Crack Sealing in Orem

Settled suburbs, driveways at crack age

Orem grew into a settled family suburb decades ago, and much of its housing dates from the 1960s through the 1990s. A large share of the city's driveways are now well into the age where asphalt develops working cracks at seams, joints, and edges. That is the stage where sealing pays off most.

Pavement at this point is usually still solid underneath, which means it is worth saving. The cracks are still small enough to seal cheaply. Treat them now and the driveway lasts years longer. Wait through a few more freeze-thaw winters and those same cracks widen into damage that needs an overlay or a full repave.

Crack filling versus crack sealing

These terms get used interchangeably, and the difference is worth understanding before you pay. Crack filling pours a cold, unheated product into the crack. It is cheaper and faster and works on hairline cracks that are not really moving. Crack sealing installs a hot rubberized material that bonds to the crack walls and flexes as the pavement expands and contracts.

Most cracks on an aging Orem driveway are working cracks that move with the temperature, and those need the flexible hot seal. A cold filler in a moving crack pulls loose within a season or two. A good crew checks whether your cracks are actually working before recommending one over the other.

• Crack filling: cold material, low cost, stable hairline cracks.
• Crack sealing: hot rubberized, flexes with the slab, working cracks.
• Aging Orem driveways mostly have working cracks that want sealing.

What Utah Valley winters do to a crack

Orem sits in Utah Valley at the base of the Wasatch, where winters bring genuine freeze-thaw. Water that works into an open crack freezes, expands about nine percent, and pries the crack wider, then thaws and the next storm refills it for another freeze, many times across a winter.

Sealing in the fall, before the first hard freeze, takes the water out while the pavement is still warm and dry enough to bond. It is the cheapest, highest-return thing you can do for your driveway before winter sets in.

Orem crack sealing cost

Crack sealing is priced per linear foot of crack. In Orem, hot rubberized sealing typically runs about 1 to 3 dollars per linear foot, with routing of wider cracks at the high end. A residential driveway usually meets a minimum charge of roughly 200 to 400 dollars, since mobilizing a crew and heating the sealant has a fixed cost.

Larger jobs such as the commercial lots along State Street and University Parkway, and apartment complexes, price below the residential per-foot rate. These are typical ranges, not quotes. A free, no-obligation estimate gives you the real number for your pavement.

Common Questions