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A new driveway is a serious investment. While an asphalt driveway gives the appearance of being solid and impervious, a driveway still needs to be maintained. Keeping the driveway clean and free of snow will go a long way toward preventing damage, but it will not be enough. To really protect your driveway from mother nature's fury, you need to have your driveway sealcoated. 

Protection against Solar Radiation

Asphalt will not dry out completely right away. In fact, in order to react to changes in the weather, it is good for your driveway to have a little give to it. The UV rays of the sun will bake the liquids right out of the tar, leaving a rigid, brittle driveway behind. As your brittle driveway goes through repeated cycles of heating and cooling, the resulting expansion and contraction will cause cracks to start to form. Protecting your driveway with a sealcoat will help it to resist the damaging rays of the sun. 

Protecting against Frost Wedging

When standing water on your driveway freezes, it will expand and push apart the pebbles in your driveway. If your driveway cannot bounce back, then repeated cycles of freezing can push the pebbles further and further apart until cracks start to form. This is why it is critical to keep your driveway snow free through the winter. Still, even your best efforts to keep your driveway clean will fall short. Because a sealcoat is impervious to water, having your driveway seal coated is always a good idea.

When to Seal Coat a Driveway

Knowing when to sealcoat a driveway is a key component of driveway maintenance. You should have a driveway sealcoated right after installation. This will help to prevent the sun from baking your tar to a brittle state. Knowing when to reapply is a matter of paying attention to the color of driveway. Your driveway will first fade to brown and then grey. By the time it gets to grey, all of the liquids in the tar are gone or nearly gone. Thus, you should reapply a sealcoat when your driveway gets to a dull brown color. 

Getting as much life as you can from your driveway will help you to avoid the budget-breaking expense of having your driveway replaced. While some might look at sealcoating as an added expense, a wise homeowner will look at sealcoating as an opportunity to protect the money you have invested in a driveway. To find out more, contact a business like Hal's Construction, Inc.