New asphalt driveways, overlays, aprons and full removal and rebuild, from Denver out through the suburbs on every side. On the Front Range a driveway is attacked from above by a mile-high sun and from below by clay that swells when it gets wet. This page is about telling which of those has won on yours, and what a paving job here actually involves.
Every tired driveway gets one of four answers. The way to pick between them is to ask how far down the problem reaches, because each answer only fixes the layer it touches.
Large parts of the Denver area sit on clay-rich soil and claystone that take on water and swell, then shrink again as they dry. A driveway resting on ground like that is being lifted and let down with the seasons, and asphalt is flexible enough to follow small movements for years before it gives up and cracks along a line.
The water that drives this is very often ours rather than the weather's. This is a semi-arid climate, so lawns are watered, and a sprinkler head throwing water onto a driveway edge several times a week keeps the soil under that edge far wetter than the soil under the middle. Downspouts emptying beside the slab do the same thing. When we look at a heaved edge or a crack that runs parallel to the lawn, the sprinkler layout is one of the first things we check.
That is why a rebuild quote here spends so much of its length on the ground: how much comes out, whether wet or soft soil gets dug out and replaced with compacted road base, how thick the base goes back, and which way the finished surface sheds water. Moving a sprinkler head or extending a downspout costs very little and protects the whole investment.
There is less atmosphere overhead at this elevation, so more ultraviolet light reaches the ground, and the air is dry enough that the surface bakes rather than weathers. The oils that keep asphalt supple oxidise faster, which is why a Front Range driveway can go from black to pale grey in a few summers. Add the winter pattern, clear cold nights followed by sunny afternoons that climb back above freezing, and a new driveway gets tested hard from its first year.
None of that is a reason not to pave. It is the reason a new driveway here should get its first coat of sealer once it has cured, and then be kept on a sensible schedule after that. The surface is where the sun does its damage, and the surface is the cheap part to protect.
The last few feet of most driveways, the apron between the sidewalk and the street, is usually public right-of-way rather than private property. So is the curb and the walk. Denver, Aurora, Lakewood and the other cities in the metro each set their own rules for work there, and most want a permit before an apron is replaced or a curb cut is widened. Some also want the contractor licensed or registered with the city first. Unincorporated areas go through the county, and a driveway onto a state highway goes through CDOT.
The quote says which permit applies, who pulls it, and whether the fee is inside the price. The county pages list what each city has published: Denver, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas. Paving on private land, from the garage to the sidewalk, is a different question from the apron, and the answer changes by city too.
Paving is priced per job, after somebody has stood on the drive, because the biggest costs are ones you cannot see from a photo.
What comes back is one written price with the scope set out: depth of removal, base thickness, asphalt thickness, and what happens at the street.
Hot asphalt has to be placed and rolled while it is still hot, and cold ground or a cold wind steals that heat fast. The dry air here also makes for wide swings between afternoon and night, so a pleasant spring day can sit on top of a freezing night. In practice residential paving runs from spring into autumn, and a late snow in spring or an early one in autumn can close the window without much warning. Summer brings the opposite problem, afternoon thunderstorms, which is why paving days here tend to start early.
A new driveway should not be sealed straight away. The fresh surface needs time to cure and harden, commonly six months to a year. Pave this season, seal next season, and then keep it sealed.
A parking lot or a community's private streets are the same decision made section by section. Rarely does the whole surface need the same answer: one drive lane may need rebuilding, a few bays an overlay, and the rest only patching, sealing and fresh paint. Doing the worst first and sealing the rest keeps the cost spread sensibly. Parking lot sealcoating and striping and the page for HOAs and property managers cover how that gets planned.
Use the form, choose paving, and add a line about what you are seeing. The drive is measured and looked at, you hear honestly whether it needs paving at all, and if it does you get the scope in writing with one price. The paving is done by a local independent paving contractor.
