Asphalt, Concrete or Paver Driveways- Which is the best?!?

asphalt, concrete, or brick, stone, paver patios. Which surface is right for your property? We're going to go over the pros and cons of each, what kind of maintenance that you can expect out of each material, and what the initial investment is in relation to the other materials when you're thinking about first doing an install. Fault, the average price, and this is going to vary by your geographical location, will be between $4 to $8 per square foot. Asphalt typically has the least initial investment into it, but be warned, asphalt also has the highest level of maintenance of the three surfaces that we've covered. After your initial installation happens, about every 3 years, you should expect to do a resurfacing. Asphalt's going to develop cracks, and you have to apply a rubberized compound, which stops the cracks from spreading and spidering throughout the driveway. Concrete comes in about dead middle for initial expense, averaging anywhere from $8 to $12 per square foot. But it also has the lowest level of maintenance of the three hard surfaces. But be warned, salt can severely degrade concrete very quickly in as little as one or two seasons. Whether that salt is applied on sidewalks or other flat surfaces or if you're building a retaining wall made out of concrete masonry units or retaining wall blocks that are exposed to salt, those that salt can degrade the face of the blocks and lead to the ultimate total collapse of the retaining wall. A great alternative if you need to build a retaining wall in an area that could be exposed to salt is to use boulders. They don't seem to suffer any damage from salt applications. Here's another fun fact about concrete. Some of the old-timers in the industry actually call it crackrete because during the curing process, the water that was used for the initial pour evaporates or wicks out and that concrete then has to is forced to shrink. That shrinking is what causes all concrete to crack. To stop this from happening throughout the entire surface, contractors saw joint lines into the concrete. And those are nothing more than crack stops. That's why when you look at a concrete surface, you see all these lines cut through the surface. That's to keep the cracks from spreading. Make sure you stay tuned to the end of the video to find some neat tricks on ways to extend the life of your concrete or asphalt and to minimize the cracking. Next up is pavers. They come in at the top of the list for initial price, averaging anywhere from 12 to $24 per square foot, and they do have a medium level of maintenance. Pavers can develop weeds. the seeds can get in the joint spacing. So, periodically you may have to spot spray your driveway, sidewalk or patio with a crack and crevice to keep the weeds under control. Pavers can also have individual settlement, but that is the beauty of the system because they will settle but not crack and break. That settlement is so easy to fix. You can literally pick the pavers out of the ground, rebase them, and put them straight back in place. making pavers the only system between the three that is a lifetime product with a medium level of maintenance. Here's a neat pro tip for you. If you happen to get an oil stain or something on your paver driveway and you can't scrub it out, simply pop the pavers in out of place, flip them upside down, and put them right back in place. The bottom side of that paver will look like brand new and your driveway. You'll never know you had a stain there. Last but not least, what we want to cover is stamped and colored concrete. Be careful of stamped colored concrete for a number of reasons. One is there's two ways of installing stamped colored concrete. We're going to focus on the coloring process right now. Sometimes companies will just surface spray the the top of the concrete. And what happens is when that concrete cracks, which it inevitably will as you know at the first sign of that crack, ruining the illusion that you saw by going with stamped colored concrete in the first place. So if you're going to go that route, ask to get the entire concrete colored. That way when the crack does form, it will not pop out at you so much. Now, here's a pro tip to dramatically extend the life of any hard surface you choose to use around your home. Every driveway is going to have base material underneath it. On average, it's 4 in. Deepen that base material to 6 in. Your base material is basically the cushion from the subgrade down here and your hard surface up here. Often times, the subgrade will be flexing and moving. And when that subgrade flexes and moves, it transmits that movement through the base material and destroys your hard surface, especially if it's asphalt or concrete. When you deepen that base material, you're adding an extra layer of protection. So, as this base is moving, it's not able to transmit that movement to your hard surface. And your hard surface, the life of it will dramatically improve. Another tip, if you're going to be pouring concrete and you choose to use concrete as your hard surface, instead of going with a typical 4-in pour for your concrete, deepen that to 6 in. So, when the city redid these streets, they had to repour my apron the same as I had initially built it. This pour right here, you can actually see the difference in color, was 6 in thick, and I have 8 in of base material. Was done at the exact same time as my neighbors down the road. and we're going to show you theirs. This concrete driveway is a 4-in pour done at the exact same time with your typical 4 in of base material. And you can see all the cracks that developed where a little bit of extra pore and a little bit extra base would have been a huge benefit. And this is an asphalt driveway done at the exact same time. This one has a for the typical pore. And you can see the big ridge right there. Well, I hope this video's helped you out in some way. Let me know in the comments down below. And what's your experiences with asphalt, concrete, or brickstone driveways?