Resurfacing Driveway in New Orleans, LA

Concrete Resurfacing

Not every slab wants asphalt on top of it. Plenty of folks call us about a concrete apron or patio that's gone chalky and gray, and concrete resurfacing is the honest answer there: grind or shot blast the surface open, chase out the cracks, then trowel down a polymer modified overlay a quarter inch or so thick and broom finish it.

Here's the part nobody likes hearing. If your slab is settling, and half the ground in this town is settling, an overlay just follows it down. Concrete that's cracked clean through and rocking under your foot needs to come out, not get a new coat.

Done right, you keep foot traffic off it a day and your car off it about three. Done in August heat with no cure protection, it flashes off and peels in sheets by spring.

Asphalt Resurfacer

Walk into any hardware store here and you'll find buckets labeled asphalt resurfacer, a squeegee coating about an eighth of an inch thick. It'll hide hairline cracks for a season. Then a New Orleans August cooks it chalky, and it never did a thing for a base that's moving underneath you anyway.

What we mean by asphalt resurfacing is a real overlay. We sweep the surface clean, saw out and patch the soft spots, shoot a tack coat so the new mat actually grabs, then lay hot mix at an inch and a half to two inches and roll it while it's still steaming. Same material and same crew as new asphalt paving in New Orleans, just placed over a base that's still sound.

Skip the tack coat and the whole thing peels up in sheets by year two.

Asphalt Parking Lot Resurfacing

A lot fails in patches, not all at once. The lane where every delivery truck cuts the corner goes first, then the dumpster pad, then the low spot that holds water for two days after an August downpour.

Asphalt parking lot resurfacing starts with milling: we cut the edges down at the entrances and against the curbs so the new mat ties in flush instead of ramping up over your gutter. Then we sweep it clean, tack it, and lay an inch and a half to two inches of hot mix, rolling while it's still hot enough to take compaction. Failed base gets cut out and patched first. Skip that and the same alligator cracking telegraphs through your new surface by next summer.

Most parking lot resurfacing we phase half at a time so you keep selling, and striping goes back down once the mat has cured.

Paving Resurfacing

Paving resurfacing is the middle option, and most of the time it's the right one. Nothing gets torn out. We sweep the surface clean, fill and seal the cracks that matter, run a tack coat so the new layer actually bonds, then lay an inch and a half to two inches of hot mix over the top and roll it while it's still hot enough to move. Most residential jobs are done in a day, and you're driving on it that evening.

Here's the catch. An asphalt resurfacer covers what's on top, not what's failing underneath. Soft base, water sitting in it, a live oak root lifting one corner, and the new mat will crack right along the old line by next spring. Lipstick on a pig. So we cut out and rebuild those spots before any resurfacing goes down.

Blacktop Resurfacing

Blacktop and asphalt are the same stuff, just two words for it. What matters is what goes on top and how hot it is when it lands. We put down an inch and a half to two inches of hot mix over a swept, tacked surface, and that tack coat is the step that disappears when a crew is racing an afternoon thunderstorm. Skip it and the new layer peels off the old one in sheets by the second summer.

Hot mix leaves the plant around 300 degrees and has to be rolled before it falls under about 185. In August you've got room. On a damp January morning with wind coming off the river, you've got minutes, which is why blacktop resurfacing here starts early and never at four o'clock.

And a bucket of cold asphalt resurfacer? That's for hairline cracks, not a surface that's already raveling.

Parking Lot Resurfacing

A lot is not just a big driveway. Traffic patterns are different, water goes different places, and the dumpster pad takes more abuse in a month than a residence takes in a year. Before any parking lot resurfacing, I walk the drive aisles looking for alligator cracking and soft spots, because an overlay laid over a failed base will telegraph right back through by the next summer. Grease near a kitchen door gets cut out, not covered; asphalt will not bond to it.

We mill down at thresholds and drains so you don't end up with birdbaths holding water by the front door.

Most lots we phase in halves so you stay open, and striping goes back down after the mat cures. Square footage, patching depth and how many stalls you need laid back out drive the number.

What the job involves

Here's what actually happens on the day.

We start by getting the surface clean and honest. That means blowing it off, pulling the weeds that came up through the cracks, and killing anything growing at the edges, because grass will find its way back through two inches of new asphalt faster than you'd believe. Then I walk the drive with you and mark the soft spots. If the base has given up, an overlay won't save it. Around here, with our soil moving the way it does, I find failed base under maybe one drive in four. We cut those sections out square, fix the stone underneath, and compact it before anything else goes down.

Next comes tack coat, sprayed over the whole surface. This is the step that gets skipped, and it's why you see overlays peeling up in sheets a couple of summers later. Tack is the glue. Skip it and you've laid a very expensive blanket.

Then hot mix goes down, usually an inch and a half to two inches compacted, raked at the apron so the transition to the street isn't a speed bump, and rolled while it's still hot. Most residential jobs are one day. Add base repair and it's two.

One honest note. A resurfacing driveway job is not the same thing as the bucket of asphalt resurfacer they sell you at the hardware store. That stuff is a coating. This is pavement.

Give it 24 to 48 hours before you park on it, longer in August, and keep the wheels rolling when you turn for the first few weeks. Hot asphalt and a power-steering scrub don't mix.

What it costs

I can't put a number on this page and have it mean anything, because two driveways the same size in the same block can price out very differently.

Here's what actually moves it. Square footage first, then how thick we lay the overlay, usually an inch and a half to two inches of hot mix depending on whether you're parking a sedan or a work truck on it. Then the condition of what's underneath. If the base is still solid and we're just capping tired, oxidized asphalt, that's the straightforward version. If there's alligator cracking, soft spots that pump water when it rains, or a low corner that holds a puddle for two days after a summer storm, we cut those out and rebuild them before a single scoop of new mix goes down. That's the part that changes the invoice, and it's also the part that decides whether you get eight to twelve years or eighteen months.

Access matters too. A lot of driveways here run narrow between the house and the fence line, and if the paver won't fit, we're placing by hand and that takes longer. Live oak roots are their own conversation. So is tying into the street apron and getting the height right at the garage threshold, because a resurfacing driveway job that raises the slab an inch too high sends the next hard rain straight under your door.

An asphalt resurfacer over a base that's already given up is money you'll spend twice. I'd rather tell you that up front.

Call us, tell us roughly how big the drive is and what it's doing, and we'll come look and give you a real figure for your property, not a range that shifts once we show up.

Why choose us for this

You've got a driveway that's gone gray and crazed, maybe a low spot by the apron that holds water for two days after one of those August afternoon downpours. You patched it once. It looked patched. And what you really want is to hand this to somebody, go back to work, and not have to think about your own driveway again for years.

So here's what I won't do to you.

No number that grows: The figure I write down is the figure you pay, unless you ask me mid job to extend the pad or add an apron. Surprises on an invoice are for other trades.

No vanishing crew: When we start resurfacing your driveway, that's the job we're on until the roller comes off it. Nobody's slipping over to a parking lot in Metairie for two days while your car sits on the street.

No sign-today pressure: My estimate doesn't expire Friday. If you want to sit on it through football season, sit on it.

No mess left behind: Tack coat gets on things if you're careless with it. We keep it off your concrete, your garage floor and your neighbor's curb, and we haul the debris out.

I'm not the cheapest quote you'll get, and that's deliberate. An asphalt resurfacer only bonds if the old surface is cleaned and tacked properly and the new mat gets rolled while it's still hot, and that takes hours some crews would rather bill somewhere else. After the best part of 19 years of asphalt paving in New Orleans, I know what skipping that looks like on this clay in year two.

The estimate itself costs you nothing, and nothing about it obligates you to book the work.

Frequently asked questions