Diy cold patch asphalt

It's unrealistic to expect perfect results when many holes need to be filled in a short amount of time. The best asphalt patch is hot mix asphalt. To get the absolute best repair of the pothole, the asphalt next to the pothole must be reheated and blended into the patching material. Watch these two amazing video to see how it's done. The first video shows a larger machine, but the second video is a smaller man-powered machine you roll around!

The key to successful pothole repair is preparation, and the use of the right materials. As I said before, the best material to use for pothole repair is traditional hot mix asphalt. This product is made at plants that mix liquid asphalt, sand and different sized gravel into a mix that flows while it is hot.

As it cools, the liquid asphalt hardens producing a very durable surface. It's not easy, nor is it feasible, for you to buy hot mix asphalt. If you buy a small amount, by the time you get home it will not be workable. Cold patch is very DIY friendly.

It comes in managable bags and you can patch holes as small as 2 inches by 2 inches. You need to use a new and improved cold asphalt patching compound.

It's absolutely the next best thing. Do you need to patch your asphalt? For many years, asphalt plants have made a cold patch asphalt that was intended for temporary patching purposes.

This older material was difficult to work with and the asphalt binder that coated the stone particles often stripped off in a relatively short amount of time.

When the asphalt disappeared, so did the patch. Fortunately, there have been some major advancements in cold patch asphalt technology. Yes, there are newer cold patch asphalt materials that contain polymers. The polymers increase adhesion so the cold patch sticks to the old asphalt. New synthetic polymer adhesive chemicals are now added to the asphalt that allow the cold asphalt patching products to produce permanent repairs when installed correctly.

Pour a fair amount of alligator patch in the middle of the repair area. Here are a couple of sites that sell them. Ez street asphalt edge repair should be placed in maximum 2 lifts with each lift receiving proper compaction.

Then i would look into using decorative concrete stamps. To understand how asphalt edges are formed in an asphalt driveway; Fill small cracks with asphalt crack repair material in a caulking tube or bottle applicator. Insert the tip of the shovel underneath the asphalt chunks you cut away. Create a brand new edging in your driveway. We used eight 60 bags of quickcrete and he formed a curve to follow the natural curve of the road.

Lets first compare them to the edges of a concrete driveway. Use the torch and heat up the asphalt surrounding the hole to help it bond to the patch. These two types of materials require a completely different edge. How do i repair the sides of my driveway? While this is a solution, it is a temporary one at best, and cannot be expected to last very long in most applications. Clean oil stains and prime with oil stain primer. Most cold patch asphalt repair aggregate will cover a 12" x 12" x 1" hole per 10lbs.

So if you're hole is about 12" diameter give or take and the depth of the hole is 4" plus 1" to 2" for overfill, you're looking at around 50 lbs to 60 lbs for that one hole. Driveway Pothole Repair Instructions The first thing to check for is whether or not the pothole goes past the bottom of the asphalt layer.

If the hole goes deeper than the asphalt itself, you'll want to fill the hole with sand, gravel or dirt so the hole isn't quite as deep. Sure you can fill it with pothole patch but that's a waste of material unless you're into that sort of thing If your asphalt is 4" thick and the hole is 8" deep, fill up the hole so you only have about a 4" deep hole.

A good rule of thumb is to try and always have a 4" to 5" deep hole. This will keep you from wasting material but ensures there will be enough bonding between the old layer and the new pothole patch. You might have potholes that are more like "dips" or too shallow to really add patch to. If you have these, check out the alligator repair instructions in the next section.

For the guys who have a flame torch If you're the type who likes to play with fire and you went out and bought a flame torch despite your better judgment, now is a good time to pull it out and heat up the asphalt surrounding the pothole.

This will help bond the patch aggregate with the existing asphalt and helps make the repair last longer. Just make sure you don't scorch or overheat the surrounding asphalt which can damage the oils and cause more problems later.

If you decide to pick up the Technisoil repair products, you'll have to mix the binder with the aggregate first, then follow the steps below. If you grabbed the traditional bag style, open the bag of pothole patch and simply pour the aggregate asphalt into the hole. Make sure you overfill the hole by about 1" to 2" from the ground surface. If you spill outside of the hole opening a little bit, that's OK and won't hurt anything.

If you have a flat head shovel or a garden rake, these can come in handy for spreading the material out over larger potholes. The side of your foot will work too if you're on a bit of a budget or don't have a flat head shovel handy. If you're a contractor, you'll probably want to pick up a Lute Rake to help spread the patch since you'll need it for other jobs. Once the hole has been filled with material, take your pothole tamper and begin "pounding" the asphalt aggregate to flatten it out.

This process will compact the pothole patch material into the hole and keeps it from breaking up as easily later. If the original overfill of 1" to 2" wasn't enough, you will want to add more patch material to help level it out properly. I need to note that if you wait until the hole is completely compacted only to find out you need more, the new layer isn't going to compact as well with the layer you just compacted which might cause the top layer to break apart sooner over time.

Just take care to watch the patch level, adding a little more aggregate as you go. On the flip side, if you add too much aggregate, you'll end up with a bump on your driveway. If it looks like you've got too much, use your hoe or flat shovel to scrape some of it away before it's completely compacted. Don't worry though, you'll be fine.

It's like filling a hole in your yard with dirt and adding just enough dirt that it levels out flush with the rest of the ground when it rains. Are you done pounding already?? You can probably pound a little more The more compact the pothole patch is, the better it will hold up later. Repeat this process for all of the potholes in your driveway. If you have any leftover, you can save it until next time but keep in mind that the oils in the aggregate will dry up and break down over time once the air reaches it, along with any exposure to prolonged freezing.

The shelf-life of cold asphalt patch is usually around months if it's been opened and months if it's still sealed in the bag. You might get a little more shelf-life if you can put it into a seal-able 5-gallon bucket.

If you have a bunch of potholes in your pavement that need attention, and you have a few extra bucks lying around, you might consider renting a vibrating plate compactor instead of using a pothole tamper. The more compact the asphalt aggregate is, the longer it will hold up and a vibratory plate compactor works perfectly for this job. Plus it saves you some back work from the manual tamping. Let's find out if you need to repair alligator cracks in your asphalt: 1 Do you have tiny cracks that make up a bunch of squares or rectangular shapes on your driveway?

If you answered yes to either of these, continue reading. Otherwise, skip to the sunken hole section. Alligator Asphalt Repair Materials To repair alligator cracks in your blacktop asphalt driveway, you'll need alligator patch material , sealcoat sealer , and a squeegee or asphalt brush. So glad I found this product. I was able to patch the pothole in our driveway all by myself. We had spoke with other repair people about repaving and patching, but this was much less expensive and it worked great.

We had a couple of potholes to repair -- used two bags -- I used the shovel we already owned and a little muscle not too much and my part was done in less than 30 minutes. Professional road-crew quality and a consumer-friendly format: EZ Street cold asphalt comes in easy-to-handle plastic bags and makes quick work of pothole repair.

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