Tar and chip driveways, built in two layers
The surface we lay most often, and the one that finally ends the cycle of dumping rock on a gravel lane every year.
What it is
Hot tar, chipped stone, rolled in.
Tar and chip — chip seal, if that is the name you know it by — is a surface built in place rather than delivered ready-made.
Liquid asphalt is sprayed over a prepared base, stone chip is spread into it while it is still hot, and the whole thing is rolled so the stone is locked into the binder. What you end up with is a hard, dark, textured driving surface with grip to it.
We build ours in two layers, not one. On the jobs on this page the second layer went down using 3/16 slag, which is what gives the finished lane its darker colour.
The sequence
How a tar and chip drive goes in.
This is the order we work in. Skip a step and the surface tells on you within a season.
Grade the surface
Ruts, washboard and pothole pockets pulled out, the crown put back, and the base compacted so water sheds off it instead of standing.
Spray for weeds
On a gravel drive that has been sitting a while, whatever is growing through it will keep growing through it. It gets treated before anything goes on top.
Pre-patch
Soft spots and blown-out sections filled first. Tar and chip follows the shape of what is underneath, so what is underneath has to be right.
First layer of tar and chip
Binder sprayed, stone chipped into it, rolled in. This layer does the structural work and keys into the prepared base.
Second layer, using the slag
A second full layer over the first. On these jobs we used the darker 3/16 slag, which tightens the surface texture and gives it its colour.
Hand it back
You get a finished driving surface instead of a load of rock and a rake.
Half-mile private lane
Germantown Hills, Illinois
In their words: sick of dumping more rock and trying to work potholes out of the drive. We graded it, pre-patched it, and put two layers of tar and chip over it using the slag.
A second one
Gravel that kept washing away
A customer who wanted a new driveway and was tired of the gravel washing out in the rain and making a mess. Graded, sprayed for weeds, then two layers of tar and chip using the darker 3/16 slag.
The drive runs off a rural road and opens into a turnaround at the house, so the whole width had to be shaped and compacted before any binder went down.
The finished surface is wide enough to turn a vehicle without dropping a wheel off the edge, which is usually where a gravel drive starts falling apart in the first place.
Worth knowing
Is tar and chip right for you?
It suits long runs
Rural lanes, farm entrances and long residential drives are where tar and chip earns its keep. The longer the run, the more the difference in material cost against a poured surface shows up.
It has grip, and it has texture
The finish is stone locked into binder, so it is not the glass-smooth surface of new hot-mix. That texture is a feature on a sloped or gravelled rural drive.
It still wants looking after
Every asphalt surface does. Keeping water out of it — which is what crack filling is for — is the cheapest maintenance there is.
Not sure it is what you need?
Send photos of what you have now and roughly how long the run is. We will tell you honestly whether tar and chip is the right call or whether something else fits better.
Get a quote
Tell us what you’re dealing with.
Send the address, the surface you have now, and roughly how big it is. A couple of photos help more than anything.