Since I live in a rural area, our neighborhood is mostly dirt roads. Most houses in the area also have dirt driveways. One of the things that led us to purchase the house we bought was that it had an asphalt driveway.
I neglected to consider that asphalt driveways need to be maintained and repaired.
There is one spot on our driveway that is basically a super slow motion sinkhole. It’s about the size of our Yaris, actually, and I’ve basically ignored it for a decade as it has slowly settled down to the point that I am now worried about scraping the bottom of the car if I am not careful. So this weekend I decided to start repairing it.
A few weeks ago I called a couple of driveway repair places to see what they would charge to repair our driveway. The lowest estimate came in just under $8,000. Apparently it isn’t cheap to repair driveways. Now, they wanted to repair more than just the sinkhole, there are other parts of the driveway that need attention too, but the sinkhole is the big deal.
So I decided to do it myself. Of course I have no experience in driveway repair and the sum total of my tools and resources are a credit card, Home Depot, a rake, a shovel and a garden hoe. So I got to work.
First I purchased some gravel in sacks (gravel is basically $5 for 50 pounds, seems like a deal to me). Then I purchased some sand in sacks (sand is dirt cheap, about half the price of the gravel). And then I purchased three sacks full of asphalt driveway patch material. I know I’m going to need a lot more than three sacks, but my plan is to do it gradually so that all of the asphalt dries and sets properly, so I figure three or four sacks per week for three weeks and I’ll be done. Asphalt patch material costs just about $10 for 50 pounds.
Now, a couple years ago I patched several driveway holes and reinforced the part of the driveway that meets the road (because the snow plows have a tendency to take chunks of our driveway with them each year). Those patches turned out to be pretty dang solid, and have worked out just fine.
Anyway, after pouring, raking, smoothing the gravel, then pouring, raking and smoothing the sand, I started putting the asphalt patch material on top. That’s when the real fun started.
When I was patching small holes a couple years ago, I didn’t care that much about getting every bit of asphalt out of the bags. This time I did, especially since I figure I’m gonna need about ten bags of the stuff to fill in the hole completely. And it wouldn’t come out. I ripped the bag apart a dozen ways, and it still wouldn’t all come out, I figured there was still about five pounds of the stuff in the bag when it was “empty.” So I finally just reached inside and scooped as much out as I could by hand. After three bags of this, I had tar and asphalt completely covering my right arm up to my elbow.
You know, that stuff doesn’t come off easy.
After pounding on the asphalt patch with a board for thirty minutes or so, I decided to wash off. Wow. I tried hand soap, dish soap, apricot soap… window cleaner, all purpose cleaner… Nothing.
I was just about to try gasoline when I saw the old can of WD-40 on the shelf. What the heck, I thought, it can’t be more toxic than what was coating my arm already…. So I sprayed my arm with it and wiped it with a paper towel.
IT WAS LIKE MAGIC!!!! So now, other than some pesky spots around my fingernails and knuckles, I’m tar-free.
Since that stuff takes 24 hours to dry, I have now decided that I’m gonna do three more bags on Wednesday and finish it up on July 4th. If all goes well, I’ll have that sinkhole filled up with nice new asphalt by next week. I may even patch some of the other small holes in the driveway at the same time… If it all works out, I’ll have my driveway repaired for about $150. Which isn’t bad when compared to $8,000.
Next will be the roof and gutters….
15 users commented in " Driveway sinkholes and other home ownership tales…. "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’d like to book some time with you for a few jobs I need done….
Specifically for some painting, plumbing, landscaping, updates to fixtures, creaking boards, window replacement, sprinkler head repair, weeding, and uh… few other small things.
Sure J, just as soon as I get those same things done at my house, say 2015 or so…
J, you can borrow Mrs. Andy.
Is she as skilled with tar as the Cosmic one?
And oh yeah, he’s got feathers now, too… long story.
Well J, I’ve never seen her work with tar. But, she’s pretty good with other things that require WD-40 to remove.
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A year later, how’s the driveway sinkhole repair holding up? I just had a sinkhole open up in my driveway and I’m wondering whether I can repair it myself…
It’s holding up well, but I didn’t quite finish the job and I’ll be using six or so more bags of the asphalt patch this summer. We have a short summer where I live and it takes a while for the asphalt to harden so I wasn’t able to get the whole hole filled in. But it works well. Or at least it has for me.
To GC, did you try to repair it? I am getting ready to tackle my sinkhole in the driveway with my sixteen year old son helping me…I don’t know what the heck I am doing, but willing to give it a try.
Had torrential rains for two days and the little dimple in my asphalt driveway that I have been putting bags of asphalt patch into for a few years ended up collapsing. It has a hole now and if you look into the hole it seems to be a sink hole about 3′ in diameter and about 2′ deep. I guess my next plan is to dig it out completely and find out what the cause is and then fill it with either gravel and sand or just get some concrete poured into it. Then after it is filled I will re-asphalt that area. Any suggestions? I honestly expect to see someone from the other side of the world (Asia) come crawling out with an order of Sweet and Sour Chicken – anyway, any help would be appreciated.
It sounds like you’ve got some sort of water seepage to deal with. I would probably do exactly what you are doing, but you might want to get someone to check into water drainage under your driveway. Good luck.
I’d like an order of Mongolian Beef, please…
If you have holes that are sinking regularly and often, put the biggest and pointy rocks into those holes. With a mix of smaller gravel to fill in the gaps and keep the big rocks from shifting.
The pointy big rocks will lock together on the loose material around the sinkhole and bridge the gap. The smaller gravel will help hold the bigger rocks in place and kind of cement the mixture together.
If you have REALLY rapid sinkholes, like this doesn’t fix you for 5+ years…throw concrete chunks into the hole to fill it up most of the way, then smaller gravel to make a less porous area…and pour a couple bags of concrete mix in.
If you can’t find something to compact the holes tight, once you put the smaller gravel in, soak the gravel with a garden hose. Don’t let it turn mushy but a dark gray like it’s thoroughly wet. Do that a couple times during the day…maybe let it rain on it. And a couple days of baking in the sun should make the gravel really hard or make it crumble through meaning it’s filled in the gaps and you need to add more.
Once it’s stayed in place for the most part, then you can concrete it to seal it up better and then go over it with dirt or whatever after it’s dried solid.
Big sinkholes in driveway is a similar deal. You could have rotting tree roots making the ground sink in or underground water…big mud hole where the water is trapped for whatever reason. I’ve seen parking lots that buckle and sink because someone filled in a basement with wood and the wood rotted causing all of the layering to break down and sink in.
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