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A little regular maintenance will help your asphalt driveway look great and last a long time.  One of the most important maintenance tasks is seal coating the driveway.  Seal coating is applied to the surface of the driveway to fill small cracks and to protect the asphalt against the elements.

Asphalt seal coating should be applied about every three years.  You should wait until the previous coating has worn off to apply a new coating.  Applying seal coating too often will result in unsightly peeling and flaking of the coating.  Waiting too long between seal coating will accelerate the wear and tear on the driveway.

You can purchase seal coating made for do-it-yourself application at your local home improvement center or you can have it professionally applied by your asphalt driveway contractor.  Professional grade seal coating usually has consistently good results.

Seal coating sold to homeowners can vary in quality between brands and even the same brand of seal coating can vary in color and quality from batch to batch.   If you choose to tackle the job yourself, it’s worth the extra cost to buy high quality seal coating and try to buy all of your cans from the same batch.  If you have to buy cans from different batches, try mixing some of the seal coating to avoid abrupt color changes.

Be sure to follow the instructions on the container.  The driveway should be clean and free of oil, transmission fluid, and other stains.  Fill larger cracks with crack filler and allow the product to cure thoroughly before applying the seal coating.  Choose a warm, dry day with no rain in the forecast for several days and start early so that you can get the job done and allow the seal coating time to dry before nightfall.