Driveway Sealing Products
A gray and weathered driveway not only makes the rest of your home look bad, but it can also cost you money. When asphalt breaks down through exposure to the elements and the constant wear and tear of your car driving over it, it can crack and even begin to come apart. Replacing a driveway is expensive, but a regular program of sealing it helps it to last for a lifetime. Does this Spark an idea?
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Asphalt Sealant
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Asphalt is a petroleum product and it serves as a good sealant on a black top driveway. It is the same product used to bond together the gravel and other substrates in the original paving. It is a natural product and gives off no toxic fumes when applied and has a relatively good life span of two to three years.
Coal Tar Based Sealant
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Coal tar is a byproduct of baking coal in the production of coke. It is mixed with water and bonding agents to form a sealant for paved surfaces. Though commonly available, the Asphalt Institute reports that coal tar has a higher level of toxicity than petroleum based sealants. The U.S. Geological survey has stated that the sealant has a shorter life span as well.
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Acrylic Sealants
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The acrylic asphalt sealants available contain 100 percent man-made products and are much more expensive than their coal tar and asphalt alternatives. They are impervious to damage from air and UV rays and are available in colors other than black. Manufacturers also cite the protection their acrylic coatings offer from oil and gasoline, the most common and most damaging substances that drip on driveways.
Crack Sealants
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The biggest enemy to the life of a driveway is cracking. Cracks allow water to get below the surface and, in the winter, freeze and force the crack to become larger. As the cracks deepen, the water damage begins to reach the base gravel beneath the black top it will heave and break the driveway apart. Heavier bodied sealants are used to fill and seal cracks, either between complete sealings or as a repair prior to a fresh sealing. They are available in all three formulations.
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References
- Photo Credit asphalt image by AGphotographer from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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precautionpete
Jul 19, 2010
Warren, May I suggest something in future articles that you write. First, you may want to research your facts better. There are two examples of this. In the section that is titled "Coal Tar Based Sealants" There are two sentences that are incorrect. The first being your claim that the Asphalt Institute supposedly reported that "coal tar has a high level of toxicity". I do not see any evidence of that statement being true. The second item is that you claim that USGS claims that coal tar based sealant has a shorter life span than asphalt. There are two problems with this. First, what does USGS know about driveway coatings? Second, that fact is not true. It is common knowledge that asphalt based sealant has 1/3 to 1/2 the life than that of coal tar based sealer. Third, you mention that asphalt is a natural product, again not true since it is derived from crude oil. Fourth,...
