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Driveway Paving & Sealing Cost Calculator
Driveways run $3–$18 per square foot installed — $3–$7 to resurface asphalt, $7–$13 for new asphalt, $8–$12 for plain concrete, $12–$18 for stamped. The install price is the part everyone compares. The sealing schedule is the part that actually decides which material costs more, and it is in no quote you will be handed.
Driveway Paving & Sealing Cost Calculator
Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
Material and job type together set the per-square-foot rate.
$7–$13 per sq ft installed. The only figure in this list published identically by both independent source families.
A standard two-car driveway is about 576 sq ft (24 × 24).
Total installed cost
$4,320 – $8,064
Asphalt — new driveway · 576 sq ft
Ten years of resealing this surface costs $1,440–$4,320 — 2 to 5 sealings at $1.25–$1.50 per square foot. That is real, recurring, and it appears in no paving quote you will be handed. Asphalt has to be resealed to reach its stated life.
Where the money goes
Where Your Money Goes
Sealing it yourself
Sealer material alone for 576 sq ft is $35–$219, against $720–$864 to have it done. Sealing is the one part of this job genuinely within reach as a weekend task — the labour is most of the professional price.
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Asphalt is cheaper to install. That is not the same as cheaper.
On a standard 576 square foot two-car driveway, new asphalt at $7–$13 per square foot comes to roughly $4,000–$7,500. Broom-finish concrete at $8–$12 comes to roughly $4,600–$6,900. Those bands overlap almost completely, and asphalt's top end is higher than concrete's. The install-price gap that everyone treats as decisive is mostly not there.
What is there is the maintenance difference, and it runs the other way. Asphalt has to be resealed every two to five years at $1.25–$1.50 per square foot to reach its stated life — call it $1,400–$4,300 over ten years on that same driveway, which is a meaningful fraction of what the driveway cost in the first place. Concrete can be sealed, and sealing it helps with stains and appearance, but it does not need sealing to survive.
Then there is life expectancy. This Old House puts asphalt at 20–30 years and concrete at 50 or more. Over the life of a house, the material with the higher sticker price and no mandatory maintenance is frequently the cheaper one. The calculator above prices the ten-year sealing bill alongside the install so you can see both numbers at once rather than only the one a contractor quotes.
Resurfacing versus replacing, and how to tell which you need
An asphalt overlay costs $3–$7 per square foot against $8–$15 for a full replacement — less than half. It is the single biggest saving available on this page, and whether you can take it depends entirely on one thing: whether the base underneath is still sound.
- Surface cracking, faded colour, minor crumbling at the edges — the base is fine. Resurface.
- Potholes, sunken or dished areas, alligator cracking (interconnected cracks in a scaled pattern) — the base has failed. Paving over it reproduces exactly the same damage in the new surface within a couple of seasons, and you will have paid twice.
- Drainage that ponds water — a resurface will not fix the grade, and standing water is what destroyed the surface in the first place.
Concrete has no true equivalent of an asphalt overlay. HomeAdvisor prices concrete resurfacing at $5–$10 per square foot, but it is a cosmetic overlay rather than a structural repair, and a cracked concrete slab generally has to be broken out.
Sealing is the one job genuinely worth doing yourself
Professional asphalt sealcoating costs $1.25–$1.50 per square foot. The sealer itself costs $0.06–$0.38. On a 576 square foot driveway that is roughly $720–$865 done for you against $35–$220 in material — almost the entire professional price is labour, and the labour is spreading liquid with a squeegee.
Two caveats worth the money you save. New asphalt must cure for several months before its first seal, so this is never part of the paving contract. And sealer applied too thickly, or over a damp or dirty surface, peels within a year — surface preparation is the part that actually determines whether it works.
What this calculator assumes, stated plainly
- Angi and HomeAdvisor are counted as one source. They publish identical figures throughout this topic — the same $5,345 asphalt average, the same $6,400 concrete average, the same finish table. This Old House is the genuinely independent second source. Where this page says two sources agree, it means those two families, not those two sites.
- The $3–$7 per square foot sealing figure is not used. Angi's and HomeAdvisor's asphalt installation pages print it, and it contradicts their own dedicated sealing pages, which print $1.25–$1.50. The dedicated pages reconcile with their own components ($1.15 labour plus $0.06–$0.38 material); the $3–$7 figure reconciles with nothing published anywhere, and This Old House's independent $0.70–$2.10 brackets the lower band.
- Site preparation at $5–$10 per square foot is not modelled. That figure exceeds the cost of the asphalt it prepares for, and Angi's own driveway page prices grading at $1–$2. Only the specific gravel-base figure of $0.50–$1 per square foot is used.
- The ten-year sealing figure is derived, not published. It is the published per-square-foot rate multiplied by the number of sealings that fit in ten years at the published two-to-five-year interval. The arithmetic is this page's; both inputs are sourced.
- Not modelled: heated driveways, permeable asphalt, coloured or heated surfaces, tree and stump removal before excavation (Angi puts that at $1,500–$5,100), retaining walls and drainage work, apron and street-cut permits, and regional variation. Asphalt in particular tracks the oil price and moves more between quotes than most trades.
Related calculators
A driveway is usually the largest paved surface on a property, and how it sheds water decides a lot about the house behind it. If water runs toward the foundation rather than away from it, the sump pump & French drain cost calculator prices the drainage side of that problem. If a utility line runs under the driveway, replacing it after paving is far dearer than before — the sewer line replacement cost calculator shows exactly how much a concrete or asphalt surface adds to that job. And for the other large outdoor surface people price at the same time, see the deck building cost calculator.
Methodology & sources
The cost figures on this page are generated from a single, sourced cost-data file (Residential driveway paving priced per square foot installed, covering material and labour for the surface itself. Removing an existing driveway and preparing a gravel base are separate line items because the sources list them separately, and sealing is priced on its own per-square-foot rate. National figures for 2026.). Angi and HomeAdvisor put a new asphalt driveway at $5,345 on average ($3,149-$7,543) and a concrete one at $6,400 ($2,700-$14,500). The headline difference between the two materials is smaller than it looks and the lifetime difference is larger: This Old House puts asphalt life at 20-30 years against 50 years or more for concrete, but asphalt needs resealing every few years where concrete does not strictly need it at all. Angi and HomeAdvisor publish identical figures throughout this topic and are treated here as one source; This Old House is the independent second. Last verified September 2026.
- Angi — How Much Does an Asphalt Driveway Cost? [2026 Data] (page updated 16 Apr 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
- HomeAdvisor — Asphalt Driveway Cost (page updated 17 Jun 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
- Angi — How Much Does a Concrete Driveway Cost? [2026 Data] (page updated 16 Apr 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
- HomeAdvisor — Concrete Driveway Cost (page updated 20 Jun 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
- This Old House — Determining Which Driveway Surface is Best for You (page updated 5 Jun 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
- Angi — How Much Does It Cost to Seal an Asphalt Driveway? [2026 Data] (page updated 30 May 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
- Angi — How Much Does It Cost to Seal Concrete? [2026 Data] (page updated 10 Jul 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
- This Old House — How Much Does It Cost To Repave a Driveway? (page updated 5 Jun 2026) — retrieved 2026-09-01
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to pave a driveway?+
Driveway paving runs $3–$18 per square foot installed depending on material and job type. A new asphalt driveway is $7–$13 per square foot — the one figure in this category published identically by both independent source families. Resurfacing existing asphalt is $3–$7, a full asphalt replacement $8–$15, plain or broom-finish concrete $8–$12, and stamped concrete $12–$18. On a standard 576 sq ft two-car driveway that is roughly $4,000–$7,500 for new asphalt and $4,600–$6,900 for broom-finish concrete. Angi and HomeAdvisor put the national asphalt average at $5,345 and the concrete average at $6,400.
Is asphalt or concrete cheaper for a driveway?+
Asphalt is cheaper to install, but the gap is far smaller than most people assume and it reverses over the life of the surface. On a 576 sq ft driveway, new asphalt at $7–$13 per square foot comes to about $4,000–$7,500, while broom-finish concrete at $8–$12 comes to about $4,600–$6,900 — the bands overlap heavily and asphalt's top end is actually higher. Then add maintenance: asphalt must be resealed every two to five years at $1.25–$1.50 per square foot, which is $1,400–$4,300 over ten years on that driveway, while concrete does not require sealing to survive at all. This Old House puts asphalt life at 20–30 years and concrete at 50 or more.
How much does it cost to seal an asphalt driveway?+
Professional asphalt sealcoating costs $1.25–$1.50 per square foot including labour, with an average project of $574 (Angi and HomeAdvisor dedicated sealing pages). That figure reconciles with its own components — those pages put labour alone at $1.15 per square foot and DIY sealer material at $0.06–$0.38 — and This Old House independently publishes $0.70–$2.10 per square foot, which brackets it. Note that the same publishers' asphalt INSTALLATION pages quote $3–$7 per square foot for sealing; that figure reconciles with no published labour-plus-material breakdown and is not used here. Doing it yourself costs $0.06–$0.38 per square foot in material, so on a 576 sq ft driveway that is roughly $35–$220 against $720–$865 to have it done.
How often should a driveway be resealed?+
The sources genuinely disagree, so treat it as a two-to-five-year band rather than a fixed schedule. For asphalt, Angi says every three to five years, HomeAdvisor says every three years in mild climates and every other year in extreme heat or cold, and This Old House says every two to three years on one page and three to five on another. For concrete, Angi says every one to five years, HomeAdvisor every two to three, and This Old House every three to five. Climate is the real variable: freeze-thaw cycles and intense sun both shorten the interval considerably.
Can I resurface my driveway instead of replacing it?+
Yes, if the base underneath is still sound, and it is dramatically cheaper: an asphalt overlay costs $3–$7 per square foot against $8–$15 for a full replacement — less than half. An overlay is laid on top of the existing surface and reuses its base, so it involves no demolition and no new gravel. The test is what the damage looks like: surface cracking and worn colour are resurfacing problems, while potholes, sunken areas, alligator cracking and edges that crumble underfoot mean the base has failed, and paving over a failed base simply reproduces the same damage in the new surface within a couple of seasons.
How much does it cost to remove an old driveway?+
Breaking out and hauling away an existing driveway costs $1–$4 per square foot, or roughly $575–$2,300 on a standard 576 sq ft two-car driveway. The sources vary: Angi and HomeAdvisor's asphalt pages publish $1–$2, This Old House publishes $1–$4, and HomeAdvisor's general driveway page publishes $2–$6. The $1–$4 band is used here because it contains the narrower figure and comes from the independent source. Removal does not apply to a resurfacing job, where the new layer goes straight over the old surface.
Driveway Paving & Sealing Cost Calculator is built and maintained by the RealCostIQ editorial team. Cost ranges and rates are checked against published industry data and contractor quotes, and revised when the underlying figures move. Read our data methodology or more about who builds this. Every calculation runs in your browser — no account, and none of your inputs are stored.
Cost ranges and rates here are checked against contractor quotes and published industry data. If a number still looks off, email Support@RealCostIQ.com and we'll review and fix it.