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Concrete vs Asphalt Driveway: The Twenty Year View

The install price is the smaller half of this decision. Here is what each surface costs to own across two decades, including the figure that goes against us.

Updated August 2026 · Pleasant Prairie Concrete

We pour concrete, so treat our opinion accordingly. What we can do is show you the published numbers on both sides, including the ones that favour asphalt, and let the arithmetic carry the argument instead of the adjectives.

Day one, and every year after

HomeGuide publishes both the install cost and the running costs.

Installed, two-car driveway: asphalt $1,200 to $4,000, concrete $1,600 to $6,400.

Maintenance and repair:

• Sealing - asphalt $290 to $800, concrete $290 to $1,700
• Repair - asphalt $250 to $800, concrete $300 to $3,000
• Resurfacing - asphalt $200 to $2,200, concrete $850 to $2,900

And two facts that turn those into a schedule: asphalt needs resealing every three to five years, while for concrete sealing is described as optional. Asphalt's lifespan is put at about half that of concrete.

What that adds up to over twenty years

Take the sealing cycle first, because it is the one that repeats. At one visit every three to five years, an asphalt driveway is sealed somewhere between four and six times in twenty years. At the published $290 to $800 a visit, that is roughly $1,200 to $4,800 spent purely on upkeep.

Concrete's sealing is optional, so the same twenty years can pass with little or nothing spent on that line. Even a cautious owner sealing a few times stays below the asphalt cycle.

Now stack it on the install price. Asphalt starting at $1,200 to $4,000 and adding $1,200 to $4,800 of sealing lands in the region of $2,400 to $8,800. Concrete starting at $1,600 to $6,400 and adding little or nothing stays close to where it began.

The entry-price advantage does not survive the second decade. That is the honest headline, and it is built from their numbers rather than ours.

The number that goes against us

Here is the counterweight, stated plainly because a comparison that hides it is worthless.

When concrete fails, it is dearer to fix. Repairs are published at $300 to $3,000 against asphalt's $250 to $800. Resurfacing runs $850 to $2,900 against $200 to $2,200. A patched asphalt driveway can also be made to look uniform again, while patched concrete never quite matches, because new material against weathered material is a permanent colour difference.

So the twenty year case for concrete depends on it not failing. That is not a rhetorical hedge. It is the whole reason the rest of this site goes on about sub-base preparation rather than about finishes.

Where asphalt genuinely wins

The entry price, as above, and more so the longer the drive.

Ground that moves. Being a flexible surface, asphalt responds to a heaving subgrade by bending and resettling where rigid concrete simply breaks. Anywhere the soil has a record of lifting, that behaviour is a real technical advantage rather than a consolation.

Salt. Deicing chemicals scale concrete and largely leave asphalt alone. In a state that salts as heavily as this one, that is a real mark against our material.

Speed. Open to traffic inside about two days. Concrete wants a full week before anything drives on it, and no amount of money shortens that.

Where concrete wins

Service life, at roughly double, which is what the higher entry figure buys.

No resealing cycle, which is the twenty year arithmetic above.

Summer. Asphalt softens in sustained heat and takes the imprint of trailer jacks, kickstands and levelling blocks. Concrete is indifferent.

Appearance. Broom, exposed aggregate, stained, stamped, bordered. Asphalt offers black, and later a faded black.

Fuel and oil. Petroleum dissolves asphalt binder. A leaking vehicle stains concrete but damages asphalt.

The variable that outweighs the material

Bad ground defeats either surface. Frost acts on whatever was left below the paving, and when we are asked to look at a driveway that has given up, the fault nearly always traces to how the site was made ready rather than to what went on top of it.

Which gives the practical rule. Where the budget covers concrete properly built - dug out to full depth, stone brought up in compacted lifts, an air specification chosen for salt exposure, a joint plan agreed ahead of the pour, and the approach detailed the way the Village insists - concrete is the better twenty year buy, and the maintenance arithmetic above is why. Take anything off that list to make concrete fit the budget and asphalt laid properly becomes the stronger buy. We would sooner tell you that than hand you an underbuilt slab.

If you go with concrete, the first winter decides a lot

Salt is the clearest advantage asphalt holds, which makes this the aftercare note that matters most on this page. Keep every chemical product off the surface for its first season. Fresh concrete has not finished drying and cannot yet tolerate being frozen in that condition, and deicers press on both problems simultaneously.

What about the widely shared tip that a magnesium or calcium product is the kinder buy? It does not hold. The Wisconsin ready mixed association keeps both away from concrete, and Oregon's transportation department, ranking chlorides by how much compressive strength they cost, left magnesium at the bottom of the table. Grit gives grip and leaves the slab alone.

For local pricing including the Village requirements, see concrete driveway cost in Pleasant Prairie. If an old surface is coming out first, what replacement costs works the sum through.