Lee's Summit Driveway Paving
Our yard is here. So are a lot of subdivision drives that have reached the end of their first life.
Tarmasters paves residential driveways across Lee's Summit from a yard inside the city. Most drives here went in with the 1980s–2000s suburban development and are now at the age where the base decides whether they get resurfaced or replaced — so that is what we look at first, over Wymore-Snead series expansive clay.
Lee's Summit is where our yard is — 906 SE 7th Terrace, Ste B, off the US-50 side of town — so this is the market we are in and out of every day. It is also a market with a very particular driveway problem: the city built out hard through the 1980s–2000s suburban development, which means whole subdivisions — Lakewood, Bent Tree, Winterset Valley — reached the end of their original driveway life within a few years of each other.
When that happens, a lot of neighbors get the same sales pitch at the same time. The useful question is not whether your drive looks tired. It is whether the base under it still carries load — because that answer is the difference between a resurface and a full rebuild, and it is not something you can see from the top. Lots are covered under commercial paving in Lee's Summit; the Lee's Summit hub covers the wider market.
The company behind the work
Tarmasters is Kansas City–owned and based here in Lee's Summit — the asphalt division of Ford Concrete and Paving, insured and bonded, paving the metro since 2014. Crews and equipment are our own, which is why a small residential drive gets scheduled the same way a large job does.
Being local also means we can look at a drive quickly and say no to work. If the base proof-rolls tight and the surface is just worn, we will quote a resurface. If the cracking is connected and the ground under it has failed, we will tell you a new surface would crack along the same lines inside two seasons. Both conversations happen here regularly.
How we build for Lee's Summit's weather and soil
Three conditions decide how a drive is built here. None of them are about the asphalt.
The clay: Wymore-Snead series expansive clay
Jackson County clay swells when it takes on water and shrinks as it dries, which puts a seasonal heave cycle under the mat. On commercial work the answer is engineered subgrade prep — over-excavation, stabilization, separation fabric. A driveway is a lighter load, so the residential version is a properly compacted crushed limestone base with a separator where the clay is wet, plus soft spots dug out rather than bridged.
Winter: 40 freeze-thaw cycles, frost to 36 inches
Every cycle pushes water a little deeper into whatever cracks are open, freezes it, and widens them. Over a saturated clay subgrade that water has nowhere to drain. It is the reason crack sealing on a two-to-three-year cycle is the cheapest maintenance a drive here can get.
Fill and grade in the newer subdivisions
Curb and gutter settlement in newer developments here traces back to how the original subbase was placed, not to the pavement on top. On a lot with fill, the drive is only as stable as what is under it — so we check the fall from the garage to the street and correct the grade rather than repeating it in new asphalt. Rolling ground on the Raintree Lake and Longview Farm side usually gives us real fall to work with.
Where your drive is in its life
Residential asphalt on a proper base runs fifteen to twenty years here. Knowing roughly where yours sits tells you whether you are buying maintenance or buying a driveway.
Years 0–5
Tight, black, no visible cracking
Nothing structural. First sealcoat once the surface has cured through a full season.
Years 5–12
Surface greying; hairline cracks at the edges and the apron
Crack seal on a 2–3 year cycle. This is the stage where money spent is worth the most.
Years 12–20
Open cracks, edge crumbling, the first depressions in wheel paths
Sealing still helps. If depressions are forming, the base is the thing to look at, not the surface.
Years 20+
Connected cracking, alligatored patches, movement underfoot
Resurface if the base proof-rolls tight; replace if it does not. Most 1980s–90s drives here are at this line now.
What we build on Lee's Summit driveways
Replacement
Old drive out, subgrade corrected, base rebuilt, new drive in. The right call when cracking is connected across the drive or when sections move under load.
Resurfacing
A new wearing course over a base that still carries. Common on drives from the 1990s and 2000s here, where the original build was adequate and the surface simply wore out.
New drives, widenings and extensions
Third-car pads, boat and trailer parking, and turnarounds on the longer lots out toward Longview. New construction on the south side gets a base built right the first time.
What to expect on your Lee's Summit job
Site walk and measure
We measure the drive, look at where roof and yard water crosses it, and note the fall from the garage to the street. On the sloped lots around Lakewood that fall is the design.
Tear-out
The old surface comes out. We keep the work tight to the drive line so the lawn and irrigation heads either side stay intact.
Proof-roll and subgrade correction
The exposed subgrade gets loaded. Soft spots on this clay get dug out and rebuilt rather than covered — covering one is how you get a depression back in two winters.
Base in compacted lifts
Crushed limestone placed and compacted in layers, with a geotextile separator where the clay is wet enough to work its way up into the stone.
Hot mix and compaction
Asphalt placed at residential thickness and rolled to density while hot, so the mat itself sheds water instead of holding it.
Edges, apron and cleanup
Edges backfilled and supported, apron tied flush to the street and the garage slab, and the site left clean. Most drives are a single day on site.
Nearby Lee's Summit communities
The lake and the north side
Lakewood, Raintree Lake, and the streets running back toward M-291. Longer drives, real slope, and the oldest of the subdivision-era builds — the ones most likely to be at the replace-or-resurface line now.
South and east
Winterset Valley, Longview Farm, Bent Tree, and the newer construction off Colbern Rd. Newer drives, first replacements, and widenings — and the lots where original fill decides how much grade correction the job needs.
Driveway paving in the next town over
We run the same trips through Blue Springs, Independence, and Kansas City, and across the state line into Overland Park. The metro-wide version of this service is asphalt driveway paving, and the service area map shows everywhere we work.
Lee's Summit driveway questions
Will my HOA have a say in the driveway?
Often, yes. Most of the subdivisions here run an HOA, and the common requirements are about the footprint rather than the material — how far a widening can extend toward the property line, whether a parking pad is allowed in front, and what the apron has to look like at the street. Asphalt itself is standard throughout the city. We can build to whatever dimension your covenants allow; it is worth checking before we quote a widening rather than after.
What makes a driveway here fail after twenty years?
Usually the base, not the asphalt. Wymore-Snead series expansive clay moves seasonally, and a drive that was built with a modest stone base takes that movement in the surface. Add 40 freeze-thaw cycles a winter driving water into whatever cracks have opened, and the failure works upward from underneath. That is why we proof-roll the subgrade instead of assuming that what held for twenty years will hold for another twenty.
Do you pave in winter?
We pave when the ground and the air will let the mat compact properly, which in a normal year runs from spring into late fall. Cold subgrade pulls heat out of the mix faster than it can be rolled, and a mat that cannot reach density will not last. Winter is fine for scheduling, measuring, and estimating — we just place the asphalt when conditions allow.
How much disruption is it?
A standard drive is one day of work and a couple of days before you can drive on it. Plan for the vehicles to be on the street overnight. If you have a detached garage or a second access point, we can often stage the job so you keep one way in. Tell us what you need to get to and when, and we will build the sequence around it.
Driveway estimates in Lee's Summit
We are based here. Call Tarmasters Asphalt Paving and we will measure your drive, check what is under it, and give you a fixed number.
Call Now: (816) 789-0700