# Seal driveway cost: what you pay and why

> Sealing a driveway costs $0.15 to $0.30 per sq ft, or $90 to $180 on 600 sq ft. Where quotes diverge, what repairs add, and the annual cost of the cycle.

Canonical: https://drivewaysealinglab.com/seal-driveway-cost/

Last updated: 2026-11-09

Sealing a driveway costs $0.15 to $0.30 per square foot with a contractor, so a 600 square foot drive runs $90 to $180. Crack filling at $2 to $5 per linear foot is extra, and a minimum visit charge of $150 to $250 pushes the effective rate up on smaller drives. The number on the quote is rarely wrong; what varies is how much prep sits underneath it.

## What the rate buys

Driveway sealing is a maintenance coat applied over sound asphalt to slow oxidation and water damage. The rate covers cleaning, edge work, and the sealer.

It does not cover repair. That distinction is the single most useful thing to understand about a sealing quote, because a $120 quote and a $400 quote on the same driveway are usually not competing on price. One includes crack filling and priming; the other does not.

## Cost by driveway size, with the minimum applied

| Driveway | Area | At $0.15 | At $0.30 | With a $200 minimum |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Single wide, short | 300 sq ft | $45 | $90 | $200 |
| One car | 400 sq ft | $60 | $120 | $200 |
| Two car | 600 sq ft | $90 | $180 | $200 |
| Two car, long | 800 sq ft | $120 | $240 | $240 |
| Wide / RV pad | 1,200 sq ft | $180 | $360 | $360 |

The minimum column is the number that matters below about 700 square feet. At $0.15 per square foot a 300 square foot apron should cost $45, but the crew still has to drive out, mask, clean, and pack up. A $200 floor is common and defensible; a $450 floor is not.

Ask about the minimum before you compare rates, and ask whether it includes crack filling. A $200 minimum that includes 20 linear feet of crack filling is better value than a $150 minimum that does not.

## Where a quote grows

Four add-ons account for most of the gap between the advertised rate and the invoice.

Crack filling at $2 to $5 per linear foot is the largest. Sixty feet of cracks at $3.50 per foot is $210, more than the sealer on a 600 square foot drive.

Pothole patching at $100 to $400 each comes next. Two potholes at $175 each add $350.

Oil spot priming is smaller but non-negotiable on a driveway that has leaked. Sealer will not bond to oil, so those areas are cleaned and primed or the new coat lifts.

A second coat adds 40 to 60 percent. On chalky, sun-bleached asphalt it doubles the film thickness and is usually worth it. On a surface sealed two years ago it is not.

## Doing the arithmetic on a real driveway

Take a 700 square foot driveway with 40 linear feet of cracks and one oil stain.

Sealer at $0.20 per square foot: 700 × $0.20 = $140. Cracks at $3.25 per foot: 40 × $3.25 = $130. Oil priming: about $25. Total: $295, or $0.42 per square foot.

Now price the same job without prep. Sealer only: $140, or $0.20 per square foot. The $155 difference is not profit; it is the work that decides whether the coat survives its first winter. This is why quotes that look 40 percent apart are often quoting different jobs.

If the driveway is 400 square feet, the minimum dominates instead. 400 × $0.20 = $80, below the $200 floor, so you pay $200 — an effective $0.50 per square foot. On small drives, bundling crack filling and a second coat into that minimum is the way to get value from it.

## Annual cost, and why frequency matters more than rate

A sealing cycle is the cost divided by the years it lasts. At $0.20 per square foot and a three-year interval, the annual cost is about $0.067 per square foot per year. On 700 square feet that is roughly $47 a year.

Sealing every year at the same rate triples that to $140 a year with no demonstrated benefit. Sealing every five years lets the surface oxidise past the point where a coat helps. The interval is the lever, not the rate.

Compare that with the alternatives. An overlay at $3 to $7 per square foot on 700 square feet is $2,100 to $4,900, and replacement at $8 to $15 is $5,600 to $10,500. Sealing seven times over 20 years at $140 per cycle is $980 — less than a quarter of one overlay, provided the base stays sound.

## What sealer cannot do

A failed base is not a sealing problem, and no sealer fixes one. Watch for three signs before you book a crew.

Alligator cracking over more than a quarter of the surface means the asphalt has lost flexibility or the base is moving. A coat over that pattern re-cracks within a season.

Ponding water that lingers a day after rain means the surface is out of plane. Sealing holds water in the low spot instead of shedding it.

Soft or spongy areas mean the subgrade is saturated. A coat on top changes nothing underneath.

If any of those are present, the honest next step is diagnosis, then an overlay or replacement. Our guide to [driveway sealing repair](https://drivewaysealinglab.com/driveway-sealing-repair/) explains how to separate surface wear from base failure, and [driveway replacement cost](https://drivewaysealinglab.com/driveway-replacement-cost/) prices the worst case.

## Getting three quotes you can actually compare

1. Measure the driveway yourself and write the square footage on each quote request.
2. Mark cracks with chalk and measure their total linear feet.
3. Ask every contractor for the same scope: one coat, cleaning, crack filling priced separately.
4. Ask what the minimum charge is and what it includes.
5. Confirm the cure window and the rain policy in writing before signing.

A comparable set of three quotes usually lands close together once the scopes match. A quote that is half the others is either skipping prep or planning to sell you repairs after the fact. The [driveway sealing cost](https://drivewaysealinglab.com/driveway-sealing-cost/) breakdown covers the per-square-foot rates in more detail, and [how often to seal a driveway](https://drivewaysealinglab.com/how-often-seal-driveway/) sets the schedule that keeps the annual cost honest.