Cracks filled, potholes and broken edges cut out and rebuilt, sunken trench lines brought back up, in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania suburbs. Most worn driveways here are not finished. They have a few places where the surface has let go, and every winter those few places let in the water that breaks the rest.
Cold patch from the hardware store is asphalt that stays soft enough to scoop. That is its strength and its weakness. It fills a hole on a Sunday afternoon, it never bonds to the sides of the hole, and the first hard freeze lifts it back out. It is a fine stopgap and a poor repair.
A repair meant to last is cut. The failed area is sawn back to solid asphalt on straight lines, the broken material and any wet or soft ground come out, the base is rebuilt in compacted stone if it needs it, and hot asphalt goes back in and is rolled in lifts until it sits level with the surface around it. The seam is then sealed so the edge of the patch is not the next crack.
Small patches done ahead of a seal coat sit inside the one sealing price. A large repair, or a repair on a driveway you are not having sealed, is priced as its own job.
Winters here are rarely one long freeze. They swing: a cold night below freezing, a milder afternoon, rain, another cold night. Each swing freezes whatever water is sitting in a crack, the ice pushes the sides apart, it melts and the next rain runs further in. Salt tracked up from the street keeps the surface wetter for longer and brings the melt point down, which adds more of those swings, not fewer. A crack you could slide a coin into in October can be a loose corner by March.
Every crack filled and every soft spot rebuilt before the cold is one less place for that to start. It is the cheapest money anyone spends on a driveway.
On a driveway behind a row of houses, the damage usually gathers in the same places: at the entrance from the street where every car turns, over the inlet, and in front of whichever garage takes the most traffic. The City's position is that the owners who share a driveway share the cost of repairing it, even where only part is broken, so the quote shows the whole list and where each item sits.
On a parking lot the heavy wear is at the entrances, the dumpster pad and the lanes delivery trucks use. Those are repaired first, then the lot is sealed and restriped so the old and new surface wear together. Associations and managers get the repairs on the same sheet as the sealing; see HOAs and property managers.
When the repairs are part of a sealcoating job, one price per square foot covers the sealing, the crack filling, the small patches and restriping if there are lines. A bigger area that has to be dug out and rebuilt, or repair work on its own, is priced per job once it has been looked at, because the cost follows how large and how deep the failure is. You see one written number before any saw touches the driveway.
Will I see the patch? For a while, yes. New asphalt is darker and tighter than a surface that has been out in the weather. A seal coat over the whole drive afterwards is what makes it read as one surface.
Can the apron at the curb be fixed on its own? Yes. Where the work reaches the curb or the footway, it falls under the city or township permit rules for the street, and the quote says which permit and who pulls it.
How late in the year can repairs go in? Later than sealer can. Hot asphalt still needs a dry hole and ground that is not frozen, so the useful cut-off is the first run of hard freezes, not a date on the calendar.
The tree is the neighbor's. Now what? A patch over an active root will lift again. We will tell you that plainly, and what the options are, rather than patch it and hope.
Send the address, and a phone photo of the worst spot if you can. You will be told what it is, whether patching and a seal will do or whether the driveway is past that, and what it costs. Repairs are carried out by local independent contractors.
