Crack Sealing in Herriman

New homes, high ground, fresh cracks

Herriman is one of the newest cities on the Wasatch Front. Most of its homes and driveways have gone in over the past 15 years as the city exploded across the southwest corner of the valley toward the Oquirrh foothills. Nearly all of that asphalt is young, and it sits at a higher elevation than most of the valley.

That combination is harder on pavement than it sounds. Young asphalt develops shrinkage cracks as it cures, and the elevation means more freeze-thaw cycles and more snow than the valley floor. Put those together and Herriman driveways tend to show early cracking that is best caught and sealed while it is still narrow.

Elevation and the freeze-thaw count

What actually destroys a crack is water freezing inside it. The higher and colder a location, the more times a winter cycles through freeze and thaw, and each cycle that finds water in a crack pries it wider. Herriman's foothill neighborhoods run colder than lower parts of the valley, so the cycle count is higher.

Sealing in the fall, before the first hard freeze, removes the water before any of that can happen. Hot rubberized sealant also flexes through the deep temperature swings the higher ground sees, so it stays bonded where a stiff cold filler would crack open again.

Sealing a young driveway the right way

On Herriman's newer driveways the cracks are usually narrow, so the job is mostly about clean prep and the right material. The crew blows the crack clean and dry with compressed air, sometimes with a hot-air lance to drive off moisture, then applies hot rubberized sealant so it bonds to the crack walls.

Wider working cracks get routed first, which cuts a clean reservoir for the sealant to grip. Most early shrinkage cracks on a young driveway are too narrow to need routing, so the work is straightforward and inexpensive at this stage.

• Clean and dry the crack before any sealant goes in.
• Hot rubberized sealant for the moving cracks common at elevation.
• Rout only the wider working cracks; narrow ones do not need it.

What sealing costs in Herriman

Crack sealing is billed per linear foot. In Herriman, hot rubberized sealing typically runs about 1 to 3 dollars per linear foot. Because most driveways here are young and have limited cracking, the job often lands at the contractor's minimum charge, commonly 200 to 400 dollars, since bringing a crew and a hot kettle out costs the same regardless of footage.

On a near-new driveway that minimum buys a lot of protection. Community and HOA pavement, of which Herriman has plenty, prices under the residential per-foot rate. These are typical ranges, not quotes, and a free estimate gives you a firm number.

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