How Asphalt Paving Grand Rapids Works
Asphalt Paving Grand Rapids builds, repairs and maintains asphalt driveways and small commercial lots in Grand Rapids and the cities and townships around it in Kent and Ottawa counties. The work includes new driveways, overlays, sealcoating, patching, crack sealing and parking lot paving with striping.
West Michigan is hard on pavement. Grand Rapids drops below freezing on about 138 nights in an average year and gets roughly 75 inches of snow, much of it lake-effect. Water that gets under asphalt freezes, expands and lifts it. Plows scrape edges, and salt brine sits in every crack until spring. Most driveway failures we see start with water and a weak base, not with the asphalt itself.
So every estimate starts on foot. We walk the area, note where meltwater runs and where it pools, probe soft spots, measure, and look at where the driveway meets the garage and the street. Then we tell you plainly whether the surface can be sealed or patched, whether an overlay makes sense, or whether the base has failed and the driveway needs to come out.
What you get in writing
- The square footage and the scope for each area
- Removal, base work and gravel depth
- Compacted asphalt thickness
- How edges and the garage and apron joints are finished
- Whether the job touches the public right-of-way and what permit that involves
- The price for each part, so you can compare bids line by line
Permits and the right-of-way
The strip between the sidewalk and the street belongs to the city or the road commission, not to you. In Grand Rapids, work on a driveway approach there needs a Sidewalk/Drive Approach Permit pulled by a holder of the city's Sidewalk Builder's License. Out in the townships, the Kent County Road Commission requires a permit for any work in a county road right-of-way, including residential driveways. We look up which authority covers your address and explain the process before anything is scheduled.
Nothing starts until you approve the written quote, and any change in scope goes back to you in writing first. Call (616) 984-1897 to set up an estimate.