Crack filling for asphalt driveways and parking lots around Raleigh, Durham, Cary and the rest of the Triangle. A crack is where storm water gets into the clay under your asphalt. Filling it is the cheapest repair there is and the one that does the most to keep a drive out of the replacement column.
Asphalt itself does not mind getting wet. The problem is what is underneath. Across most of the Triangle that is clay, which holds water and goes soft when it is saturated. An open crack in a summer storm funnels water straight into it, the base loses strength in that spot, and the surface above starts to flex every time a car crosses it. One crack becomes several. Several become a web, then a hole.
Winter keeps it going. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for Raleigh-Durham count around 65 nights a year at or below freezing, usually followed by a thaw the next afternoon, and water trapped in a crack pries it a little wider on each cycle.
Sealer on its own is not a crack filler. It bridges a hairline and sinks into anything wider, and the crack is back through the coat within weeks.
Late summer into fall is a good time. The summer has opened up whatever it was going to open, cracks are at their widest in cooler weather, and filling them before the winter freeze nights keeps water out through the cold months. Spring works too. The one thing to avoid is filling wet cracks on the morning after a storm.
If the drive is due for sealing anyway, the crack filling happens on the same visit, as part of the job. See when to seal in North Carolina.
Central North Carolina has a long growing season: NOAA's normals for Raleigh-Durham put the median gap between the last spring freeze and the first fall freeze at about 219 days. That is a lot of months for grass and weeds to root in an open crack, and every root widens it. Spraying the top growth does nothing for the crack. The roots and the soil they sit in have to come out, down to clean asphalt, before the crack is filled, or the filler sits on dirt and lifts.
On a sealing job, crack filling is included in the one price per square foot, along with small patches and, on a lot, the restriping. There is no separate charge by the foot of crack. A drive with heavy cracking gets a higher rate, so the total is one number and does not grow.
Crack filling on its own, without a seal coat, is quoted per job after a look, depending on how much cracking there is and how wide it runs. You get one written price.
On a lot, cracks run along the seams between paving passes, around storm drains, and across drive lanes where trucks turn. Filling them on a regular cycle, usually with each seal coat, is a large part of what keeps a lot out of the resurfacing line of a budget. For a church or daycare it is done on the day the lot is quiet. See parking lot sealcoating and the property managers page for multiple properties.
Will I still see the cracks? Filled cracks show as darker lines until the drive is sealed. After sealing they blend in, though some remain faintly visible.
Will they open again? Some will, over a few winters, because the ground keeps moving. A filled crack that opens again is not a failed job; it gets filled with the next coat.
Do you fill cracks in concrete? No. This is asphalt work.
