Asphalt paving, repair and sealcoating across Wake County: Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Wake Forest, Knightdale, Morrisville and the unincorporated land between them. Wake is the biggest county in the state and still growing fast, and the asphalt in it divides neatly into new and old. This page sets out what that means for your drive or lot, and the town rules we have confirmed.
Wake County counted 1,129,410 residents in the 2020 census, the largest county in North Carolina and up about a quarter on 2010, by the county's own figures. It holds twelve municipalities: Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Holly Springs, Knightdale, Morrisville, Raleigh, Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wendell and Zebulon, and parts of Durham and Angier spill over the line.
That growth shapes the asphalt. The subdivisions built through the last couple of decades mostly have concrete driveways, which do not need sealcoating. The asphalt drives are on older homes inside and around the established towns, on rural lots, and on the long drives of homes in the unincorporated parts of the county. Add the church, school, shop and office lots in every town and that is the work.
Wake County does not maintain streets. Public streets belong either to the town they run through or to NCDOT, and in unincorporated Wake that means NCDOT. For a single home on a state road, NCDOT's driveway access policy says a permit is normally not required, though it encourages owners to talk to the District Engineer about drainage pipe and safety. Inside town limits, the town sets its own rules, and they differ.
We could not confirm current rules for Garner, Fuquay-Varina or the smaller towns from their own pages, so for those the planning office is checked before any apron is rebuilt. None of this normally applies to sealing a drive in place; it applies to paving and replacement.
Wake County regulates how much of each lot in its jurisdiction can be impervious, and the limit for a lot is shown on its recorded plat. The county's watershed FAQ gives a general maximum of 30 percent for unincorporated residential lots, lower where a subdivision's stormwater permit says so, and 6 or 12 percent for lots in the Swift Creek watershed. Raleigh draws its water mainly from Falls Lake, with Lake Benson and Lake Wheeler as secondary supplies, which is why those watersheds are watched closely.
For a homeowner that matters when a drive is widened, a parking pad added or a long gravel drive paved. It is checked before the layout is drawn, not after the asphalt is down.
Most of Wake sits on Piedmont clay that holds water and softens when saturated, which is why storm water through a crack does so much damage here. Toward the west of the county the ground changes: NC DEQ's geology notes describe the Durham sub-basin of the Deep River Triassic basin, exposed at a railroad cut in Morrisville, as red to maroon conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones and mudstones laid down about 220 million years ago. The soils weathered from those rocks are their own kind of awkward, and a base built on them gets particular care with drainage.
The east of the county is changing fastest around the Complete 540 work, which NCDOT is carrying to the I-540, I-87, US 64 and US 264 interchange in Knightdale.
NOAA's normals for Raleigh-Durham International, inside the county, give a July average high near 91F and a median first fall freeze around November 4. Spring and fall are the easy stretches; summer work starts early to beat the afternoon storms. See when to seal in North Carolina.
Sealing is one price per square foot that covers crack filling, small patches and, on a lot, restriping. Paving and larger repairs are priced per job after a look, with any permit and inspection built in. One written price either way. The work is done by local independent contractors. See asphalt paving and driveway repair.
