Fading colour: what a fix costs

Fixing a faded driveway costs $0.15 to $0.30 per square foot for sealcoat, which is $90 to $180 on 600 square feet. Tinted and acrylic coatings sit in the same band. An overlay at $3 to $7 per square foot is only required when the surface has lost material, not when it has merely gone grey.

What you are paying for

Fading is oxidised bitumen at the surface, with lighter aggregate showing through as the binder wears.

The repair is a new film of binder-rich coating that restores colour and slows further oxidation. It is a coating, not a resurfacing, and it is priced by the square foot of driveway.

The distinction matters because quotes for “restoring” a faded driveway vary from $120 to $4,000, and the difference is usually whether the contractor is sealing or overlaying.

Cost by driveway size

Square footage multiplied by the rate. A 700 square foot driveway at $0.22 is 700 × $0.22 = $154.

Small driveways may hit a minimum charge of $150 to $250, which raises the effective rate. Ask before comparing quotes.

What a reseal includes and what it does not

The rate covers cleaning, edge work, and the coating. It does not cover:

Crack filling at $2 to $5 per linear foot. On a faded driveway with 60 feet of cracks, that adds $120 to $300.

Oil spot priming, which is small but necessary where the driveway has leaked.

A second coat, which adds 40 to 60 percent and is often needed on chalky, porous surfaces that drink the first pass.

Pothole patching at $100 to $400 each, if any are present.

A realistic total for a faded 600 square foot driveway with moderate cracking is $210 to $480, not $90 to $180.

Tinted and acrylic pricing

Tinted sealers and acrylic coatings are priced in the same installed band, $0.15 to $0.30 per square foot, because the labor and application are identical.

What differs is the interval. Tinted films and acrylic coatings often fade or wear faster than black emulsion, so the cost per decade is higher even at the same price per coat.

Acrylic at a two-year interval over ten years is five coats. On 600 square feet at $0.20 per square foot, that is 5 × $120 = $600. Black emulsion at a three-year interval is about 3.3 coats, or $400.

Ten-year cost, three routes

Take a 600 square foot driveway that is faded but structurally sound.

Route 1, seal on a three-year cycle: about 3.3 coats at $120 = $400, plus crack filling as needed.

Route 2, acrylic or tinted on a two-year cycle: five coats at $120 = $600, plus crack filling.

Route 3, overlay: $1,800 to $4,200 once, then sealing resumes on the new surface.

Over ten years, sealing is the cheapest by a wide margin. The overlay only wins if the surface has raveled to the point where a coating cannot bond, because then the sealer money is wasted.

When the cheap fix is wasted

Sealcoat bonds to binder. Where the binder is gone, there is nothing to bond to.

Three signs mean the surface is past coating:

Loose aggregate across large areas. If stones come off on your hand or shoe, the surface is raveling.

A surface that feels like coarse sand and sheds. That is binder loss, not fade.

Cracks and raveling together across a quarter or more of the driveway. That is surface failure, and an overlay at $3 to $7 per square foot is the durable answer.

Paying $120 to seal a raveled surface produces a coat that lifts in sheets within a season, and the $120 becomes part of the overlay budget anyway.

What else can move the price

Drainage. If water ponds on the driveway, a coating will fail at the low spot. Correcting grade or adding a drain is a separate cost, and it should come before the cosmetic work.

Edges. Crumbling edges need repair before coating, or the new film breaks away at the perimeter.

Access. Gates, steep slopes, and cars that must be moved add labor.

Season. Sealing needs temperatures above 50 F and a 48-hour dry window. Scheduling in a short shoulder season can mean waiting, though it rarely changes the rate.

Getting a quote that matches the work

1. Measure the driveway and record the square footage.
2. Note whether the surface is uniformly grey or shedding aggregate.
3. Measure the cracks so filling can be priced at $2 to $5 per linear foot.
4. Ask for cleaning, crack filling, priming, and coat count as separate lines.
5. Ask what the minimum charge is and what it covers.

A quote for $150 that includes cleaning and one coat is a fair price for a small sound driveway. A quote for $150 that includes nothing but the coat, on a driveway that needs $300 of crack filling, is not a bargain.

Compare the totals after repairs, then divide by the years the coat will last. A $480 job on a three-year cycle is $160 a year. A $240 job that fails in one season because the prep was skipped is $240 a year, and it still leaves you with a driveway to reseal.

Our fading colour repair guide covers how to tell cosmetic fade from surface failure, driveway sealing cost covers the broader pricing picture, and fading colour prevention covers the interval that keeps the cost predictable.