A big advantage of having decorated asphalt driveways is the ease of repairs. Decorative asphalt driveway repairs can be easily and seamlessly made. When people think about driveway repairs it may be easy to assume it requires repairs because it is broken. However, that does not necessarily need to be the case. Sometimes it is not the asphalt driveway that needs repair, but rather what lies beneath it: cables, utility pipes, electrical connections, etc.
When built correctly, a decorative asphalt driveway will last for years. But the facts of life dictate that it may be possible for an asphalt, stone or brick driveway to be torn apart regardless of how durable it is. When this happens you want to be able to restore your driveway to its original condition with a minimum amount of cost.
Asphalt presents clear advantages for repairs when compared against brick driveways and even stone driveways. Brick driveways, just like stone driveways, are very labor intensive when it comes to removal. The removal process can include a considerable amount of manual labor. After the brick or stone driveway has been removed, the adequate preparation of the substrate can be challenging and will often require replacement of much larger areas than the pipe or cable that was serviced.
Other types of decorative driveways are crushed rock driveways and stamped concrete driveways. Crushed rock driveways are bound together with concrete; this makes them have similar, if not the same, properties as stamped concrete driveways. Crushed rock driveways and stamped concrete driveways lack the plasticity that asphalt driveways possess. This makes it very difficult to do a seamless repair. Very often, the maintenance of a small section of piping under the driveway will require complete replacement of the crushed rock driveway or the stamped concrete driveway. If complete replacement is not done, noticeable repair patches will be blotching the driveway and the crushed rock driveway will not look aesthetically pleasing.
Another big factor regarding driveway repair is the regular wear and tear that driveways go through. Asphalt driveways possess flexibility and plasticity that stone, brick, crushed rock and stamped concrete driveways do not. This is very important with freeze-thaw cycles. Brick driveways or stone driveways will shift and budge under the expansion and contraction of freezing water or melting ice that seeped in between bricks or stones. As soon as brick or stone driveways begin to shift, they become a trip hazard.
Crushed rock driveways and stamped concrete driveways are very rigid. This lack of plasticity results in unsightly cracks on the surface of decorative driveways. After cracks appear, the seal on the driveway surface is broken. This will allows seepage of water into the substrate of the driveway, often compounding the problem and accelerating the degrading process on the driveway. Decorative asphalt driveways are able to contract and expand along with substrate movements without breaking down or cracking.
Another weakness of crushed rock driveways or stamped concrete driveways is its susceptibility to chemical damage from deicing salts and agents. Decorative asphalt driveways done by Driveway Impressions use the proprietary StreetPrint process. StreetPrint driveways are immune to chemical damage from deicing agents.
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