Sealing your own asphalt driveway is a weekend job most handy homeowners can manage, as long as they respect the weather and do the prep properly. Here is how much sealer a drive actually takes, what the day looks like in a Raleigh summer, and the parts that catch people out.
If your driveway is a pale concrete slab with joints, stop here. Driveway sealer from the big box store is for asphalt, and it does not belong on concrete.
If you live in a subdivision with a homeowners association, read the covenants. Some associations around the Triangle have rules about driveway appearance or contractors on site, and it is easier to ask first than to explain afterwards.
Measure the length and average width of the drive and multiply to get square feet. Retail sealer pails list a coverage figure on the label, usually given as a range, because an old, porous, gray surface soaks up far more than a tight one. Plan on the low end of the coverage range for a drive that has not been sealed in years, and buy a pail more than the arithmetic says. Running out halfway down a hot drive with the coat skinning over behind you is the worst position to be in.
You also need crack filler, either pourable or in tubes for a caulk gun, a stiff broom, a squeegee or brush for spreading, a drill with a mixing paddle, a leaf blower, a garden hose, and some way of keeping people and pets off it.
You want 50F and rising, a dry surface, and at least a full day without rain to follow. In spring and fall around Raleigh that is easy to find. In midsummer it means starting early: summers here bring frequent afternoon and evening thunderstorms, and a coat that is still wet at three o'clock when the sky turns is a coat in your gutter.
Very hot afternoons cause their own trouble. On a black drive in full July sun, sealer can skin over before you have spread it, leaving lap marks. Early morning, with the drive in shade or just warming up, is easier.
For an average drive, plan most of a day, and on a long rural drive, plan two. The coat itself is the quick part.
Rinse tools into a bucket, not down the drive. Storm drains around the Triangle run to creeks and on to the lakes, and Raleigh, for one, draws its drinking water mainly from Falls Lake. Let leftover sealer dry out in its pail before it goes in the trash, check your town's household hazardous waste rules for anything still liquid, and never wash sealer off the drive with a hose. If a storm does catch a fresh coat, sweep and scrape what you can from the gutter edge afterwards rather than flushing it.
On a short, sound drive with a few hairline cracks, doing it yourself is a reasonable way to save money, and the result can be perfectly good. It makes less sense on a long rural drive, where the material, the hauling and two days of your time add up quickly; on a drive with real damage that needs patching first; or on a lot, where the lines have to go back and the work has to be phased around people using it.
If you would rather compare, a quote costs nothing and tells you the measured area, which is useful for buying your own material even if you decide to do it yourself. The cost guide explains how a contractor price is built.
