Asphalt Paving in Vancouver, WA

Asphalt paving in Vancouver, Washington, starts with one rule that makes the city different from many of its neighbors: under the city's own definition, a driveway is a paved way, and gravel is not permitted. That makes asphalt the go-to surface for a lot of Vancouver homeowners who want a durable drive without the cost of concrete. Vancouver had 190,915 residents in 2020 and is the county seat of Clark County, sitting on the north bank of the Columbia River directly across from Portland. We pave new driveways, repair and resurface older ones, sealcoat, and handle paving and striping for business lots.

Old Vancouver and the 1997 annexation

Vancouver is one of the oldest settlements in the Northwest. Fort Vancouver was set up as a Hudson's Bay Company post in 1824, and the city incorporated on January 23, 1857. For most of the 20th century, though, it was a small city: 46,380 people in 1990. Then a 1997 annexation added 11,258 acres and 58,171 residents in one step, and the 2000 census counted 143,560. Areas such as Cascade Park came inside the city at that point.

That history means paving jobs here split into two kinds. Close to downtown and the older west side, driveways are short and narrow and have usually been patched several times. On the east side, many homes went up in the subdivisions of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and their driveways are now old enough that surface cracks have spread and edges are breaking down. NE Andresen Road is the usual dividing line people use between east and west Vancouver.

Wartime housing near the shipyards

During World War II, Kaiser's shipyard employed as many as 36,000 people by 1944, and the population jumped from about 18,000 to more than 80,000 within months. Six housing developments went up to hold them, including Fruit Valley, Fourth Plain Village, Bagley Downs, Ogden Meadows, Burton Homes and McLoughlin Heights. Neighborhoods with roots in that era often have narrow lots and tight driveways where a paver has to work carefully around fences, foundations and neighboring yards.

Get a Free Estimate

The city's driveway permit rules

The City of Vancouver says that modifying a driveway, adding a second driveway or adding an RV pad always requires a permit, and often more than one. Work on private property uses an over-the-counter land use permit. Any work in the right-of-way, meaning the approach, curb or sidewalk, needs a separate right-of-way permit, and the city issues that permit only to a licensed contractor approved to work in its right-of-way. The city also says like-for-like repair or replacement of an existing driveway does not need the land use permit, though right-of-way work still does. One more rule matters for asphalt: all drainage must stay on site. When we lay out a new drive or an RV pad, we shape it so water drains into your yard or a drain on your lot, not across the sidewalk into the street.

Weather on the Washington side

Vancouver's climate table lists about 37.47 inches of precipitation a year and about 2.8 inches of snow, and Wikipedia notes that heavy snowfalls happen every two to four years. Snow and ice bring plows, shovels and de-icers, all of which are hard on an unsealed driveway. Sealcoating every few years and filling cracks in late summer keep water from getting under the surface before winter.

Services in Vancouver

• Driveway paving: new asphalt drives, gravel-to-asphalt conversions and replacements
• Repair: potholes, settled spots and broken edges
• Resurfacing: overlays on driveways with a sound base
• Sealcoating: dry-season protection for drives and lots
• Parking lot paving: retail, office, church and apartment lots near I-5, I-205 and SR 14
• Striping: new layouts and restriping with accessible spaces

Call (971) 813-2104 for a free estimate anywhere in Vancouver.