Blacktop Driveway Crack Repair

Oh hey, how you doing? Just bringing out the last tool to start my blacktop crack repair job

Great weather today, blacktops dry, and that's exactly what you need when you get ready to

finish a blacktop repair job. Here's what we've got. First thing we need to do before we get

started in case the safety police are watching, it's time to get on the new cool safety glasses

Oh yeah, what do you think about that? Now what we got to do, first thing that it

says on the instructions on the caulk or the repair sealant that we're going to

use, you got to clean out the crack. I like to use a regular broom and it

works really well. Just go ahead and sweep it out, get all that loose debris

and loose sand out of the way. Oh yeah, simple as that. And once again, remember

the black top's got to be nice and dry. So let me show you what I've got, what we're

going to use today. We've got this nice crack and this particular crack is kind of like

a V shape. And because it's V shape, it's really pretty hard to install a backer rod

that sometimes you have to use when you install a crack sealant with black top. Usually you

use a backer rod when the crack is shaped more like this, where the sides of the crack

are pretty parallel and you get those cracks very frequently in a blacktop driveway but not this particular one So what we going to do first is all you have to do is start with this compound

It's an asphalt repair. Check this out. It says it right here. Asphalt repair. It's got all the

nice instructions and it looks it's just like really caulking and simple. All you do is go

ahead and start to squeeze it out being really careful that you don't put too much of the

material too high because you'll have a real mess on your hands and you can see how easy that comes

out. It just flows out of the tube and one of the reasons it flows really well is because I made

sure it wasn't too cold out here. The outside temperature right now here is about 60-65 degrees

and this material flows just beautifully out of this tube and you can see that. Now check this out

get a little closer here, I want to show you something. I'm coming up to a really big wide area

and I want to fill that up but not too high and you'll see in a minute why. And there's another

one coming up right next to it. Oh yeah, look at this right here. You can see a big area

I kind of put the sealant in there making sure it's not too high. All right, now here's what I

what I want to show you. The next step is I've got this cute little stick. It's actually

from a piece of mulch Check this out You can see it about a quarter inch wide And I found it in the mulch actually right next to the blacktop drive And I just used that coming down here close I want to show you something I actually want to spread this sealant so that it smears on the blacktop on either side

of the caulk, and I'm also making sure that the caulk sealant is not too high. And this

This makes for a really, really good bond so that the cracked sealant material will not

come out this winter when it gets really, really cold. Now but down here where it's really, really wide, before I started the job I went around

and I found some of the rocks that had actually come out of the blacktop drive

What you do is actually put these rocks right in the sealant compound

I know it sounds crazy, but this actually helps. It helps disguise the crack for one

And it helps make the crack sealant work a lot better because it makes it stronger

And you just push those rocks down into the sealant, and then you push the material up against it

so that the cracks fill up with material and it sticks well against these little rocks

The final step in the process is to actually take some of this magic compound that I have

in this can next to me. Oh wait till you see this trick A lot of people don do this This is one of the secret ask the builder tricks Before I started the job I went to the sides of the driveway

and I found some sand. And some of the sand came from the stones and the rocks around the driveway

but it actually matches perfectly some of the rocks that are actually in the blacktop

And you go ahead and just sprinkle this sand onto the fresh compound

Look at that, simple as that. And this sand does two things

Number one, it will prevent tracking in case somebody makes a mistake and walks on this material

and from it spreading onto the driveway. It does that, that's really important

But number two, it's actually going to help disguise this crack so that the crack looks more like the actual blacktop on either side of the crack

It's that simple to patch a blacktop crack. I'm Tim Carter for askthebuilder.com

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