Asphalt Repair in Knoxville, TN

A pothole starts as a small crack that lets water into the stone base. By the time you can see the hole, the stone base under it has turned to mud. That's why cold patch from the hardware store sinks and pops back out: it's sitting on the same mud.

We fix potholes for good. We saw-cut a square around the damage, dig out the loose asphalt and soft base, pack in fresh stone, and fill with hot mix asphalt rolled flush with the driveway. Most pothole repairs take only a few hours, and you can park on it the next day. If you have several potholes that need repair, we can give you a better rate at your free estimate.

• Full-depth hot mix patching, not a seasonal fill
• Soft base removed and rebuilt so it can't sink again
• Square saw-cut edges that bond to the old asphalt
• Multiple potholes priced as one visit

Crack repair is the cheapest asphalt repair. Once water gets into an open crack, it soaks the base, and every one of our 60-odd freezing nights pries it a little wider. But once we close the crack, the cycle stops.

The type of fix depends on the crack. Crack sealing uses hot rubberized sealant that stays flexible, for cracks that open and close with the seasons. Crack filling uses a stiffer material for narrow cracks that don't move. Either way, we clean and dry the crack first so the material bonds to asphalt, not dust. Cracks over an inch wide, or anything alligatored, get patched instead.

• Hot rubberized sealing for cracks 1/4" to 1" wide
• Crack filling for hairline and shrinkage cracks
• Every crack cleaned and dried before filling
• Best done in fall, but available year-round

If part of your driveway looks like reptile skin, the problem isn't the asphalt anymore. It's the base underneath, which has gotten wet and soft. The pavement flexes every time a tire rolls over it, and eventually it cracks into a web. Asphalt sealer, filler, or a thin patch will fail quickly in these cases because the pavement is still moving beneath it.

The only fix that holds is full-depth repair. We cut out the alligatored section, dig down to firm ground (sometimes 8 to 12 inches on wet Knoxville clay), redirect the water that got in, rebuild the stone base, and pave it back with hot mix. Done this way, the patch will last.

• Failed asphalt and soft base fully removed
• Drainage corrected so the new base stays dry
• Fabric under the stone on soft clay
• Hot mix placed in lifts and rolled to density

When part of a driveway sinks, something under it gave way. In Knoxville that's usually one of three things: a utility trench that was never packed down, construction fill that settled, or water slowly washing the fine material out of the stone base. The result is a dip that holds water after every rain, and standing water is how the next pothole starts.

How we fix it depends on how deep it goes. A shallow dip over solid base gets releveled with a bonded hot mix patch. A deep one gets opened up so we can fill the void, rebuild the base, and pave it back flush. Either way, we grade the patch so water runs off instead of pooling. Done this way, a sunken spot stays fixed. In the rare case one keeps sinking anyway, it can mean limestone dissolving underground, and we'll tell you if that's worth having an engineer look at.

• Puddle spots and birdbaths releveled
• Settled utility trenches and culvert crossings rebuilt
• Sagging strips at the garage and street fixed
• Cause found and fixed, not just topped off

Edges break off when nothing is holding them from the side. Many Knoxville driveways were paved with the base no wider than the asphalt, so the outer inch or two has no support and snaps off under a tire or a mower. Once it starts, the driveway gets narrower every year.

When this happens, we cut back to solid asphalt, extend and compact the stone base past the pavement line, and pave the edge back with hot mix. Then we backfill with topsoil and seed so the edge is supported on both sides. On steep drives in Fountain City and South Knoxville, we'll often suggest a wider shoulder or a small curb where cars cut the corner to stay safe.

• Edges cut back to sound asphalt and rebuilt
• Stone shoulder added beyond the pavement line
• Corners widened where tires keep cutting them
• Priced by the linear foot, quoted on site

In Sequoyah Hills, Fountain City, Holston Hills, and Old North Knoxville, we see big oaks and maples slowly pushing driveways up from below. It starts as a long crack running parallel to the trunk, then becomes a ridge that catches car bumpers and trips guests.

Root repair takes judgment, because you can't just cut every root. To do this, we open the heaved section and pick the right fix: remove a minor surface root and add a barrier, bridge a larger root with a thicker flexible patch, or reroute a few feet of driveway away from the trunk. What we won't do is pave over an active root since that will become a problem again in a few years.

• Heaved sections cut out and releveled
• Minor roots removed with care for the tree
• Root barrier installed where it makes sense

A driveway wears out fastest at its two ends. The apron, where the driveway meets the street, gets loaded by every turn-in and clipped by garbage trucks until the edge breaks up. For these cases, we cut out the broken section, rebuild the base, and pave a smooth transition that matches the road. If your driveway meets a state route like Chapman Highway, we'll tell you if TDOT rules apply.

At the garage, the asphalt against the concrete slab settles over time, leaving a gap that lets water under the door and a lip you feel every time you pull in. We can repave that strip flush with the slab, seal the joint between asphalt and concrete, and add a channel drain if water has been getting in.

• Broken aprons rebuilt to match street grade
• Settled strip at the garage door releveled
• Asphalt-to-concrete joint sealed
• Channel drains installed where water runs under the door

Oil and gas dissolve the binder that holds asphalt together. A car that drips in the same spot for a couple of years leaves a patch soft enough to dent with your thumb. That asphalt has to be cut out and replaced, because nothing will bond to it. Lighter stains that haven't gone soft just need priming before a driveway sealcoat.

Standing water is another problem. Anywhere a puddle sits after a storm, the base underneath is soaking, and that's where next winter's pothole will form. We fix it by regrading the low spot so water runs off, or by installing a swale, channel drain, or drain line where regrading isn't enough. Drainage is the cheapest repair we do and it prevents so many bigger ticket problems.

• Oil-softened asphalt cut out and replaced
• Oil stains primed before sealcoating
• Low spots regraded so water runs off
• Swales, channel drains, and drain lines installed

Full-Depth Asphalt Patching (Remove & Replace)

We saw-cut a clean rectangle around the failure, remove the asphalt and dig out the base to solid ground, fix the water problem that caused it, pack in new stone, tack the cut edges, and place hot mix asphalt compacted flush with the surrounding surface. This is the standard fix for potholes, alligator cracking, sunken spots, and anywhere the pavement flexes underfoot. Done right, it performs like new pavement for years to come.

Best for: any base failure. Lifespan: 15 to 25 years.

Skin Patch (Surface Asphalt Patching)

When the base is solid and only the top layer is damaged (raveling, a shallow scrape, light surface cracking), we cut or mill out just the top inch or two and place new hot mix over the sound asphalt below. Upside: this is faster and cheaper than full-depth. Downside: we need to carefully check whether the base is really fine, which is why we do free estimates. A skin patch over a soft base is a short-lived repair.

Best for: surface-only wear over a solid base. Lifespan: 3 to 7 years. Not for: alligator cracking, soft spots, or repeat potholes.

Mill & Fill Asphalt Repair (Partial Overlay)

When a whole drive lane, entrance, or apron is cracked and rutted but the base underneath is sound, we grind off the top 1.5 to 2 inches with a milling machine and pave a fresh layer back. Milling is important because it keeps curb heights and drainage working and gives the new asphalt a rough surface to grip. It's a small-scale version of resurfacing, scoped to just the section that needs it, and it's usually smarter than a dozen individual patches.

Best for: larger worn areas over a sound base. Lifespan: 10 to 15 years. Not for: isolated potholes (overkill) or widespread base failure (not enough).

Infrared Asphalt Repair

Instead of cutting out the damaged asphalt, infrared repair reheats it in place. A heater the size of a large panel sits over the spot for a few minutes and softens the top two inches back to a workable 300°F. We then rake out the loose or damaged material, mix in fresh hot mix, and compact it all together. Because the old and new asphalt melt into each other, there's no cut line and no seam for water to get into. The patch is nearly invisible, which is why people choose it where looks matter.

The limit is depth. Infrared only reaches the top couple of inches, so it fixes surface problems only.

Best for: raveling, shallow scrapes, old patch seams, spots where appearance matters. Lifespan: 5 to 10 years. Not for: potholes, alligator cracking, or anything soft underfoot.

Hot Rubberized Asphalt Crack Sealing

For cracks that haven't become potholes yet, we clean and dry the crack, rout it if it's wide, and fill it with rubberized sealant heated to about 350°F, the same material TDOT uses on I-40. It stays flexible and moves with the crack through freeze-thaw instead of hardening and popping out like what happens to filler you buy from the store.

Best for: working cracks up to 1" wide. Lifespan: 3 to 5 years. Not for: alligator cracking or cracks over 1" (those should get patched).

Cold Patch Asphalt Repair

Cold patch is the bagged asphalt sold at hardware stores. It's made to stay soft so it can be shoveled into a hole any time of year, including January when most hot mix plants are closed. The problem is that it stays soft forever. It never hardens into the pavement around it, so it just sits in the hole, and it won't survive another winter or two.

We only use it for one thing: filling a dangerous hole in the dead of winter until we can do it right. We'll always tell you when that's what you're getting.

Best for: getting a bad hole through winter. Lifespan: months to a couple of winters. Not for: anything you want fixed permanently.

Skim Coat or Slurry Over Damaged Asphalt

A skim coat is a thin layer of asphalt slurry, usually under half an inch, spread over cracked or alligatored pavement without cutting anything out. It looks like a brand-new driveway for a few months, but then the cracks come back through because the failing base was left untouched.

We see this most on driveways that were "fixed" by a low bidder right before a home sale, and on quotes where the price is too good to be true. If a contractor's plan for a damaged area is a thin coat with no cutting and no base work, that's a plan to hide the problem, not fix it. We highly recommend getting a second opinion before you pay for it.

How to spot it: fresh black surface, no saw-cut edges anywhere. Lifespan: a few months.

Ask: "Hot mix or cold patch?"

If the answer is cold patch for anything other than a temporary winter fill, keep looking. Permanent asphalt repair requires hot mix from a plant, and that means a company with a truck, a compactor, and a plant account. Ask which plant they get their mix from; a local outfit will have an immediate answer.

Ask: "What is the depth of the repair?"

A quote should say whether the repair is surface-only or full-depth, and if full-depth, how the base gets rebuilt. "We'll cut it out and patch it" isn't a spec. "We'll saw-cut, remove to firm base, compact 6" of crusher run, tack, and place 3" of hot mix in two lifts" is.

Ask: "Where's the water going?"

Any asphalt repair contractor in Knoxville knows water commonly cause early pavement failures. If they don't consider drainage, slope, or where the runoff comes from, your patch will have a short life.

Look for saw-cuts, tack coat, and a roller

Ask how they cut the edges and whether they tack them. Ask what they compact with. A repair done with a shovel, a rake, and a truck tire isn't a repair. Drive past a job they finished last year if you can; you'll see whether the seams have opened up.

Insurance and a written warranty

Tennessee only requires a contractor's license on jobs over $25,000, which means nearly all asphalt repair work is unlicensed territory. We can show you a certificate of insurance and a warranty in writing. A company that won't put its repair in writing doesn't expect it to last, and a company with no insurance leaves you holding the bill if a saw hits your water line.

Watch for the "we're in the area" pitch

Every summer, crews knock on doors in Knoxville subdivisions offering to fix your driveway today with material "left over from a job down the street," usually for cash. Hot mix has a working life of a few hours; nobody has leftovers. What gets spread is often cold material or sealer over dirt, and it's gone by spring. Real repair is measured, written, and scheduled.