08/31/2026
VP Asphalt Paving seals asphalt driveways in Southbury, Connecticut, and last spring we did one where the interesting part was what we did not seal.
The call came from a property owner off Main Street North. He had watched the crew packing up nearby and walked over with a question.
Water stood at the bottom of his driveway after it rained. Every time. Would a coat of sealer take care of that?
The honest answer is no, and it is worth explaining why, because this comes up constantly.
Sealer follows the shape it is poured on.
It is not a filler and it is not a leveling compound. Once it dries it is a fraction of the thickness of a sheet of paper. Pour it into a low spot and what you get is a black low spot. The water comes back the next time it rains because nothing about the grade changed.
There is a second problem that people do not think about.
The coat hides the dip.
A gray birdbath is obvious. Anybody standing in the driveway can see it. A black one is not, and once it disappears into a fresh coat it stops getting mentioned at the estimate. The problem is still there. It is just harder to point at.
So here is what happened on that driveway.
Co-owner Victor "Vick" Pagona walked down and looked at the low end by the street. He told the owner that section was not getting coated, and that it needs a patch before it can take one.
Greg dragged a boot through the puddle and put it plainly. This end is holding water, and a coat on top of that is going to skin and peel.
Tim chalked a line between the wet bowl and the sound blacktop above it. That line became the plan. Seal the dry field. Leave the low end. Tell the owner what it actually needs.
The rest of that driveway was in good shape.
The surface was still tight. The cracks running across it were ordinary transverse cracks, the kind a Connecticut winter leaves when asphalt contracts and splits across its own width. Nothing was moving underneath. Somewhere between 2,200 and 2,800 square feet, and the only real problem in it was the last twenty feet.
The crack work came first, the way it always does.
Ninety four linear feet of hot tar went in, but not on the same day the driveway got washed. Pressure washing gets a crack clean and leaves it wet. Compressed air clears the dust out of the crack walls and dries them. Then it needs time.
The crew came back later that week, once the blacktop was dry to the touch, and filled the cracks then. Wash day is not coat day. A damp crack will not hold sealant no matter how good the material is. It looks perfect in July and lets go in the first hard cold snap.
Two coats went on the dry field after the cracks set, cut in by hand along the edges where nothing on wheels can reach. Caution tape across the entrance. Three days before anybody drove on it.
One section got nothing at all, on purpose.
Here is the part worth taking away if you own a driveway in Southbury or anywhere else in this part of Connecticut.
There are five things a coat of sealer will not fix. Standing water. Open cracks. A base that has gone soft underneath. A pothole. And a surface that has already lost enough stone that there is nothing left for a coat to grip.
On a driveway that is still sound, sealing every two to three years is the cheapest maintenance there is. On a driveway that needs repair, it is paint over a problem, and it makes the problem harder to see.
A contractor who will not tell you which one you have is selling you a coat of paint.
Our written estimates are free and the driveway gets measured before anybody gives you a number. Whatever the signed contract says is what gets done for that price. If something gets added later, it comes to you as a separate change order you sign before we do it, not as a surprise on the invoice.
The full write up is here, with what each of those five looks like and what to do about it instead:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/driveway-sealing-southbury-ct-vp-asphalt-paving-victor-pagona-vt3ke/
VP Asphalt Paving
27 Cottage Grove Ln, Waterbury, CT 06706
(203) 819-7414
Driveway sealing and hot tar crack filling across Southbury, New Haven County and Litchfield County since March 1989.
