Asphalt Apron: What It Is and How to Repair It

A driveway apron is the transition section where your driveway meets something else, usually the street at one end and the garage floor at the other. Because aprons sit at seams, take turning and braking loads, and collect water, they're often the first part of a driveway to sink, crack, or break up. A lasting repair usually means cutting out the damaged asphalt plus a few feet of driveway, digging out and rebuilding the soft base, then paving and compacting new hot mix so it meets the street or garage smoothly and drains correctly. Street-side aprons often sit on city-controlled land, so check with your city before work starts.

Sunken driveway repair → Gap at the garage →

Two Kinds of Aprons

Street Apron

This is the piece between the street and the sidewalk, or between the street and the driveway if there's no sidewalk. Bob Vila notes that the strip between sidewalk and street is frequently a city-controlled easement, and that local codes usually govern aprons along with curbs and gutters.

Garage Apron

This is the strip right in front of the garage door, where the driveway meets the concrete garage floor. It should slope away from the garage so water drains toward the driveway rather than under the door.

Why Aprons Fail

Most apron problems trace back to the base settling. B&E Coating Services, a Michigan contractor, says settlement is virtually always the cause and that it usually starts with water getting into the seam where the driveway meets the garage floor or street. CBS Structural Engineers, a Minneapolis firm, lists inconsistent soil compaction, the wrong soil, tree roots, and water erosion as common reasons for settlement.

Other contributors:

• Heavy vehicles turning or braking at the street
• Snowplows catching the edge at the street
• Poor original compaction near the garage slab, where rollers can't get close
• Gutter water backing up against the apron at the curb

Signs Your Apron Needs Repair

• A dip or sunken area at the garage door or curb
• A gap opening between the asphalt and garage slab
• Cracks, potholes, or broken pieces
• Water pooling at the garage door or flowing back toward it
• A bump or lip that scrapes bumpers
• Loose material at the curb

How Asphalt Apron Repair Works

Erickson Asphalt & Concrete, a Minnesota contractor, lists these steps for asphalt aprons:

1. Remove the damaged asphalt and any unstable base.
2. Rebuild with compacted gravel.
3. Compact the base to eliminate settling and drainage problems.
4. Pave new hot mix and shape a smooth transition.
5. Compact the asphalt to match the driveway surface.

B&E Coating Services describes removing the apron along with a section of driveway about three to four feet wide, filling cavities with gravel, compacting, then installing and compacting new asphalt. Both companies say the work can typically be done in a day, with the driveway usable within about 24 hours.

Getting the Slope Right

A repair that just fills a dip without fixing the slope leaves water where it was. At the garage, the new surface should meet the slab without a lip and fall away from the door. At the street, it should drain toward the gutter without creating a hump.

Sealing the Seam

The joint between asphalt and a garage slab or concrete curb is a weak spot. After the repair, seal it with a flexible joint sealant. Methods for doing that are in filling the seam at the garage.

Lighter-Duty Options

• Infrared repair. For surface damage without base failure, a contractor may heat the existing asphalt, add new mix, and re-compact it. The page on infrared patching explains when that works.
• Skin patch or overlay. B&E mentions overlay repair as another option, depending on the pavement's condition. Thin patches over a failing base usually don't last.
• Crack sealing. For narrow cracks with no settling, sealing can buy time.

If the street apron keeps failing, a concrete apron on an asphalt driveway is worth pricing.

Permits and City Rules

Street aprons are often in the public right-of-way. Bob Vila notes that local codes may control who can install the apron, its slope, allowed materials, thickness, and curb cuts. Some cities rebuild aprons as part of street projects. Maple Grove, Minnesota, for example, installs new 2-foot concrete aprons during street reconstruction, and the city's guide says it usually removes 4 feet or more of an asphalt driveway, unless the driveway is less than a year old, to make the new apron fit cleanly.

Call your public works or engineering department before repairing a street apron.

If the problem is a jolt or scrape at the gutter rather than damage, see fixing the bump where your driveway meets the street.

Estimating Material

Aprons are small, but hot mix plants may have minimum orders. A 20-foot-wide apron that's 4 feet deep from the street, paved 3 inches thick, works out to about 1.5 tons at 145 pounds per cubic foot. Run your dimensions through the hot mix calculator to check. Expect plant pricing somewhere in the neighborhood of $90 to $130 a ton for the mix itself, and trucking a small load can take a noticeable bite out of the budget.

Bottom Line on Asphalt Apron Repair

Asphalt apron repair works best when it goes below the surface: remove the damaged asphalt and a few feet of driveway, rebuild and compact the base, then pave and compact new hot mix with the right slope. Seal the joint at the garage slab, and check with your city before touching a street apron.