Get matched with top asphalt paving installers in Penns Grove, NJ

"Max and his crew were a sure pleasure in dealing with my driveway. These guys did a makeover on my house! 20 star rating and don’t be stupid hire the BEST!"

"Supervisor Albert and his crew did an awesome job taking out our sinking concrete driveway and asphalting our new driveway. They were very professional, clean, and polite. The project was completed in a couple of hours and we couldn’t be happier!"

"Summary:  Above average work, the crew seemed pretty good.  If there was a B+ grade I would give that as my overall grade, and for price and quality.  If everything was near perfect then I could give out A grades in some of these ratings. I was home for the install and looked at all the phases of work. Overall the job was done professionally but didn?t quite match expectations from the previous reviews and sales pitch, in particular with respect to grading at some points compared to original driveway, and especially with respect to the walkway from the house and final surface leveling/compaction.  The final asphalt coarseness was a disappointment, but in part to be fair, part of the final coarseness expectation was my assuming that top coat meant the same as my old one or a couple of the new ones around me.  That's not to say that the quality of their topcoat is as good as you can get - only that it appears finer.  You should ask about how fine the topcoat will be, ask for some pictures or something.  Overall I think the driveway appears to installed to be structurally sound and serviceable.  Details are highlighted below as to what went well and where I think it didn't go so well.  I'll update the review as necessary over the course of the two year warranty period and beyond.
History: Original owner of house - saw all phases of original installation of driveway. 
House and Driveway age: 26 years - no subsequent work done on driveway after builder?s install.   
Original driveway info: 45?x18?; 3-4? minimum base layer, 1.5 or so fine top layer; pulled away from garage due to natural shrinking process; a sunken section in corner around house; some center like cracking; cracks and failures around edges due to lack of edge support and (base) and base drainage/depth at bottom of driveway.  Less of an incline from garage out to walkway; slightly more incline down to driveway.
How did I go about choosing a service: Interviewed top rated services on Angies List and another rating site, as well as some recent neighbors and friends who had recent work done.  Quote range: $2500-$3500
Selected quote: Approx. $3300.  Included in quote: Excavation and dirt removal; fine grade and level area; weed killer; 2A modified stone if and where need (I expected some to be needed based on current issues and after looking at grading after old driveway was dug up); roll and compact loose material; 2? base (binder) blacktop; 2? blacktop machine laid and rolled; haul excavated materials away
Why did I choose Asphalt Services? As others have noted, their salesman, Mike seems very knowledgeable about driveways and appeared to genuinely care about doing the job right.  His discussion and belief, as compared to others was top notch, about making sure the foundation of stone was right, the crew not accepting poor quality asphalt, along with using a separate binder coat and then the topcoat, as compared to some other sales pitches that had only mix of these promises.  Similar to some others, Mike also walked around the driveway with me and noted any issues that he saw as well as the ones that I saw.
What happened?   What went as expected and what didn?t go so well?
The job start a couple weeks early due to opening on schedule: Got a call the afternoon before.  It was a nice surprise.
8:00: Arrived early, as other have noted.  Mike around 8 AM to go over driveway again, marking up some problem areas and a request to cutback so stucco from part of the foundation wall that went between the wall and the pulled away asphalt.  The rest of the crew was there by 8:15 to 8:30.
The crew seemed like a good bunch of guys.
Mike stayed around for the tear out of the old asphalt and the beginning of work.   Showed me the layers being torn out.   They thought it was two driveways perhaps due to its unexpected thickness or two layers.  As I mentioned before, the original builder put in a thicker base coat and then a topcoat.
Excavation of old driveway is completed in about 1.5 hours.
No new gravel is used.
The original depression and sunken area up near garage is filled with gravel and stuff from the center of the driveway.
Rope lines had been shot down on both side of the driveway.  Good, but showed some potential choices or issues that would need to be addressed based on how the original driveway was graded along with the interface to the walkway coming from the house.
Approximately 10:30: the driveway is graded and compacted more along the lines of a bit more straighter incline/pitch - shows a fair path of dirt instead of gravel on the right side of the driveway, but more importantly highlights the potential walkway problem, with several possible solutions.
Problem needing to be addressed which showed up early: The base is much lower on the side of the driveway that?s going to meet up with the walkway.   At this point possible solutions include
a) grading similar to the original installation (slighter decline/pitch coming out from garage, or 
b) potentially laying a thicker base than estimated towards that side of the driveway. 
c) potentially laying a thicker top coat later on
At this point the choice was no additional material - I guessed that a thicker base in the area similar to the original builder would be applied.  
By approx. 1:00-1:30 or so the base layer is in.  I went out and looked at it over lunch some time before this and thought this is still too low after the proposed top coat is installed.
Somewhere around this time Ken asks me to come out and look at the problem area around the walkway and asks me how high up to I want the top coat to match the walkway.   I said that it didn?t need to come all the way to the top because the original was slightly below the top.   Problem solved, I thought.   It?s going to be leveled higher toward that side with the topcoat.

Walkway Driveway Level End Result: Walkway solution didn?t go as expected.  Topcoat wasn?t flatly leveled to the walkway near where I indicated.   The asphalt was manually filled upwards  and hand tamped - moving concave or curved away from the walkway and down to the compacted pitch. The underside of bottom left hand corner of the walkway is just visible and that portion of the walkway will become more exposed with settling.  To fix this I?m probably going to have to in the near future tear out and install a new walkway; not something I wanted to do any time soon.  
Topcoat: as mentioned, much coarser than I expected.  This is more my fault for not researching or asking the right question.  When Mike mentioned topcoat I had assumed something similar to the original builders and what was just done for my next door neighbor a couple of weeks ago and nearby neighbor?s job about 9 months ago.There are rougher or more course spots due to hand tamping.   In some of the areas I?m concerned, though, that frozen water will break apart some of the more open and pocked marked areas where the aggregate isn?t closely spaced.  Time will tell.
Other asks and problem areas: 
Good: The sunken areas were taken care of.
Good: The crew was able to cut away that area of  stucco/concrete that I requested
Good: matched and leveled to the garage
Good: matched and level to the stre"

"Hamilton was very professional from the first phone call to schedule the estimate to completing the work. The roof replacement was reasonably priced and completed in a timely manner. The workers did a great job and cleaned up the space in which they worked. I will use again for other services and recommend to others."

"The work was excellent and the job went very well"

"They did an outstanding job at a reasonable price. We would recommend to anyone looking for looking for paving services."

"It went great! ​The Clark team is fantastic! I could only find one company to install my wood burning fireplace incert but they quoted me more than double the price. I was so happy to hear about Clark Chimney & Madonry, they did a great job for less than half price. Chris was very professional, and efficient and his team were great! Thank you"

"Excellent job. Experienced knew what they were doing customer service was outstanding I recommend them for all your driveway needs"

"Everything went fine : my driveway was done in a couple hours."

"They did a really nice job and came on time. They were very polite and did not leave a mess when they were done. We would highly recommend them and we would definitely hire them again."