Answers & Info

About Driveways for New Construction

We don’t recommend a finish coat for driveways at brand-new homes with garages for at least a year. The base coat will serve you for the short run and prevent some problems.

Others may go right in and leave you with a nice looking finished driveway right away, but … Soil will settle around the footings of your garage when it is first constructed. And the driveway around it will settle, too. If you fix it, you’ll have a blemish on the surface where the repair was done, and it will always stand out.

That’s why we recommend leaving the base coat while the ground settles and, during this time, let in any heavy landscaping or other construction equipment. After that we’ll come back and put down the top coat of asphalt.

No need for fixes, and your driveway will look smooth and uniform for years to come.

As soon as you have your driveway in, back the loam on either side right up to the edges to prevent any washout or edge damage should a car be driven off the surface.

Driveway Resurfacing or Top Coats

We generally run a leveling coarse over existing driveway to fill in any low areas before we begin paving the top or finish coat. That also gives a good, tacky surface for the top coat to stick to.

The thickness of the leveling depends on how bad the driveway is. After it’s compacted, we finish with 1½ inches of asphalt.

How Soon Can I Use My New Driveway?

Your finished driveway surface can take the weight of your vehicle after anywhere from 2 to 4 days — the hotter the weather, the longer the wait. Definitely play it safe before November.

But no matter how cold or warm, be careful within a year of driveway installation to avoid turning your steering wheel left or right without the vehicle moving, or the weight over the tires can cause scarring or gouge into the driveway surface. It’s just a good idea to never cut the wheel while standing still — it saves tire wear, too!

We Stand Behind Our Work

Frost heaves happen in New England.

Through the years we’ve found that the frost in Massachusetts can go down as far as 4 feet, but usually 1 to 3 feet. It would not be practical to prep an asphalt driveway that deep, and it would be way too costly.

We’ll usually go down 12-18 inches on new or totally reconstructed driveways. Rocks will work their way up, and when they have we’ve gone back and resolved any problem with the pavement and subsurface.

All in all, I do driveways the way I would want mine done.