DIY - Hot Tar Driveway Crack Repair, Tips?

Rusty Heap · Rusty Heap's Garage

I'm mining the brain trust of Pelicans here..........is there anything you guys DON'T know?

I've got almost ~100 feet of cracks in a 50 year old asphalt driveway, some 1/4" wide, some ~1-1.5" wide. (I'll fill the wide cracks with crushed gravel first before filling)

Any tips on how to do your own hot-tar repair with materials from Lowes/HomeDepot? They normally only sell cold patch material.

I'm thinking of even heating up the cold patch tar which comes in gallon cans, in a boiling water-bath in a 5 gallon pot / crab cooker burner? I've also got a 3' long weed burner propane torch, to even maybe pre-heat up the asphalt / crack?

Get the gallon can up to temp, then pour and dispense then back brush with a trowel or something?

I'm tired of the professional contractors stalling me for weeks or just not showing up. F-em.

This isn't a machine 99.9% of us have, but it looks slick!

Anyone done their own hot-patch?

for tips/suggestions

hot crack filling - YouTube

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

When I did this stuff for a summer job in NJ 25 yrs. ago, it was so damn hot and humid out, there was no need to heat anything. I'd just use the regular crack filler and then re-seal it all. If you want to do a professional job, you'll need to get a truckload of hot asphalt and a steamroller or whatever they call those tamping/roller tools.

Zeke · 04-26-2013, 08:49 AM

Understand that the stuff you heat is not the stuff in cans.

Evans, Marv · 04-26-2013, 09:45 AM

Rather than fill in the wider cracks with gravel, I'd go to a place (mayber a big box store) and buy bags of asphalt patch. It's gravel with asphalt mixed in, and it's intended for fixing asphalt areas. You can let them set out in the sun, break them open & fill the wider cracks. For the smaller cracks, you can buy a filler without gravel. The weed torch might be useful. The advice about sealing it afterwards is good. With the bagged stuff, if you have any larger area patches to fill, you're supposed to remove the area to be patched down a couple of inches or so, fill in with the patching material, & tamp it down.

By the way Milt. Thanks for straightening me out on the workers' comp thing. I was just going by what I'd been told by some subs.