Heated Driveway Tire Tracks in Asphalt

Prior to beginning any digging, we suggest contacting a local utility locating/marking firm to make sure your project won't run into any gas, water, or electrical lines. Once that's done, you'll want to excavate and tamp down a solid base of soil. While this can be accomplished with hand tools, a front-loader and steamroller will make quick work of it.

Because this project involved an expansion, the depth of the total finished driveway had to be accounted for when excavating and compacting the soil, which resulted in a flush finished product.

Compacted gravel is a familiar component of many driveways. It is so popular because it provides a stable base for the higher-up layers of the driveway, while still allowing for effective drainage. In fact, many professionals say that the secret to a long-lasting asphalt driveway is having a good, strong layer of gravel base compacted by a steamroller.

So don't skimp. For most residential applications, WarmlyYours recommends a layer of compacted gravel that is 4" to 8" deep; however, some highly-trafficked applications can require up to 12".

Depending on the size and location of your project, you may require the use of a junction box.

By reviewing your WarmlyYours SmartPlan, your electrician will be able to identify where the junction box for your snow melting system should be located.

The junction box serves as an intermediary between the heating element itself and the snow melting relay panel or control that you select.

Making sure to establish the location of the junction box early on will allow you make sure that all sequential steps are going according to plan.

While some non-heated driveways may be poured all at once, a quality and long lasting driveway will have a base, or binder, coat poured and spread before the final coat.

This helps increase the longevity of the driveway and is a required step for any asphalt driveway with an embedded snow melting system.

We recommend that this layer be between 1.5" and 2" deep.

With the base layer of asphalt down, you have an excellent opportunity to lay out your snow melting mats before completing installation.

This step allows you to make sure that all the elements will fit exactly where they are supposed to according to your WarmlyYours SmartPlan.

Testing your snow melting system with an ohmmeter at every stage of installation will allow you to be certain that the heating element is functioning properly.

Completing these tests, and recording your readings accurately, will also qualify your project for WarmlyYours' 10-year warranty.

Make sure to consult your WarmlyYours snow melting installation manual for more information.

There are two primary ways to accomplish this: you can put a large scoop of asphalt down on one end or you can drive a stake into the binder coat of asphalt (while avoiding hitting the heating element) to hold the mesh. Either way works just fine.

Another tip is to only unroll a few feet of the mat at a time. This will allow you to make sure your proper spacing is maintained.

While a front loader can be used to bring hot asphalt closer to the work area, it's very important that all of the spreading be done with hand tools like shovels and asphalt rakes, with special care taken to avoid hitting the heating elements.

Mechanized asphalt pavers should never be used, as they can damage the heating element.

We recommend that this layer of "finished asphalt" be between 2" to 3".

In this project, four separate heating mats (two per each tire track) are set up so that they "begin" near the middle of the driveway. This allows for one central junction box to carry power to the mats.

That power is carried to each mat by a "cold lead", which is connected to the heating cable on the mat via a manufacturer's splice.

One of the most common snow melting installation mistakes that people make is leaving this splice, and some of the heating cable, outside of the asphalt (sometimes people leave it in the conduit or simply leave it exposed). This can cause the splice, which is half heating element, to overheat and fail. By simply making sure that the splice is embedded in the asphalt, you'll ensure that it has an appropriate medium (the asphalt) to prevent overheating.

This project required two sets of two snow melting mats, with all four mats beginning near the location where the junction box will be. This area can be seen in this picture where the pieces of bent electrical conduit meet the asphalt.

In this picture, you can also see the asphalt crew continuing to spread asphalt, while making sure to avoid hitting the heating mats with their tools.

As anyone who has ever worked on an asphalt driveway will tell you, speed is key.

The tar that binds the particulate in asphalt cools relatively quickly, which means it must be poured and surfaced within a fairly short timeframe.

Once the heating element is embedded in 2". to 3". of finished asphalt, it's completely safe to use traditional surfacing methods/machines and steamrollers.

In this photo, you can see several steps being addressed at once. A front-loader with fresh, hot asphalt is supplying the dedicated spreaders and in the foreground, you can see how the crew is surfacing the asphalt.