Chip seal driveways in Little Rock, for the long way in
Tar and chip for long drives, farm lanes, and private roads in Little Rock and every town in Arkansas. The base and the water come first, and if hot mix suits your drive better, we'll say so.
Call (501) 506-6799Available 24/7. Press 1 and you'll reach a person.
- Licensed and insured
- Family-owned
- 11 years in business
- Free written estimates
- Stone base graded to shed water, then compacted.
- Liquid asphalt sprayed evenly over the base.
- A single layer of stone chips dropped right behind the spray.
- Rubber tires press the chips down into the asphalt.
- Loose chips swept off once the asphalt has set.
What you're getting with a chip seal driveway
A chip seal driveway is built in place: a coat of liquid asphalt sprayed over a compacted gravel base, with a single layer of crushed stone rolled into it while it's still sticky. No paver. No thick mat of hot mix. The stone is the surface layer your tires ride on, and the asphalt under it holds every piece where it landed.
You've driven on it plenty. It's the road surface a lot of rural roads get, which is why a new chip and seal driveway looks at home at the end of a county road instead of looking like a parking lot someone dropped in the woods.
Usually it starts with a gravel drive you're done with. Dust all summer. Ruts and washboard after every wet spell. Another load of gravel, and another Saturday on the tractor with the box blade. A chip seal ends all of that, and it keeps the rustic texture of stone that plenty of people with land would rather see than a slab of black.
Tired of grading a gravel drive? Tell us how long it runs. (501) 506-6799
How tar and chip goes down, in five steps
These five steps carry the same numbers as the drawing at the top of the page. Most of the work happens before the spray truck ever shows up.
The base gets built and shaped
Existing gravel is graded, soft spots are dug out and refilled, and fresh stone goes wherever the base is thin. The whole run is shaped so rain sheds to the sides, then compacted until it's firm. It's the slowest step, and it decides how long everything on top of it lasts.
Liquid asphalt is sprayed on
A distributor truck sprays an even coat of liquid asphalt, the binder, across the base. Getting the amount right is a balancing act. Too little and the stone won't hold; too much and it bleeds up around the chips on a hot day.
The chips go down right behind it
A chip spreader follows close and drops a single layer of clean crushed stone into the wet asphalt. Timing matters more than anything else here. The stone has to land while the binder is still tacky enough to grab it.
Rubber tires press them in
A rubber-tired roller makes pass after pass. Rubber kneads each chip down into the asphalt and turns it onto its flat side, where a steel drum would crush some of the stone and ride right over the low spots.
The loose stone is swept off
Once the asphalt has set, the loose aggregate that didn't stick gets swept off the drive, along with anything that landed on the road or the grass.
Chip seal or hot mix: which one fits your drive?
Chip seal is a good surface for a lot of drives and the wrong one for plenty of others, and the difference comes down to how long the drive is, how it gets used, and what you want it to feel like underfoot.
- A long country drive
- Chip seal. Over a long run the savings per square foot add up fast, and it looks right beside fields and trees.
- Getting off gravel
- Chip seal, usually. A gravel drive that's been driven on for years often has a decent start on a base already, so less of it has to be built from scratch.
- A hill where tires slip
- Chip seal. The stone texture gives tires more traction than smooth asphalt, wet or dry.
- Where cars park and turn
- Hot mix. Turning the steering wheel while a car sits still twists chips loose, so the turnaround and the parking pad by the house wear first.
- Bikes, skates, a basketball goal
- Hot mix. Chip seal is rough on purpose, and so is falling on it.
- Snow shovels
- Hot mix. A shovel or plow blade catches on the stones and pulls some of them up.
- A clean black finish
- Hot mix. A chip seal takes the color of its stone, not the black of the asphalt under it.
You can also split it: hot mix where the cars park and turn near the house, and chip seal on the long run out to the road. Ask for both on one estimate. (501) 506-6799
When hot mix is the better fit
Residential Driveways
A smooth hot-mix drive for the house, the parking pad, and the turnaround.
Asphalt Paving
New hot mix from the ground up, on private roads as well as drives.
Parking Lots
Lots for businesses, churches, and municipalities, built for turning traffic.
What chip seal costs, next to hot mix
Per square foot, tar and chip usually costs less than hot mix. These are general Arkansas ranges, not a quote, with hot mix listed underneath so you can see the gap for yourself.
| Work | General range |
|---|---|
| Tar and chip (chip seal) | $2.50–$7 per sq ft |
| For comparison: new asphalt paving or driveway | $5–$15 per sq ft |
The final price depends on your drive: how much of the gravel base has to be built up, whether it gets one layer of stone or two, and how long the run is. Your written estimate is free. (501) 506-6799
What customers say about the work
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★★★★★
We have a long gravel driveway that washed out every spring. Alec recommended tar-and-chip, explained why, and it's already held up through a couple of hard rains. Fair price and the crew was done in a day.
Robert H.
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★★★★★
We have a very long rural driveway out in the county. They did a fantastic job laying the asphalt. The crew worked fast but didn't cut corners on the edges. The driveway feels incredibly smooth.
James K.
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★★★★★
We decided to go with a tar and chip surface for our property instead of standard blacktop. It gave us the rustic look we wanted but with way less dust than gravel. Alec explained the whole process clearly and the price was very reasonable.
Alicia R.
A chip seal is only as good as the gravel under it
A chip seal has almost no strength of its own. It's one stone thick, two for a double. Every vehicle that uses the drive pushes straight through it into the base, so a soft spot underneath shows up on top as a dip, then a pothole, and the chips around the edge of it let go.
So before anything gets sprayed, the questions are about the ground. Where does it stay soft after a rain? Where does water cross the drive? Is there enough stone in the base to carry a propane truck, or a trailer full of hay?
Water is what ends a chip seal early. On a long drive it runs down the length of the run, picks up speed on the slopes, and goes looking for a way under. The fix is shape, not a thicker surface: a crown or a cross slope so rain leaves the drive quickly, and a ditch or swale alongside that carries it off instead of letting it pool at a low spot.
What to get in writing on a chip seal quote
- Base
- What stone goes under it, how thick it is once compacted, and what happens to soft spots.
- Layers
- A single or a double chip seal.
- Water
- Which way the drive sheds rain, and where the water goes from there.
- Edges
- How it meets the road at one end and the garage slab or parking pad at the other.
- Cleanup
- Loose stone swept off the drive, the road, and the lawn.
- Changes
- Anything that changes the job is agreed before it happens.
Ask any contractor for those lines by name, us included. (501) 506-6799
Chip seal paving from Little Rock to every corner of Arkansas
Our yard is in Little Rock, and we take on tar-and-chip driveways, farm lanes, and private roads in every town in the state. Here are a few:
- Beebe
- Greenbrier
- Lonoke
- Malvern
- Mayflower
- Plumerville
- Sheridan
- White Hall
Share a private road with the neighbors? One estimate can cover the whole road, so everybody knows what their share is before anyone signs.
Your town not on the list? We cover every town in Arkansas. (501) 506-6799
Questions about chip seal driveways
How much does a chip seal driveway cost?
See the price table above for the general Arkansas range, set beside hot mix. Your own number comes on a free written estimate, once the length of the run and the state of the base are known.
How long does a chip seal driveway last?
Its lifespan depends on what's under it, and the surface can be renewed instead of replaced. When the chips finally wear thin, a new layer of chip seal can go right over the old one to refresh it, as long as the base is still sound. Nothing has to be torn out.
Is chip seal the same as sealcoating?
No. Sealcoating is a thin liquid coat applied over an existing asphalt surface, with no stone in it, to shield it from sun and water. Chip seal builds a new driving surface with stone rolled into it. If you have an asphalt drive that only needs protecting, sealcoating is the one to ask about.
Can you pave over chip seal later?
Often, yes, as long as the base under it is sound. That makes chip seal a reasonable first step: you're off gravel now, and an asphalt overlay can go on top when the budget allows. Before the hot mix goes down, the old surface is swept, checked for cracks and soft spots, and tack-coated so the new layer of asphalt bonds to it.
How soon can you drive on a new chip seal driveway?
Soon after it's rolled, once the crew gives the go-ahead, and slowly. For a while after, the chips are still settling into the asphalt, so skip the hard starts, hard stops, and speed. A few loose stones early on are normal.
When is the best time of year to chip seal in Arkansas?
Warm, dry weather, well outside the freeze window. The asphalt needs warmth to grab the stone and hold it. NOAA's 1991–2020 normals put the Little Rock freeze window at about November 10 to March 21; in the Ozarks it opens earlier and closes later, and in the Delta it's shorter.
Can you chip seal over an old asphalt driveway?
Sometimes, if the old pavement is worn but still firm. A chip seal gives it a new wearing surface and closes the fine cracks. It won't hold over alligator cracking, potholes, or a base that's moving, so those get an asphalt repair first, or the drive gets rebuilt.
Is tar and chip the same thing as chip seal?
Yes. Tar and chip, chip and seal, chipseal, and oil and chip are all names for the same surface. Whatever it's called, the "tar" is liquid asphalt.
How long is your drive?
Call and tell us roughly how long it is, what's on it now, and whether it climbs. That's enough to set up your free written estimate, with chip seal and hot mix both priced if you'd like to compare.
Call (501) 506-6799Available 24/7. Press 1 and you'll reach a person.
Ask about the warranty on your job when you call. It depends on the work.
