- 1). Store your bag of asphalt patching compound indoors to warm it up before use.
- 2). Remove weeds from the pothole. Use a hammer and chisel to undercut the edges of the pothole into clean, square edges all around. Shovel the debris out of the hole and remove any remaining dirt with a shop vacuum. Flush the hole clean with water sprayed through a garden hose.
- 3). Lay your bag of asphalt patching compound in the sun for an hour to heat it up. Shake enough asphalt patching compound directly out of the bag to fill the hole half way. Level and smooth the patch with a trowel. Tamp the material down with the 4-by-4 wood post. Burst any air bubbles with the tip of the trowel. Set your heat gun to a low temperature and warm the asphalt patch. Add more asphalt patching compound and repeat the process.
- 4). Continue to work in layers until the asphalt is about 1 inch above the existing driveway. Tamp down the area until you cannot manually compress the material any further.
- 5). Sprinkle the asphalt patch with a little sand, and then cover the patch with a small piece of scrap plywood. The sand prevents the asphalt from sticking to the wood. Drive your car's front tire onto the center of the plywood and leave it there a few minutes. Move the car back and forth over the plywood several times.
- 6). Add more patching material if necessary. Reapply the plywood over the patch and drive your car tire over the wood until the asphalt material is just above the surrounding surface of the driveway. Wait a year to seal the driveway after a patch job so that the asphalt compound has time to harden and settle.
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