How to Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save
I finally took the plunge and decided to seal coat my own driveway vs. paying someone else to do it. And boy am I glad I did – I saved a bundle, and the job was done to a much higher standard since I was doing it myself.
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – The Money Saving Breakdown
- Difficulty (Super Easy/Easy/Medium/Hard/Expert): Medium
- Average Savings per Year ($/year): 50
- Time Required (mins): 90
- Savings for your time ($/hr): 247
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – The Background
First a little background… All of our old houses have always had gravel driveways. This sucks because I had to go out about once a month and spray for weeds for about 20-30 minutes. When we moved into our new house, one of the things we were looking for was a paved driveway. I’m happy to say that our current house now has a paved driveway… So far, so good.
Well, about two years ago a traveling drive way sealer guy stopped by the house and offered to seal our driveway for $125. At the time I wasn’t really feeling the need to seal the driveway, so I sent him away without giving it much thought.
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – Screw Up #1
Well, about a month later he returned and asked if I wanted to have it done. The whole idea of having our driveway seal coated was the last thing on my mind. For some reason, instead of telling him no right away I wavered. He went through the whole spiel and showed me two or three other neighbors that had their driveway seal coated by him. At that point, I just caved and decided to let him go ahead and take care of it.
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – Screw Up #2
Never, ever let a unsolicited “contractor” do work for you. It will almost always end badly. I had been warned about this countless times by my dad, but for some reason I decided to ignore the advice. Well, the guy did a pretty mediocre job and that was that. He said that the coating should last about four years.
You can guess what happens next. After a little less than one year, the driveway sealer was almost completely faded and the pavement began to crack during the winter in several places 🙁
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – Lesson Learned
I realized early this spring that I would have to have our driveway seal coated again. I had the choice of paying someone again to do the job, or learning myself how to seal cost our driveway. After a little research, I had the confidence I needed to tackle the job myself. It actually did not seem that hard after reading a couple different online sites.
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – Temptation Returns
So, this spring I had mentally decided I was going to seal coat my own driveway. I simply needed to wait until the outside temperature climbed up above 55F and the rain to stay away for two days. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t really looking forward to doing the job, but I knew that it was the best decision.
Much to my surprise, one Saturday afternoon while the family was out biking around the neighborhood THE SAME GUY STOPPED BY and wanted to do my driveway. I felt like punching him in the face for ripping me off, but I just politely refused after multiple sales pitches.
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – Turning Lemons into Lemonade
Recently, I went out and bought all the supplies necessary to do the job from Home Depot. Here’s a list of what I purchased:
- Squeegee
- 2 pails of seal coat
- Some pot-hole patch
- Mud-mixer drill bit attachment (for stirring the seal coat)
Everything came up to ~$140. The seal coat product says it will last for eight years if applied per the directions. I followed all the directions, so I should save about $370 over the course of the next eight years by doing the job myself.
Because this is something I will hopefully only have to do once every eight years, I decided to take the opportunity to make a “how-to” video of it for YouTube. I’m always thinking of ways to make money 🙂
Here’s the video:
How To Seal Coat Your Driveway and Save – Final Thoughts
The entire driveway seal coating process was pretty simple. It took me about an hour and a half. This includes all preparation time and cleanup time. If you have been paying someone else to seal coat your driveway, consider doing it yourself. You are likely to save yourself several hundred over the years, and it really is not that hard at all!
Such a good tip! My father really loves DIY, he usually asked someone to do it for him. You wouldn’t know that you can do it until you try it.
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Clarisse,
Exactly – I was surprised just how easy it really is. I also thought it would take much longer than it actually did.
We need to seal our driveway and I’ve been putting it off. I remember sealing my parents driveway when I was younger. Even as a teenager, the job was fairly simple and straight forward.
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Jon,
I was in the same boat as you – I had been putting it off for months. As you said, it really is pretty straight forward. I was pleasantly surprised 🙂
I have been wanting to get a paved driveway for a while, but I never had any idea that it was so important to seal coat the driveway! It sounds to me like it is best to have a licensed, professional contractor do the seal coating, since it sounds like you didn’t have the best experience. I would really like for my driveway to last longer and look nicer by getting it seal coated, so I will either look into getting the supplies or else find a professional to do it for me!
Good luck Julie! I don’t think you can get a license in seal coating, but maybe I’m wrong 🙂 Let me know if you have any questions if you decide to go the DIY route.
I agree that your contractor should be licensed. Nobody wants to have an unlicensed contractor running around and causing problems. There was a man like this in my city a few years ago. The city officials managed to kick him out though.
Any type of constriction job can be tricky, however it makes it easier when you have tips online like you have posted. I appreciated the list of supplies you would need for the job Only 140 dollars is definitely in my price range! I also enjoyed the video on how to do it. It’s always helpful to have a visual aid when doing these jobs. Thanks again for all your help.
No problem Meg – glad to help!
I grew up out in the country with gravel roads, so I understand when you are talking about having to do some weed removal. If our driveway hadn’t been so long, I would have loved to have a paved driveway. According to my dad, it is super expensive to pave that length of a driveway. Ours was almost one hundred yards long.
I’m sorry to hear that you had an unsolicited contractor. I can only imagine how mad I would be to see my seal all faded after just one year. I applaud you for not being bitter and doing something about your situation. Thanks for the post!
I am honestly surprised at how easy it really is to coat and seal the driveway. Thanks for Sharing. It is probably the most cost effective way to give my landscape a boost.