Get matched with top asphalt driveway pros in Delanco, NJ

"He did a very good job he paved my driveway I would give him five"

"It went great. He ripped up the old driveway and did not disturb the block that was lining the driveway. He did a clean job. He laid seed for grass around the trim and it came out very clean and nice looking. The guy that did the install was a really nice guy."

"Papaneri & Sons did an excellent job on our driveway. They were very efficient and communicative. So happy how our driveway turned out!"

"I received three quotes to have my driveway sealed. bob’s price was the best of the three and since they are a smaller company I wanted to give them a shot. I was not disappointed. While some of the bigger companies have taken weeks or even MONTHS just to get me an estimate, Bob from Bob’s sealcoating had one in my mailbox within 48 hours of my web request. He was very responsive, showed up when he said he would, He did a nice, clean job and now my driveway is looking great and ready for the summer! I would definitely use them again."

"Driveway looks great. Mike gave me a competitive price and his team completed the work the next day. Driveway looks great."

"John called me on Thursday after the review and made an appointment for the following Tuesday. John's nephew Ed called Monday evening and again Tuesday morning before coming. Ed was punctual and very professional as he explained every thing he was going to do. The job was perfect - even with the patches which he explained would be a little noticeable. The price was very reasonable as I had received estimates from others who were almost double the price. I would recommend Driveways Express to others."

"Great! Walter and his team were very accommodating to our needs and budget. They were responsive, and offered great cost saving alternatives to our original design. They will definitely be our first (and only) call for our next landscaping job. Great people."

"Jeff was an hour late to our scheduled first meeting in Feb. I wanted to have some lighting installed for the patio, and I had already begun getting estimates from electricians. He said that he could save us time, money, and frustration if we allowed him to install low-voltage lighting. “Just buy me what I need and I’ll put it in for you.” I decided to design the patio myself. I emailed the scaled computer design drawing to Jeff. He wrote back that “it might be best you get a landscaper to draw out your envisioned plan so we all could be on the same page.” I e-mailed him my design again and explained what he was looking at. He wrote back, “I want to clarify that a landscaper architect could have a better imagine in that aspect.” After a telephone conversation with Jeff, he revealed that he had not thoroughly read my e-mails nor looked at the design. An enduring issue was not returning phone calls, e-mails, or text messages, or simply not reading them at all. I finalized the design, I e-mailed it to Jeff and he said that he would be at our home that evening to discuss the design. He arrived 90 min late and without having looked at the design. He came in with the lowest price and took the time to work with us to make sure that we could afford the things we wanted. When he came to our home to present us with the contract, Jeff admitted that he’d never actually read his own contract and that it was something which was printed off the internet. These things set off alarms, but we just asked him to fix the errors in the contract. We signed and emailed the contract on 4/24. We asked when work would begin. “The last week in May or the 1st week in June.” How long until the work is completed? “About 2 to 3 weeks depending on the weather.” The project was not completed until about 9/5, 4-1/2 months later. He implied that he would be going to my township on 6/8 to discuss permits. On 6/20 I got a text from him saying that he had been to the township and that he was filling out permits. It was 2 months without any progress being made. During this time several texts and phone calls went unanswered. In the 3rd week of June he called to tell me that he would be at our house the following morning around 8. He didn’t show up. That night around 8 PM he showed up to our home with one of his workers. They worked for hours into the night and left some time after my wife and I had gone to sleep. The front walk was only partially taken up when I checked the following morning. Another issue was irregular work hours. Often they would arrive late in the afternoon or evening and work into the night, using their car headlights for light. The running engines and lights on my quiet suburban block was not pleasant for my neighbors, and they expressed as much to me. Over the next days they finished ripping up my front walk. Over the next week there was no progress, no phone calls, no texts. On 6/27 I texted him to ask when he would be returning to complete the work. My wife and I went away for July 4 weekend and he worked while we were away. By the time we came home the front walk had been completed and he took the liberty of redoing the step which leads into our home. It came out nicely. However it did come out uneven and had to be fixed. There was a paver stone which was supposed to be left loose so that we could access a drain cleanout underneath so he had to fix that too. On 7/28 our zoning permit for the back patio was ready. No progress had been made after the front walk. On the 29th he texted me to ask, “Do you mind if I start dropping my equipment today”. I came home late to find that they had parked a trailer on my front lawn and in the process they drove over several of my solar path lights completely destroying them. Jeff told me that he would replace them. He never did. For 2 days their equipment sat. On 7/31 he sent me a text verifying our color choices which I had previously e-mailed him. His workers came and began ripping up our old patio. They were very nice non-English speaking men. It was difficult for us because I wanted to ask about timeline and progress, but there was a language barrier. Jeff had said something to the effect of that he would always be doing the work himself. I’d say that he was only on site for about 50% of the work. Jeff amended the contract to include no deposit, a 50% progress payment, and then 50% upon completion. I had told him that whenever he wanted his progress payment he needed to give me 4 days before I could write him a check, because our savings account and our checking accounts are at different banks and we needed time for the transfer. About 8/3 Jeff asked for his first progress payment. He asked for more than what the contract stated. I agreed. I reminded him that I needed a few days before I could hand him the check and he seemed to be annoyed by the delay. On 8/8 Jeff cashed my check and texted me, “I lost all my info when I got my new phone can you please send me over the color choices again.” I did. A few days later he arrived at my home with a truck-load of the wrong color paver stones. The incorrect stones were left on my front lawn for about a week until his supplier came with the correct stones on 8/19. On the morning of 8/21 he sent me a text message, “Just want to keep you updated grabbing the machine and tools from the other job site be there shortly”. He never showed up. I asked him, “What happened today?” He replied, “I have no f***ing clue.” One of my in-ground lawn sprinklers got buried which caused a mud pit in that area. 3 light fixtures were cracked at the base by his workers during installation. There was a voltage drop problem with the lighting; he had to rip up a paver stone in the back patio in order to fix it. There is construction adhesive which oozed from the seams in the stones of our fire pit. The wiring for our accent lights was not dressed properly, it was plainly visible on top of the soil in the boxes. The wiring on the front patio was done in the same fashion, as well as the main line being strewn on my front lawn. The black housing of 2 accent lights was marked in red and holes were drilled through them. My lawn has been reduced to patches of dirt in the places where their equipment was parked for weeks at a time. Jeff didn’t build the mailbox I asked for. I asked for one slanted piece of bluestone at the top. Instead he built it with two pieces coming to a point. He said, “It wouldn’t have looked this nice if I did it the other way.” The bluestone caps are two different thicknesses and their faces of them are stained. We purchased an address plaque and the paint was stripped off a bit. The new mailbox itself was mangled with scratches on the face and the inside looked like it had been mashed in. First he put the mailbox flag in one place at the apex of the roof, which looked ridiculous, and then he put it on the side of the stones using screws which have since rusted. The screws holding the address plaque and the accent lights are stripped and not sunk in. On 8/30 he asked me to leave him a check for the final payment. I said that things weren’t finished or done to my satisfaction. He replied, “I [need] a check”. I said there were things that still needed to be addressed. On 9/2 I received an e-mail which explained that the lights and electrical wire “are not in your contract” and “it is typically the homeowners responsibility to provide an electrician for this type of work”. (Exactly why I wanted to hire an electrician in the first place.) They continued in the e-mail from 3:28 PM, “As far as completing additional items that are not in the contract, before Jeff receives final payment will be a breach of contract. Jeff will need to collect your final payment today no later than 5 PM.” When I got home I replied in part, “As you've already alluded to, I paid Jeff (at his request) $13K as the initial payment. This is not the black letter of the contract. My point being -- the contract seems to only apply when you want it to.” I went into detail about how I wanted to hire an electrician at first but was talked"

"The guys were great. Will definitely use them again. I will also tell anyone I know if they need anything with a driveway to call these guys. Professional, good price, came on time(actually were early). for the estimate and the work."

"Summary:  Above average work, the crew seemed pretty good.  If there was a B+ grade I would give that as my overall grade, and for price and quality.  If everything was near perfect then I could give out A grades in some of these ratings. I was home for the install and looked at all the phases of work. Overall the job was done professionally but didn?t quite match expectations from the previous reviews and sales pitch, in particular with respect to grading at some points compared to original driveway, and especially with respect to the walkway from the house and final surface leveling/compaction.  The final asphalt coarseness was a disappointment, but in part to be fair, part of the final coarseness expectation was my assuming that top coat meant the same as my old one or a couple of the new ones around me.  That's not to say that the quality of their topcoat is as good as you can get - only that it appears finer.  You should ask about how fine the topcoat will be, ask for some pictures or something.  Overall I think the driveway appears to installed to be structurally sound and serviceable.  Details are highlighted below as to what went well and where I think it didn't go so well.  I'll update the review as necessary over the course of the two year warranty period and beyond.
History: Original owner of house - saw all phases of original installation of driveway. 
House and Driveway age: 26 years - no subsequent work done on driveway after builder?s install.   
Original driveway info: 45?x18?; 3-4? minimum base layer, 1.5 or so fine top layer; pulled away from garage due to natural shrinking process; a sunken section in corner around house; some center like cracking; cracks and failures around edges due to lack of edge support and (base) and base drainage/depth at bottom of driveway.  Less of an incline from garage out to walkway; slightly more incline down to driveway.
How did I go about choosing a service: Interviewed top rated services on Angies List and another rating site, as well as some recent neighbors and friends who had recent work done.  Quote range: $2500-$3500
Selected quote: Approx. $3300.  Included in quote: Excavation and dirt removal; fine grade and level area; weed killer; 2A modified stone if and where need (I expected some to be needed based on current issues and after looking at grading after old driveway was dug up); roll and compact loose material; 2? base (binder) blacktop; 2? blacktop machine laid and rolled; haul excavated materials away
Why did I choose Asphalt Services? As others have noted, their salesman, Mike seems very knowledgeable about driveways and appeared to genuinely care about doing the job right.  His discussion and belief, as compared to others was top notch, about making sure the foundation of stone was right, the crew not accepting poor quality asphalt, along with using a separate binder coat and then the topcoat, as compared to some other sales pitches that had only mix of these promises.  Similar to some others, Mike also walked around the driveway with me and noted any issues that he saw as well as the ones that I saw.
What happened?   What went as expected and what didn?t go so well?
The job start a couple weeks early due to opening on schedule: Got a call the afternoon before.  It was a nice surprise.
8:00: Arrived early, as other have noted.  Mike around 8 AM to go over driveway again, marking up some problem areas and a request to cutback so stucco from part of the foundation wall that went between the wall and the pulled away asphalt.  The rest of the crew was there by 8:15 to 8:30.
The crew seemed like a good bunch of guys.
Mike stayed around for the tear out of the old asphalt and the beginning of work.   Showed me the layers being torn out.   They thought it was two driveways perhaps due to its unexpected thickness or two layers.  As I mentioned before, the original builder put in a thicker base coat and then a topcoat.
Excavation of old driveway is completed in about 1.5 hours.
No new gravel is used.
The original depression and sunken area up near garage is filled with gravel and stuff from the center of the driveway.
Rope lines had been shot down on both side of the driveway.  Good, but showed some potential choices or issues that would need to be addressed based on how the original driveway was graded along with the interface to the walkway coming from the house.
Approximately 10:30: the driveway is graded and compacted more along the lines of a bit more straighter incline/pitch - shows a fair path of dirt instead of gravel on the right side of the driveway, but more importantly highlights the potential walkway problem, with several possible solutions.
Problem needing to be addressed which showed up early: The base is much lower on the side of the driveway that?s going to meet up with the walkway.   At this point possible solutions include
a) grading similar to the original installation (slighter decline/pitch coming out from garage, or 
b) potentially laying a thicker base than estimated towards that side of the driveway. 
c) potentially laying a thicker top coat later on
At this point the choice was no additional material - I guessed that a thicker base in the area similar to the original builder would be applied.  
By approx. 1:00-1:30 or so the base layer is in.  I went out and looked at it over lunch some time before this and thought this is still too low after the proposed top coat is installed.
Somewhere around this time Ken asks me to come out and look at the problem area around the walkway and asks me how high up to I want the top coat to match the walkway.   I said that it didn?t need to come all the way to the top because the original was slightly below the top.   Problem solved, I thought.   It?s going to be leveled higher toward that side with the topcoat.

Walkway Driveway Level End Result: Walkway solution didn?t go as expected.  Topcoat wasn?t flatly leveled to the walkway near where I indicated.   The asphalt was manually filled upwards  and hand tamped - moving concave or curved away from the walkway and down to the compacted pitch. The underside of bottom left hand corner of the walkway is just visible and that portion of the walkway will become more exposed with settling.  To fix this I?m probably going to have to in the near future tear out and install a new walkway; not something I wanted to do any time soon.  
Topcoat: as mentioned, much coarser than I expected.  This is more my fault for not researching or asking the right question.  When Mike mentioned topcoat I had assumed something similar to the original builders and what was just done for my next door neighbor a couple of weeks ago and nearby neighbor?s job about 9 months ago.There are rougher or more course spots due to hand tamping.   In some of the areas I?m concerned, though, that frozen water will break apart some of the more open and pocked marked areas where the aggregate isn?t closely spaced.  Time will tell.
Other asks and problem areas: 
Good: The sunken areas were taken care of.
Good: The crew was able to cut away that area of  stucco/concrete that I requested
Good: matched and leveled to the garage
Good: matched and level to the stre"