I'm having a new home build, in eastern Pennsylvania. The driveway will be fairly long (probably 100 ft), asphalt paved, with a small circular turn-around at the end. I want to do something in the center of the circle that looks nice. I asked the builder to quote a price for pavers, or stamped concrete, and he said "I don't recommend either one with an asphalt driveway -- if you want some sort of pattern in the center of the circle, I recommend stamped asphalt". He says I wil have problems with the seam between asphalt & stamped concrete, and potential problems with freeze/thaw with pavers.

I have never heard of this before, so I googled and found some companies that do it or sell the equipment to do it. The pictures look nice (don't they always?) But it makes sense to me, around here roads paved with a combination of concrete & asphalt always break apart at the seams.

Does anyone here have experience with stamped asphalt? Will it hold up OK on a driveway, particularly where I am turning around (tight radius/some tire scrub)? Is it a well-proven product, or still in the infancy stage?

Please don't suggest that I do the entire driveway in concrete, I don't want to get into the whole concrete vs asphalt debate. My only question is whether stamped asphalt is a durable product for part of a driveway.

 

I've seen a lot of stamped asphalt and it looks good as long as it's maintained. The brick-patterned stuff I've seen is usually colored with a red (paint? sealer?). It looks good enough, but it wears off and needs to be recoated. I think they recoat the crosswalks at my daughter's college annually. I'd ask your asphalt contractor for any information he may have, good or bad. Asphalt in general doesn't last as long as concrete, so there's that to consider too. Good luck.