Asphalt Repair & Pothole Patching in Arvada, CO
Same-week repair visits · cut-and-patch, not skim-coat · crack sealing before winter
A pothole your tire finds every single morning doesn't fix itself, and it doesn't stay the same size either. We repair driveways, lots, and drive lanes with a cut-and-patch method: saw-cut the damaged section back to solid asphalt, then compact new hot mix into the space, not a thin skim coat over the problem.
Warning Signs Worth Calling About Before They Get Worse
Alligator cracking, a connected web of cracks that looks like reptile skin, means the base has failed underneath and the surface is next. Raveling, where loose stone starts separating from the surface, means the binder is breaking down from UV exposure. Birdbaths, low spots where water pools after every rain instead of draining, usually mean the original grade was never cut right. Catch any of these early and it's a patch. Ignore them through a winter and it's usually a full section replacement.
We got a call last February from a homeowner near Van Bibber Park whose "small crack" from October had turned into a foot-wide gap by spring, exactly the freeze-thaw mechanism at work. Filled and sealed in October, that job would have been a $150 fix instead of the $600 patch it became.
Cold Patch vs. Hot-Mix Repair
Cold patch, sold in bags at most hardware stores, is asphalt that doesn't require heating to apply. It's genuinely useful as a same-day temporary fix, but it doesn't bond as tightly as hot mix and typically needs redoing. Our repairs use hot mix, compacted with a plate compactor while it's still at working temperature, which is the difference between a patch that lasts a season and one that lasts years.
| Repair Type | Typical Price |
|---|---|
| Single pothole, cut-and-patch | $200 – $600 |
| Crack sealing, per linear foot | $3 – $6 |
| Section replacement (100–300 sq ft) | $900 – $2,600 |
Asphalt Repair Questions
Is a pothole repair permanent or just temporary?
A proper repair, where we saw-cut the damaged section back to solid asphalt and compact new hot mix into it, is permanent for that section of driveway or lot. Cold-patch material from a bag, the kind sold for DIY pothole fills, is the temporary version and typically needs redoing within a year.
Can you match the color and texture of the surrounding asphalt?
Reasonably close, though a patch is never perfectly invisible. New hot mix is darker than surrounding asphalt that's had a season or two of UV exposure, and that difference fades within about a year as the patch weathers to match.
How much crack is too much to fill and not replace?
Isolated cracks, even fairly long ones, are usually a fine candidate for crack sealing. If they're spreading into a connected, web-like pattern across a section of driveway, called alligator cracking, that's a sign the base underneath has failed, and filling the surface cracks won't fix the actual problem, only resurfacing or replacement will.
Related: if repairs are covering more than a third of the surface, look at resurfacing instead, and see sealcoating for keeping new patches from cracking again.