Crack Sealing in Salt Lake City

Old neighborhoods, old driveways, working cracks

Salt Lake City has some of the oldest residential asphalt on the Wasatch Front. Driveways in the Avenues, Sugar House, and around Liberty Park have often been down for decades, repaved in patches over the years. That kind of surface cracks at the seams and edges first, and those tend to be working cracks that open and close every time the temperature swings.

Working cracks are exactly what hot rubberized sealing is built for. A cold filler in a moving crack on an old Sugar House driveway pulls loose by the next spring. The flexible hot sealant stretches with the slab instead, which is why it holds on the older pavement that makes up so much of this city.

Why the timing matters here

Salt Lake City sits in a valley that traps cold air, and the bench neighborhoods above the city run colder still. Winter brings repeated freeze-thaw, and the plows that keep downtown clear scrape and stress already-cracked pavement.

Sealing in the fall, before the first hard freeze, takes water out of the cracks before any of that can do damage. Wait until spring and the worst of the widening has already happened. The crews we work with schedule sealing through late summer and fall for exactly this reason.

Filling versus sealing on your driveway

It is worth knowing the difference before you pay for either. Crack filling is a cold-pour product, cheaper and faster, fine for hairline cracks that are not really moving. Crack sealing is a hot rubberized material that bonds to the crack walls and flexes, which is what an older working crack needs to stay sealed through a Salt Lake winter.

• Hairline, non-moving cracks: cold filling is often enough.
• Wider, seam, and edge cracks on older pavement: hot sealing holds far longer.
• A good crew walks your driveway and tells you which you actually need.

Salt Lake City crack sealing cost

Crack sealing is priced by the linear foot of crack. In Salt Lake City, hot rubberized sealing typically runs about 1 to 3 dollars per linear foot, with routing of wider cracks at the high end. Most contractors set a minimum charge, often 200 to 400 dollars, since heating a kettle and bringing a crew out costs the same whether your driveway has 30 feet of cracks or 80.

Larger jobs like apartment lots near the U or commercial pavement downtown come in well below the residential per-foot rate because the footage spreads that fixed cost out. These are typical ranges, not quotes. A free estimate gives you the real number for your pavement.

Common Questions