Cracks and potholes in your driveway never fix themselves. If you live around Bixby Knolls or out near the Traffic Circle, you already know how the relentless California sun bakes asphalt until it gets brittle. Add in a sudden winter downpour, and those tiny hairline cracks turn into crumbled potholes faster than you would think. Fixing Asphalt Cracks and Potholes early saves you from a full Asphalt Replacement down the road in Long Beach, CA.
What You Can DIY
Small cracks under a quarter-inch wide and surface-level blemishes are great weekend projects. You do not need heavy machinery for these small Asphalt Paving repairs. Grab a jug of cold-pour liquid crack filler from the hardware store, clean out the dirt with a wire brush, and pour it in. For tiny surface depressions, a bag of cold patch asphalt can buy you some time. Just shovel it in, rake it level, and tamp it down hard with a hand tamper or the back of a square shovel. If you skip the compaction step, your car tires will just pull the loose material right back out.
When to Call a Professional
Not every pavement problem can be solved with a $15 bucket from the store. You will want to bring in a crew like Diamond Asphalt when you are looking at alligator cracking that covers a large section, deep potholes that expose the sub-base, or areas where water pools instead of draining properly. If the underlying soil has failed—which happens often with the shifting clay and sandy mixes we see across different parts of Long Beach—surface patches will not hold. Diamond Asphalt cuts out the damaged section, repairs the base properly, and lays down hot-mix asphalt that actually bonds and lasts for years in Long Beach.
Preparing Your Patching Project
Preparation makes or breaks the Asphalt Repair. Sweep away every last bit of loose debris, leaves, and oil residue before applying any product. If you are using cold patch, make sure the surface is completely dry so the material adheres to the edges of the cut. Pick a warm day when the temperature is steadily climbing, because asphalt products hate curing in damp or chilly morning fog.
Keeping up with small repairs keeps your property looking sharp and prevents safety hazards. Tackle what you can on a Saturday afternoon, and call Diamond Asphalt for Asphalt Paving work in Long Beach, CA, whenever the job gets too big for a wheelbarrow and a shovel.