Do-it-yourself asphalt driveway seal coating...

This time of year, in many parts of the country, sealing your asphalt driveway is the last thing on many homeowners minds.  However...  Should you be fortunate enough to live in the warmer climates of the sunny south...  Seal coating season is here!! (actually if you are dealing with professionals using the right sealers and additives it's really seal coating season all year long...)


Many home owners here in the south know that now is the prime time of year to tackle home improvement projects outside.  The weather is typically perfect for most outside projects.  It's not too hot, too windy or too wet (most of the time).


One of these projects for the Do-it-Yourself crowd is sealing their asphalt / pavement driveways. For some, this is a project that the home owner is determined to do themselves to "Save Money"...  There are other home owners who have sealed their driveways for years and are content to handle this themselves because they enjoy it.


We at South Florida SealCoat are professionals who do this for a living, we repair, seal and install new asphalt for both residential and commercial properties.  However on our blog we are here to share useful, practical  information with you.  So we would like to describe for you what many typical home owners experience...  It's our attempt at truth with a smattering of humor.  Then We'll help you with some very useful information...


The typical Do-It-Yourself homeowner often has the illusion that doing it themselves is a way of saving money. 


If you have ever sealed a driveway yourself you know that it can be back breaking labor. You will need to by several buckets of the sealer at a hardware or home improvement store. Most likely, the buckets you will be purchasing will have an inferior blend of sealer compared to what almost any reputable seal coater will use. 


The sealers available at hardware stores are usually water based (also called asphalt emulation) and have a high percentage of solids, i.e. sand and clay. Stir one bucket and you know what I’m talking about. Hardware store brands know that the average homeowner falsely believes that large amounts of sand are needed for traction. They also know that sand is a very cheap additive.


You will discover that as you open the buckets (spend the $4.99 for the Bucket tool), that they are not all consistent as some will be very thick, some will be VERY thin... All will have to be stirred / mixed throughly. (we strongly encourage you to disregard the "NO Stir Guarantee") If you didn't purchase a universal mixing paddle or a stucco mixing paddle (about $10 - 12) that attaches to your drill you will most likely give up trying to stir by hand and drive back to the store for one (this is HIGHLY reccomended by the way)


Once all of the buckets are mixed to a similar well blended consistency and have lugged many of these 50lb buckets around on your driveway for half a day in the blazing sun, you probably will have ruined at least one pair of shoes, one pair of pants, a shirt, and a junky hardware store roller, wooden brush and/or squeegee, you will come to the conclusion that you have not purchased enough sealer. (most of the time homeowners find that the suggested coverage rates just don't seem to apply to their driveway.)  You will then have to drive back to the store a soiled, broken and bitter man (or woman)...


OK...  So a little attempt at some humor with a fair amount of facts thrown in.. (I know I'll never make it in stand up comedy... so I won't quit my day job...)


Please read our next posting for some very helpful and piratical hints for the Do-It-Yourself Homeowner...


Thanks,


Brian
South Florida SealCoat
954.237.9864
SealCoat911.com