a pattern of small plates. Filling cracks and fixing the first soft spot before the storm season is the cheapest way to keep the base dry, and a dry base is what a driveway in this region lives or dies on.
Where streets flood at high tide or in a storm, water can sit over a driveway for hours. Once it drains, walk the drive and look for three things: areas that feel spongy or dip under a car, new cracks near the edges and the apron, and a line of sand or debris showing where the water stood. A soaked base usually firms up again as it dries, so give it some dry weather before judging. Anything still soft after that is a spot that needs cutting out. Send a photo and we will tell you whether it is worth doing now or can wait.
On a lot or a community road the damage gathers where heavy vehicles go: the entrances, the dumpster enclosure, the bus and delivery routes and the low end where stormwater collects. Those are fixed first, then the whole surface is sealed and restriped so repairs and old asphalt age together. Associations get the repair list on the same sheet as everything else; see pavement care for HOAs and property managers.
Crack filling and small patches are included in the one price per square foot for a sealcoating job, along with restriping where there are lines. A repair on its own, or a failed area large enough to need digging out, is priced per job after it has been looked at, because the cost depends on its size, its depth and how wet the ground under it is. You get one written number before work starts.
Will the patch match? Not at first. Fresh asphalt is blacker and smoother. A seal coat over the whole drive afterwards is what evens it out.
Can repairs go in over the winter? Often, yes. Winters here are mild enough that there are usable dry spells most months. Hot asphalt still needs dry ground and reasonable temperatures, so a cold wet week moves the date.
Should I fix it before hurricane season? If there are open cracks or soft spots, yes. The weeks of heavy rain in late summer are when water does the most damage to a base that is already letting it in.
What about the apron at the street? It can be repaired on its own. Work in the city right-of-way needs that city's permit, and the quote says which and who pulls it.
Send the address, and a photo of the worst area if you have one, ideally after rain. You will be told what the damage is, whether a patch and a seal will do or whether the drive needs more, and what it costs. Repairs are done by local independent contractors.
