We have a black top driveway that is old, cracked and ugly.

Other than having it resurfaced, yet again, what can I do with it?

Could it be painted over? Covered with cement? Would it have to be removed to do that? What about pavers? It attaches to a path to the front door, so the work would have to be uniform..is this too cost prohibitive? Should we just refinsh it again?

We would like a solution we can do ourselves..

Thanks for your help,
Janie R (NY)
clydiemor@yahoo.com

Oh, OK, it's BLACKTOP drive. Well, there are some options. You can buy asphalt in bags, which you can use to patch cracks and bumps and low spots in your driveway. Then you can but sealer in big pails, which you can apply according to the directions on the pails. This will give you a reasonably neat-looking driveway without adding thickness, and will get you a few years, after which you can repeat the process. I'm sure you have other priorities for spending money on your house.

Anything else probably means removing the existing blacktop, preparing the subgrade, and installing either new blacktop, concrete, or interlocking pavers.

The pavers are something you could do yourselves. All you do is lay a sand bed, and plop them down on it. The other things are best left to professionals to install. The advantages to pavers are that you CAN do them yourselves, they look real nice, and if they get out of level in the future, you can just take them up, level the sand underneath them, and put them back.