DIY driveway patch?

[Nate Nagel]

IS it possible for me to fix this myself?

The previous owner of my house was a huge eco-freak, to the point that he used the driveway as a topsoil production line - he'd just let wood chips pile up on it and rot, and shovel off the resulting material and toss it in the yard after it had reached an appropriate state of decomposition. I guess it worked, I've never seen such nice soil anywhere. But anyway I cleaned off the soil right by the house, and also the Virginia creeper and other foliage that was growing in it. The asphalt was once up against the house, but apparently over the years it's shrunk/shifted/whatever and now there's about a 3/4" gap. Can I fill this with rope, tar, etc. and let it go or is this a job for a professional? Basement is dry (knock on wood) but I don't think I have French drains and I'm a little worried about runoff water pooling next to the house.

thanks,

nate

[RicodJour]

Sure you can do it yourself. The big box stores sell driveway maintenance materials. Clean the crack well, use sand to control the joint depth - keep it uniform, then use one of the torch melt crack fillers. They're auto-level pretty much and they're easy to use. Hit it with a propane torch and the stuff melts to fill the gap and bond to the sides of the crack. Should last a good long time.

R

[Proctologically Violated©®]

Mebbe quicker/easier: just quickcrete the gap?

[trader4]

Check the latexite website. They have a variety of products. For your application, I would think the type you melt with a torch would be a good choice, as Rico suggested.