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I had my driveway redone about 4-5 years ago due to deterioration and depressions forming under the tire treads (fwiw, the car is kept in the garage, not on the driveway)
Last year the area at the top heaved, cracked and depressed; the contractor cut out the area and "re-did" it (I have no clue what he did, it just looks crappy and ****ty work)
The tire tread depressions came back this fall (poor sub base prep?) and I'm thinking of replacing the driveway this spring (fwiw #2: same contractor did a neighbor's d/w, who keeps his GMC truck on the d/w all the time, and zero tread depressions)
The driveway is about 50' long, a moderate incline.
What's on your driveway, how has it held up over time, and what specs to demand so I don't get ripped off again.
I assume you currently have asphalt. This issue is most definitely the base. It sounds like it was not compacted properly.
Soil could also be an issue. What town do you live in?
I would suggest 3"+ of RCA base compacted 2x.
Most importantly, contractor should wait 4-6 weeks for the asphalt install. You should drive and park on the RCA. This will compact the areas under your car and you won't have ruts or depressions.
Finally 2-4" of asphalt. Make sure you get the best (finest sized aggregate) grade of asphalt.
We have the asphalt that was here when we bought the house in 2009. Depressions, under the usual spot where the tires end up, started appearing around 2013. We stopped parking in the exact same spot. Tree roots are starting the demo process for us for our eventual conversion from asphalt to road-grade clay brick.
The only question we have to decide is whether to install two parallel strips of brick or install a full brick driveway.
At our Levittown house, we had two concrete strips with brick down the middle until it reached the all-concrete pad at the garage. The concrete pad cracked during curing.
Clay brick is, by far, the most durable material (lasting 100+ yrs.) though it's the most expensive to install.
We are former Ny'ers and have just faced that same decision. I love the look of concrete, but, we get very little to no sun on the front side of my home. My front walk becomes a skating rink unless we get the little snow we get off the walk really well. The driveway which is blacktop melts the snow that is left after we shovel. This was our experience on LI too, so consider which side of the street you live on too.
In response to Kbinspections and nuts2uiam: The driveway is currently asphalt, and north-facing (ty for the heads-up about snow melting)
House in North Shore Nassau County
This guy did a LOT of homes on my street, and they all held up better than mine; he was mid-priced with the 5 quotes that I got.
Since your driveway heaved, poor drainage and/or poor asphalt seal is letting water build up under the surface. You might have a lot of clay in your soil preventing the water from draining.
Asphalt is not made to last and the re-sealing or fillers don't do much to help it. Wasted enough time & money doing that sort of thing. Ours has cracks but the lower cost & snow-melting properties are attractive enough to do again. Ideally we'd do pavers like we had at our last house but that formed depressions over time so like mentioned - you have to be careful about the right foundation first.
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