You spot it on your way to the car one morning. A hairline crack running across the driveway that looked fine last fall, now wide enough to slide a coin into. Or maybe it’s the parking lot at work, where a pothole has started eating the entrance and everyone swerves around it. That’s usually the moment people start looking for help. Asphalt paving and repair services cover a wide spectrum, from a small crack repair to a full tear-out and repave, and figuring out which one you actually need is the difference between spending a little and spending a lot. Companies like Sommerset Paving handle commercial, residential asphalt paving, and municipal work, so the same company that fixes a home driveway might also resurface a town pathway.
What Asphalt Paving and Repair Services Actually Cover
Most of what a paving company does falls into a short menu, and once you know the terms you can usually tell where your problem sits.
New installation is the full build: excavate, grade, compact a base, then lay hot asphalt over it. That’s what happens when there’s no pavement yet, or when the old surface has to come out entirely.
Patching and pothole filling deal with isolated failures. A single hole or a small broken section gets cut out and filled, rather than touching the rest of the surface.
Crack filling is exactly what it sounds like. Narrow cracks are cleaned and treated with filler or sealant to reduce water infiltration and slow further deterioration.
Resurfacing, sometimes called an overlay, lays a fresh layer of asphalt over a surface that’s worn on top but still sound underneath.
Sealcoating is maintenance, not repair. A protective coat goes over good pavement to shield it from water and sun.
Scope changes with the job. A residential driveway, a commercial parking lot, and a municipal walking path all need different equipment, prep, and traffic planning. A crew set up for a driveway isn’t automatically the right fit for a busy lot, so it’s worth asking what kind of work a company does most.
Repair, Resurface, or Repave? How to Tell What You Need
Here’s the logic that matches the fix to the damage.
If you’re looking at narrow surface cracks without deeper pavement damage, crack filling may be enough. Treat them early and you can reduce the amount of water reaching the pavement layers below, where freeze-thaw cycles can contribute to further damage.
A pothole or one broken patch in otherwise decent pavement calls for patching. There’s no reason to touch the whole surface when the failure is contained to one spot.
When the surface is tired and rough but the base under it is still solid, resurfacing is the sweet spot. A new overlay gives you a fresh top without the cost of a full rebuild.
Full replacement is the call when the trouble runs deeper than the surface. If the base has failed, no top coat will hold for long. Municipalities track this kind of decline through pavement preservation programs that time each treatment to the pavement’s actual condition, and the same idea scales down to a home driveway.
Signs that may point toward deeper structural or drainage problems include:
- Alligator cracking, the interconnected web of cracks that spreads across a wide area
- Water that stands and pools instead of draining off
- Potholes that keep reopening after being patched
- Large sections crumbling or sinking rather than a few isolated cracks
These signs can point to deeper structural or drainage problems that may require more than a surface repair.
What Good Prep and Sealcoating Add to the Lifespan
The part of the job you never see is the part that decides how long it lasts. Base prep means grading the ground, compacting it properly, and making sure water drains away instead of pooling. Rush that and even the best asphalt on top will crack and sink early. Slow down and do it right, and the surface has something stable to ride on for years.
Sealcoating can help protect asphalt that is still in reasonably good condition. A sealcoat puts a barrier between your asphalt and its two worst enemies, water and UV. Water gets into cracks, freezes, expands, and pries the pavement apart. Sun dries out the binder and leaves the surface brittle. A fresh coat slows both.
Timing depends on your climate, traffic, and the shape the surface is in, so a good contractor will look at your pavement before quoting a schedule rather than selling you a fixed calendar. The point of preservation work, as the folks who manage public roads put it, is to keep good pavement good, because it’s far cheaper than rebuilding bad pavement. That logic holds whether you own a driveway or a parking lot.
How to Choose an Asphalt Contractor Worth Hiring
Once you know what you need, the job is finding someone who’ll do it right. A few things separate the crews worth hiring from the ones you’ll regret.
Check whether your state or local jurisdiction requires a contractor license or registration for the work, verify any required credential, and ask for proof of appropriate insurance. A qualified asphalt contractor will hand it over without hesitation.
Insist on a written estimate that itemizes the work. Make sure the written estimate clearly explains the base preparation, materials, paving work, and any drainage or repair work included. If prep is missing or vague, that tells you something.
Ask about the warranty and get it in writing. A real warranty means the company expects the work to hold up. References and photos of past jobs are worth chasing down too, especially for work similar to yours.
Be wary of the driveway deal that seems too good to walk away from, the crew going door to door offering to pave your driveway cheap because they have leftover material from a nearby job. That leftover material pitch is a recognized scam warning sign, especially when an unsolicited contractor pressures you to make a quick decision.
Getting a Job That Lasts
The whole thing comes down to three habits. Match the fix to the actual damage instead of over- or under-treating it. Insist on proper base prep, because that’s what holds everything above it together. And keep up with the right maintenance, including crack treatment and sealcoating when needed, before small problems become more expensive. If you want one quick tell that a crew knows what they’re doing, look at the estimate: a detailed written quote should clearly explain how the base will be prepared and what paving, repair, and drainage work is included.
