For many of us, a beautifully paved driveway is one of those sensible home upgrades that we plan to get to “one of these days.”
It’s easy to let it kind of… gradually drift down to the bottom of that ever-growing list of things to do around our home.
But there are many fabulous reasons for paving your driveway sooner than later, and here are five of them:
1. It’ll Make Your Family Safer
Driveways are actually an amazingly hazardous part of your home. Second to the kitchen, it’s the place you’re most likely to experience a serious accident.
This is especially the case if you have young ones or seniors regularly walking in from outside.
A quality asphalt or concrete driveway doesn’t just look good, it greatly improves the walking surface that leads up to your front door and drastically reduces the chances of slipping and falling.
As an added bonus, it also ensures that your cars have a solid, safe surface to step into and out of.
Bottom line: Paving your driveway is a great investment in your family’s safety.
2. It Could Save You Serious Money Down the Line
A well-paved driveway can also save you a lot of money in repair bills.
While your driveway might look like a pretty basic structure, there’s actually quite a lot going on underneath the top layer. Layers of solid asphalt or concrete rest over a carefully graded base.
If any of it begins to fail, the whole driveway begins to deteriorate.
Small cracks in your existing driveway might not seem like a big deal, but each allows water to seep down to where it can do real damage. In time, those small cracks will widen and before long you may be staring down the barrel of needing to do a complete driveway replacement.
This is an expense that’s definitely best to avoid!
As an added bonus, paving your driveway has the fabulous benefit of discouraging serious environmental damage for several years.
3. It’ll Save Your Family Time and Hassle
… And the fabulousness just keeps on coming because paving your driveway will also save your family a significant chunk of time from having to clean up mud and debris.
Gravel or old, worn-out driveways can become a haven for garden debris, dirt and mud, all of which is a major hassle to clean up (or to convince your kids to clean!)
With an expertly-paved driveway, that problem almost goes away.
You’re still going to need to maintain the surface, but we’re talking about a quick hose-off and a sweep instead of pressure washing, scouring or the use of toxic chemicals.
Would it be an exaggeration to say that your kids are suddenly going to love cleaning the driveway and won’t require bribery and/or the ever-present threat of sending them to military school?
(Yeah. That would definitely be an exaggeration)
Driveway paving is fabulous, but it’s not quite that fabulous 🙂
4. The Right Paving Will Keep Snow to a Minimum
A huge advantage in colder climates is that the right paving will actually encourage the snow to melt faster.
Asphalt paving is darker, meaning it stores more heat. Thanks to its thermal properties, snow will melt significantly faster on asphalt compared to other surfaces, especially concrete.
Essentially what you end up with is a driveway that is built to get rid of snow faster. How fabulous is that!
Compared to concrete which can rapidly deteriorate due to the expansion and contraction caused by extreme snow and frost, asphalt just rolls with the punches.
Its natural flexibility makes it almost impervious to frost damage.
If you’re keen on learning more about asphalt paving and how it works, check out SaveOnPaving.com. They offer a lot of really helpful information and a great way to connect with local paving contractors.
5. It’ll Increase The Value Of Your Home
Which brings us to fabulous factor number five—cold hard cash.
You’ve probably heard this on one of the several thousand home improvement reality shows on TV, but it bears repeating one more time:
Curb appeal is a huge factor in the sale value of your home. Making a solid first impression outside your home can add up to 10% of its total value.
Paving your driveway is therefore a really smart move if you’re planning on selling your home in the future.
It’s also an investment which lasts. Done right and maintained properly, a solidly paved driveway can boost the value of your home for many years.
Given the reasonable cost of a paving upgrade, it’s a surefire way to get a great return on your investment.
We started this article with a bold claim—that paving your driveway is nothing short of fabulous. We hope that you can now see why paving your driveway is a sensible and smart thing to do sooner than later.
It increases safety around your home, saves you money and time, can help ease snow shoveling duties, and if all that wasn’t enough — it can bring a pretty solid boost to the overall value of your home. Sounds pretty fabulous to us!
