Asphalt Paving in Greensboro, NC

Asphalt paving in Greensboro is mostly a ground problem. Under the lawns of the Piedmont Triad sits the red clay that North Carolina adopted as its state soil, the Cecil series: brown sandy loam on top, a kaolinite clay subsoil below. That clay is firm when dry and weak when soaked, and Greensboro gets close to 44 inches of rain a year. An asphalt driveway or parking lot here lasts when the clay under it is kept dry and covered by enough compacted stone. When it is not, the surface cracks, ruts and settles, usually where the tires run.

Why the base matters more than the blacktop

A typical residential build, as HomeGuide describes it, is 2 to 3 inches of compacted asphalt over 6 to 8 inches of compacted gravel base, with 8 to 10 inches of base and 3 to 4 inches of asphalt for driveways that carry heavy vehicles. We probe the subgrade before we price anything. Spots that pump or give under a boot get dug out and replaced with crushed stone, and the base is shaped so water runs off the edges instead of soaking back into the clay.

Ice, freezing rain and summer heat

Greensboro's winters are mild by northern standards, but Piedmont Triad International Airport still records about 75 nights a year at or below freezing, with an average January low of 30.1 degrees. The city's own climate records note that freezing rain from cold-air damming can be a bigger problem than snow. Water that gets into a crack and freezes pries it wider. Summers swing the other way: hot, humid days soften the surface, and a new driveway can scuff if cars turn on it too soon. Sealing cracks before winter and timing paving for warm, dry ground both matter here.

When the right answer is not new asphalt

Not every tired driveway needs to be torn out. If the base is still firm and the damage is on the surface, an overlay can add years for less than a full replacement, and HomeGuide puts the savings at roughly 20 to 30 percent. If you are seeing alligator cracking, potholes that keep coming back or edges breaking off, the base has usually failed, and paving over it means the cracks return. We show you what we find so you can see why we recommend one or the other.

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Driveway permits in Greensboro

The section of driveway between your property line and the street sits in the public right-of-way. The City of Greensboro uses a driveway permit application for building driveways in that space: the work must meet current City standards, the city's Department of Transportation wants 48 hours' notice before work starts, and the permit lapses if construction is not finished within a year. On roads that NCDOT maintains, the state regulates the driveway connection, even inside city limits. Most repaving that stays on your side of the line never touches either process. If yours does, we tell you at the estimate and build it into the schedule.

What a typical asphalt driveway job includes

• Measuring the area, checking slope and noting where water collects
• Removing old asphalt, concrete or gravel and hauling it away
• Digging out soft clay and replacing it with compacted stone
• Grading and compacting the stone base
• Placing and rolling hot-mix asphalt to the thickness in your quote
• Shaping edges and tying the new surface into the garage slab and apron
• Telling you when to drive on it and when it can be sealed

Millings, overlays and full rebuilds

Greensboro homeowners on longer rural drives often ask about asphalt millings, the ground-up asphalt removed from old roads. Millings compact into a firm, dark surface for less than new hot-mix and work well on long drives with light traffic, but they are not as smooth or as watertight as new asphalt. We price the options side by side when a driveway could go either way.

Greensboro is home base. We work across Guilford County, from Summerfield, Oak Ridge and Stokesdale in the rolling north to Pleasant Garden and Forest Oaks in the south, east along US 70 through McLeansville, Sedalia, Whitsett and Gibsonville, and west to High Point, Jamestown, Kernersville and Archdale. We also take jobs in Burlington, Graham and Elon in Alamance County, Reidsville in Rockingham County, and Thomasville, Trinity, Randleman and Asheboro to the south. Each place has its own mix of older city lots, newer subdivisions and long country drives, and permits differ depending on who maintains the road out front. The town pages cover what is specific to each one.