Paving Contractors: what to ask, what it costs, and one number to call
Updated June 2026 · By the Mobile Phonebook editorial team · How we research pricing
Paving contractors install and repair asphalt: new driveways, tear-out and repave jobs, overlays on tired but sound asphalt, patching, crack filling, and sealcoating. Some shops also lay gravel base for new driveways or handle small parking areas for home businesses.
Asphalt is a trade where the spec you can't see decides everything, and where a few traveling crews have made everyone suspicious of the whole industry. The 'we have leftover asphalt from a job down the street' knock on your door is a known scam pattern, and the cure is the same discipline that gets you a good driveway from a legitimate contractor: thickness in writing, base prep in writing, and compaction done with real equipment instead of the back of a shovel.
What should you have ready before you call?
- Driveway dimensions, since length times width gives you the square footage every quote should be built on
- What's there now: gravel, old asphalt, or concrete, and whether it's cracking, sinking, or just faded
- Photos of the damage, especially any alligator-scale cracking, because that pattern decides repave versus overlay
- Drainage behavior: where water flows and pools now, since paving without fixing drainage paves over the problem
- What parks on it. Cars only versus an RV or loaded trailers changes the thickness conversation.
- Your timeline against the season, because hot-mix work is a warm-weather trade in most states
- Roughly when the driveway was last sealed or repaired, if you know
What should you ask before hiring? The 9-question script
This is your script. Nobody expects you to be an expert. Sound like someone who asks the right questions, and anyone good will answer all of these without flinching.
Compacted is the word doing the work. Loose-laid asphalt squishes down about a quarter under the roller, and the gap between '3 inches laid' and '3 inches compacted' is where lowball bids hide.
Asphalt is only as strong as the gravel under it. New construction wants 6-8 inches of compacted base, and skipping base work is the most expensive corner a paver can cut.
Overlays save real money on structurally sound asphalt and waste money on failed asphalt. The reasoning matters more than the recommendation.
A real crew brings a roller. A plate compactor is fine for patches, and hand tamping is fine for nothing. The leftover-asphalt scam crews are recognizable partly by their missing equipment.
Unsupported asphalt edges crumble first. Good practice angles or backs the edges with soil or gravel. It's a small detail that predicts the rest of the job's care level.
Standing water destroys asphalt through every freeze cycle. The quote should slope the surface away from structures, and a contractor who walks the driveway in the rain (or asks where it puddles) is doing it right.
The standard answers: drive in 2-3 days, avoid tight stationary steering turns, kickstands, jack stands, and trailer feet through the first warm season. A contractor who skips this talk is skipping callbacks, not curing physics.
Right answer: not for 6-12 months on new asphalt, then every 2-4 years, with cracks hot-filled before sealing. 'Every year' is a sales schedule, not a maintenance schedule.
One to several years on workmanship is common. Settling from bad base prep is the failure you most want covered, since it's the one the contractor controlled.
How much do paving contractors cost in 2026?
Asphalt prices ride on square footage, base work, and access. Material costs track oil prices, so regional swings are real. Typical 2026 national ranges:
| Typical job | National range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| New asphalt driveway (installed, with base) | $7 – $15 per sq ft | A typical two-car driveway lands roughly $4,500-10,000 |
| Tear-out of old asphalt | $1 – $3 per sq ft | Often bundled into repave quotes; make it a visible line |
| Overlay / resurfacing (1.5-2 inches) | $3 – $7 per sq ft | Only on structurally sound asphalt; not a fix for alligatoring |
| Sealcoating | $0.20 – $0.50 per sq ft | Every 2-4 years; wait 6-12 months on new asphalt |
| Crack filling | $1 – $3 per linear ft | Hot rubberized fill outlasts cold pour-in products |
| Patching (potholes, failed sections) | $150 – $1,000 per job | Cut-and-replace patches outlast throw-and-roll fills |
| Gravel driveway installation | $1 – $3 per sq ft | The budget alternative; needs regrading every few years |
These are typical 2026 U.S. ranges for planning purposes; your market, season and job specifics can land outside them. Always get the price for your job confirmed on the call and in writing. Ranges compiled June 2026 from national cost data and industry sources (methodology).
When you don't need to call anyone
We get paid when you call, so take this section as seriously as we do. Sometimes the honest answer is that you can handle it yourself or fix it cheaper first:
- Scattered cracks under a quarter-inch wide are a DIY afternoon with rubberized crack filler, and doing it promptly is the cheapest driveway life-extension there is.
- Sealcoating a modest driveway yourself runs $50-150 in materials and a sore back, against several hundred hired out. The squeegee work is unglamorous but not skilled.
- A couple of small potholes can hold for a season or two with cold-patch from the hardware store, tamped hard. It's a bandage, but a fine one while you save for the real fix.
- Where DIY ends: anything involving hot mix, base work, or grading. There's no rented-equipment version of a paving crew.
How the paving business works
A driveway is a sandwich, and the bottom layers matter most. Proper new construction is 6-8 inches of compacted gravel base over graded soil, then 2-3 inches of hot-mix asphalt compacted by a roller. The number that belongs in your contract is compacted thickness, because asphalt compresses roughly 25% under the roller, and a contractor quoting '3 inches' of loose-laid mix is delivering closer to 2.25 compacted. That one wording difference is worth hundreds of dollars and years of driveway life, and the low bid often lives exactly there.
In 2026, new asphalt installation generally runs $7-15 per square foot depending on region, access, and how much base work the site needs, with full tear-out-and-repave jobs at the top of that and overlays well below it. An overlay, where 1.5-2 inches of new asphalt goes over the existing surface, costs $3-7 per square foot and is legitimate when the old asphalt is structurally sound with minor cracking. Over a driveway that's alligatored (cracked in connected scale patterns) or sinking, an overlay is a cosmetic patch that telegraphs the old failures through within a couple of years. A contractor who recommends the cheaper overlay when it fits, and refuses it when it doesn't, is the one you want.
Asphalt is seasonal in most of the country. Hot mix needs warm ground and warm air to compact properly, so the season runs roughly late spring through mid-fall, and plants stop selling mix when temps drop. Late-season scheduling can get you better prices, but a crew laying asphalt on a near-freezing day is laying a driveway that won't compact right. New asphalt also cures slowly: drivable in 2-3 days, but soft enough that sharp turns of the steering wheel in place, motorcycle kickstands, and trailer tongues will scar it through the first hot summer.
Sealcoating is maintenance, not magic, and the schedule gets oversold. New asphalt shouldn't be sealed for at least 6-12 months while it cures. After that, every 2-4 years is plenty; annual sealing just builds a layer that flakes. At $0.20-0.50 per square foot it's cheap protection against UV and water when timed right. Crack filling before sealing is the part that actually extends driveway life, because water getting under the asphalt and freezing is what kills driveways.
Red flags & good signs
Red flags
- The knock on the door offering leftover asphalt from a job nearby at a too-good price. This is a well-documented traveling scam, and the product is usually thin, cold mix over no base.
- Quotes that won't state compacted thickness or base depth in writing
- No roller on the job, with compaction left to a plate tamper or truck tires
- Cash-only demands or full payment before the truck is even loaded
- An overlay pitched over visibly alligatored or sinking asphalt without addressing what's failing underneath
- Annual sealcoating sold as required maintenance
- No local address or phone history, since driveway warranties from crews that leave the state are decorations
Good signs
- Written spec: compacted asphalt thickness, base depth, compaction method, slope plan
- Honest triage between crack fill, patch, overlay, and repave, including talking you down a tier when it fits
- Roller on site and edges finished deliberately instead of left to crumble
- Realistic cure-time guidance and first-summer warnings given without prompting
- Schedules around weather and declines to lay hot mix in cold conditions
Frequently asked questions
How much does an asphalt driveway cost?
Asphalt vs. concrete driveway: which is better?
How thick should asphalt be on a driveway?
Is the 'leftover asphalt' driveway offer legit?
How often should a driveway be sealcoated?
How long before you can drive on new asphalt?
Can you put new asphalt over an old driveway?
What time of year is best for paving?
Related services
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