Almost every driveway pothole traces back to water reaching the base under the asphalt. Unsealed cracks let surface water into the stone base, and once it saturates and freezes, the asphalt above fails. Poor drainage does the same thing more slowly. The pothole you see is the symptom. The wet, unstable base under it is the actual problem, which is why patching just the surface hole keeps failing.
Store-bought cold-patch is a genuine emergency fix for a hazard, but it is not a repair. It does not bond permanently and does nothing for the failed base, so it washes out within a season. A proper repair cuts back to solid asphalt, digs out the failed material, repairs and re-compacts the base, then fills with hot-mix asphalt in compacted layers and seals the edges. Done right, that repair lasts as long as the pavement around it.
A single professional pothole repair on a residential driveway runs $150 to $400 depending on size and base condition, and several done in one visit cost less per hole, often $300 to $700 for a handful. A $15 bag of cold-patch looks cheaper until you count the third and fourth bag and the base that kept degrading the whole time.
Patching is right for one or a few isolated potholes on a sound driveway. It stops being right when the potholes are a pattern, new holes every spring or more than roughly 25 to 30 percent of the surface breaking up. At that point resurfacing or replacement ends the cycle for less than another two or three years of chasing holes.
Harrison Paving has repaired driveway potholes across Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington Counties since 1985, fixing the base so the hole stays fixed. Call (856) 694-4181 for a free on-site look.
Contact Harrison Paving at (856) 694-4181 for a free estimate.