One low spot in the drive, deep enough that you hear the tire drop into it every evening.
A hole in the pavement can sit here long enough to get its own krewe, so most asphalt patching calls start with somebody finally sick of the thud. We are a paving company that works driveways, church lots and small commercial lots across the parish, and patch work is what fills our truck most weeks.
What we will not do is trowel material over a hole with crumbling edges still in it. That lets go inside a season and takes more pavement with it. We saw back to sound asphalt first, every time, even when it means the repair ends up wider than the hole you called about.
Below: how the work actually goes, what it runs, and what people ask before they book a driveway patch repair. Call us at (504) 607-7395 and we will come stand over it with you.
Driveway Tar Patch
Tar patch is the black, rubbery stuff you squeeze into a crack, and it has a narrow job. It seals hairline splits up to about half an inch and the ragged edges where your slab meets the street. It is not a fix for a hole with soft, wet base under it. Tar over mush is lipstick on a pig.
Done right, a driveway tar patch starts with a blower and a wire brush, because tar will not stick to dust or damp. We fill in shallow lifts, squeegee it flush, then dust it with sand so August in New Orleans doesn't leave black shoe prints on your porch.
Done wrong, it skins over, traps moisture and peels off in sheets by the first cold snap. Most driveways we tar are back in service in a few hours.
Asphalt Patch Repair
Patching is surgery, not a bandage. The failed asphalt gets saw cut into a clean square, not chipped out in a kidney shape, and we dig until we find something solid underneath. Around here that's the whole ballgame, because our soil moves and half the potholes I look at are a base problem wearing a surface problem's clothes.
Then tack coat on every vertical edge, hot mix in lifts of about two inches, and compaction while it's still hot enough to work.
What ruins an asphalt patch repair is a feathered edge. Thin asphalt at the perimeter breaks up by the second summer, water gets in the seam, and you're back where you started.
Most asphalt patching we do on a driveway or a small lot wraps in a day, and you can park on it that evening.
Cold Patch Asphalt Repair
Cold patch is what goes down when the weather refuses to cooperate. It's premixed asphalt that stays workable straight out of the bucket, no plant and no heat needed, so I can fill a pothole patch on a wet Tuesday in February when hot mix would stiffen up before we got it off the truck.
Done properly, cold patch asphalt repair still means squaring the edges of the hole, getting the loose crumbs and standing water out first, filling in lifts of about two inches, and mounding it an inch high so it compacts down flush. Skip that compaction and the patch pops out with the first real downpour, and we get plenty of those.
Cold work buys you months, sometimes a couple of years. When the plant is running and the forecast is dry, hot patch asphalt lasts longer, and I'll say so.
Hot Patch Asphalt
Hot mix is the real thing: asphalt that leaves the plant somewhere around 300 degrees and has to be down and rolled before it drops below about 175. That clock is why a hot patch asphalt repair gets scheduled, not squeezed in. We saw or mill the failed area to square edges, haul out the loose stuff, tack the vertical faces with emulsion so the seam actually bonds, then lay it in lifts and compact each one.
Skip the tack and you get a black rectangle with a hairline moat around it, and the next August downpour finds it.
Most driveway and lot repairs like this are done in a morning and take traffic within a couple of hours. Cooler and denser than cold mix, and it doesn't shove out of shape under a delivery truck's tires.
Hot Patch Asphalt Repair
Hot mix leaves the plant around 300 degrees and starts dying the moment it hits the truck bed. That clock is the whole job, which is why we schedule the run from the plant before we schedule anything else.
Real hot patch asphalt repair starts with a saw. We cut the failure back to square, vertical edges, not the crumbly slope a pothole naturally wants, dig out the soft stuff underneath, then tack the walls and floor so the new mat bonds instead of sitting in the hole like a cork in a bottle. Mix goes in lifts of two inches or so and gets compacted until the plate rings.
Skip the tack coat and you buy yourself a seam. By next August that seam is a crack, and after one wet winter it's a pothole again. Done properly, you're driving on it the same afternoon.
What the job involves
Every asphalt patching job I do starts with a saw cut, because a clean square edge bonds and a ragged, shovel-torn edge ravels by the next hard rain. We break out the failed material, usually two to four inches down, and then we actually look at what's underneath. Around here that's often soft, water-logged clay, and if the base is pumping, no amount of new blacktop on top of it is going to hold.
So we dig deeper, bring in stone, and compact it in lifts.
Then tack coat on every vertical face. That's the step that gets skipped, and it's why so many a pothole patch you see on a side street off Carrollton is already lifting at the seams.
Hot mix goes in, gets rolled tight, and most asphalt patch repair is done and drivable the same afternoon.
What it costs
Nobody loves hearing "it depends," but with asphalt patching the hole you're looking at is the smallest part of the number. What moves it is depth, how many separate spots you've got, and whether the base underneath is still solid. Around here it often isn't. Our soil moves, water sits, and a pothole patch dropped over soft ground is just an expensive lid on the same problem.
Square footage matters, access for the truck matters, and a hot patch asphalt repair prices differently than a quick cold patch asphalt repair meant to hold you through a wet stretch.
Give us a call with the location and a rough size and we'll tell you what your asphalt patch repair runs, honestly, after we've put eyes on it.
Cheap patches fail by the next August.
When asphalt patching is the wrong fix
Asphalt patching is the wrong call more often than people expect. If the ground under the hole has gone soft and the pavement moves when you stand on it, filling the top just gives water a lid to hide beneath, and it lets go within a season, usually taking a wider bite of pavement with it. That one is asphalt repair that digs out and rebuilds from the bottom.
Hairline cracks over a sound surface don't want a plug either; asphalt crack filling is the right tool and it's the cheaper day's work. And when a drive is failing all over, chasing holes one at a time costs more than resurfacing driveway and lot surfaces properly, with asphalt milling first if the old mat sits too high at the garage. A vinyl concrete patch from a bucket has no business in asphalt driveway repair.
Why choose us for this
You have a hole in your driveway, and what you want out of asphalt patching is to hire somebody once and never think about that hole again. Not supervise it. Not re-do it next year.
The quote that comes in low is usually low because the hole never gets squared up, the edges never get glued, and the mix goes in loose and gets stomped down with a boot heel. That lets go with the first real downpour. What I will not do is drop material into a soft, wet base and call it a driveway patch repair, because a patch over mush is a hole that comes back with company.
Depth, access, and how far the edges have crumbled all change what a driveway patch takes. Having me look at it doesn't sign you up for anything.
Frequently asked questions
Is two inches of asphalt thick enough for a driveway?
Over a solid, well compacted base, yes. Two inches of hot mix is the working minimum on a residential drive. When I cut in an asphalt patch I match or beat what's already there, usually 2 to 3 inches over squared, cleaned edges. Go thinner and that pothole patch starts shoving around on you by the second August.
Will patching tear up the good pavement around it?
No. We saw cut straight lines so the surrounding blacktop doesn't get chewed at the edge, and with infrared patching we reheat and blend right into it, no cutting at all. Sloppy asphalt patch repair fails at the seam, and the seam is exactly where our rain gets in.
How do we get started?
Text me a photo and the address, or call (504) 607-7395 and I'll come look.
Contact New Orleans Asphalt Paving now
Ready to get that hole dealt with? The number is (504) 607-7395, and asphalt patching is most of what we do between the bigger overlay jobs. Depth, access and how far the edges have already crumbled away move the price far more than the size of the hole does, which is why I want eyes on it first.
One thing I won't do is drop cold patch asphalt repair into standing water and call it a repair. It pumps straight back out the first time a delivery truck rolls across it, usually within a week. If the same driveway patch keeps sinking in the same square of your parking lot, there's water sitting down in the base, and that's a dig, not a top-up.
We're here weekdays, nine to five, and messages get called back.