Description

• Asphalt is the same material used to pave most roads, and is primarily composed of approximately 95 percent aggregate (rock, sand) and 5 percent crude petroleum (tar). Concrete is a mixture of used chunks of concrete (clinker), calcium oxide, silicon oxide, aluminum oxide and magnesium oxide.
  
  

Cost

• Concrete is almost always more expensive than asphalt to install; it will also cost more to maintain. This is especially true in cold environments, where concrete is prone to cracking.
  
  

Flexibility

• Although it appears to be solid, asphalt (like glass) is actually classified as a semi-solid (meaning that it never really hardens). This quality makes it much more flexible than concrete, which is why asphalt tends to resist cracking under extreme temperature variations.
  
  

Maintinence

• Concrete driveways must be repaired with either epoxy or mortar, which makes them more expensive to maintain than asphalt. Minor asphalt cracks can often be repaired by simply heating and re-melting the material with a torch.
  
  

Smoothness

• Concrete's primary benefit is its inherent smoothness. Asphalt can be made quite smooth, but the texture of the material's sub-surface aggregate will eventually come through as the asphalt melts and moves.