Asphalt Paving in Olympia, WA

Asphalt paving in Olympia is a contest with water. The city averages roughly 50 inches of precipitation a year, most of it between November and January, and its freeze window runs from early October into early May, with about 78 nights a year at or below freezing. A driveway here rarely bakes the way pavement does in Phoenix or Wichita, although the 110-degree record set on June 28, 2021 showed it can. What it does is sit wet for months. Water finds its way into every crack, softens any base that holds moisture, and freezes and thaws on cold winter nights. Asphalt that sheds water and rests on a drained, compacted base lasts for decades. Asphalt that traps water does not make it through many winters.

What is under your driveway matters most

The South Sound landscape was shaped by the Vashon ice sheet, which ended in southern Thurston County. It left two very different kinds of ground. On the prairies around Tumwater, Rochester, Yelm and the airport, the soil is glacial outwash: sand and rounded gravel that USDA soil surveys describe as somewhat excessively drained. In other places, including much of the hilly ground in and around Olympia, dense glacial till sits close to the surface and water perches on top of it. Low swales between them can stay soggy all winter.

Those differences change the job. On fast-draining outwash the native ground is often a sound foundation once organic topsoil is stripped. Over till or in a swale we expect to dig out more, add more crushed rock and pay closer attention to where runoff ends up. HomeGuide describes a typical residential section as 6 to 8 inches of compacted gravel base under 2 to 3 inches of compacted asphalt, with thicker sections for heavier vehicles. Both figures go on the bid, which makes it easy to line ours up against anyone else's.

Timing the work around the rain

Hot-mix asphalt has to be spread and rolled while it is still hot enough to compact. Cold ground and standing water pull heat out of the mix quickly, which leaves a surface that looks finished but is weaker and more porous than it should be. In Olympia, July is the driest month, and the stretch from late spring into early fall is when new driveways and lots are best placed. Sealcoating has an even narrower window, because it needs dry pavement and mild temperatures to cure. We book around the forecast and tell you plainly if a job should wait for better weather.

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Shade, moss and tree roots

Many South Sound properties sit under tall Douglas firs and bigleaf maples. Shade keeps pavement damp longer, moss and needles hold water on the surface, and roots lift edges from below. None of that means you cannot have a good asphalt driveway, but it does mean planning: edges set back from large roots where possible, a surface sloped so it dries, and a routine of clearing debris and sealing cracks before they spread.

Permits and the right-of-way

The strip between the street and your property line usually belongs to the city or the county. Olympia's street excavation chapter, OMC 12.20, says nobody digs in public property without the city engineer's permit, and the city does not normally allow cuts into street pavement built or rehabilitated within the previous five years without Public Works approval. Lacey and Tumwater each require a right-of-way permit for construction in the right-of-way, and Thurston County calls a new or relocated driveway onto a county road an encroachment, which has its own permit. If your project touches that area, we tell you at the estimate and confirm current requirements before the work is scheduled.

What a typical driveway job includes

• Measuring, checking slope and drainage, and probing soft areas
• Removing old asphalt, concrete or gravel and hauling it away
• Digging out wet or organic subgrade and replacing it with crushed rock
• Grading and compacting the base so water drains off and away
• Laying hot mix and rolling it down to the depth on the bid
• Tidy edges, a flush joint at the garage and a smooth tie-in at the street
• A note on when cars can go on it and when the first seal coat is due

Olympia is home base. We work throughout Thurston County, including Lacey, Tumwater, Tanglewilde, Yelm, Rainier, Tenino, Bucoda, Rochester and Grand Mound, and we take jobs in Shelton, McCleary and Elma to the west, Centralia and Chehalis to the south, and DuPont, Lakewood, Steilacoom, University Place, Roy and Spanaway to the north. Ground conditions change across that area, from gravelly prairie outwash to wet river bottoms, and each city and county sets its own rules for driveway work in the public right-of-way. The town pages cover the local details.