Armor Plate Your Driveway with Chip Seal Paving

There is probably nothing that you can do to your homes to instantly increase the curb appeal of your home than to have the driveway paved. Instead of a cracked and stained cement pad or lumpy, decayed asphalt strip the area shimmers with a blue-black coating that is the envy of the neighborhood.

To begin with the base is compacted and leveled and compacted. Then a paving machine delivers the pad. Regular asphalt is a combination of small stones, sand and an asphalt cement which is heated into a liquid. This mixture is formed into place on the driveway.

Now there is a new twist to this old, time-honored practice that will add years to your driveway. Because in addition to the standard paving job there is a new method of laying pavement that is becoming more popular because because of its durability and resistance to weathering. It is called chip seal paving.

Chip seal paving begins with a 2 inch to 8 base like regular paving. However, to increase its durability in colder climates 30% of the asphalt cement is replaced with water. This water then evaporates when the hot asphalt is laid which tempers the surface of the pavement into a more hardy veneer.

When the water is completely evaporated a spreader evenly distributes a thin layer of gravel over the fresh pad. A power roller then sets the small pieces of rock into the surface for the final coat on the new driveway. These chips act as an armor plating to the new driveway deterring the blows from snow shovels and the grinding of winter ice.