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Four years, two coats, no touch-ups. Here is how a tan colored driveway sealer held up, and some terrible, horrible news.
In 2020 I sealed my driveway with a tan latex colored sealer, and I haven’t touched it since. No crack filler, no refresher coats, nothing, for four years almost to the day. I’m about to work on it again, so here’s the unvarnished look: some good news, and some bad news about buying it today. The colored sealer is gone, so the button goes to a standard black filler and sealer like I’m using for the reseal.
- Way cooler underfoot than black sealer
- Looks brighter and different
- No harder to apply than other sealers
- Two coats held up to four years of traffic
- Tire marks were milder than I expected
- Discontinued
- About three times the price of black sealer
- Black asphalt peeks through where it wore off
▶ Watch the full review on YouTube
How it looks after four years
Some of the damage isn’t the sealer’s fault: the edge is sinking and eroding, and there’s a deep crack along it. What I can comment on is the tan color, which I liked because it matched the stone and the concrete.
Where I parked my Buick Encore every day and did a two-point turn, there are some tire marks and a little discoloration. Honestly, it’s not that bad, and I expected worse.
Snow was the real enemy
It’s not even a millimeter thick, and I did two coats so the old blacktop didn’t peek through. Where it’s come up, I mostly blame snow removal. A single-stage snowblower’s rubber auger scrapes the surface, and for the last couple of years a plow service has scraped it at 2 a.m. and taken chunks off the high spots.
With a two-stage snowblower, the auger doesn’t touch the surface, and I bet it would look better. If I’d used the colored seal for years, there’d also be more tan underneath to hide the wear.
Why I still love it
The big win is heat. Black sealer in the sun is brutal. It could be 150 degrees for bare feet or a dog. Today it’s about 87 degrees out and I can stand on this without it feeling super hot.
It wasn’t any harder to put on than any other sealer I’ve used.
About the buy link
The colored sealer from my video was discontinued, and the old link was only an Amazon search. The button goes to Black Jack Drive-Maxx 1000, a 5-gallon black asphalt filler and sealer, since I’m resealing in black this time. It is not a colored sealer.
The bad news
Latex-ite is still in business, but they stopped making colored seal coat, probably because it’s expensive. Black sealer might be $18 to $25 a bucket; this was about $58 to $60. They used to have light gray, tennis-court red, sandstone and maybe green.
I found another company, maybe SealMaster, that still makes colored seal coats, including sandstone and light gray. But I wanted to seal this week while it’s hot, so I’m going black this time. Come on, Home Depot and Lowe’s, stock colored sealers so the prices come down.
FAQ
Can you still buy Latex-ite colored sealer?
Not that I could find. Latex-ite stopped making it.
Does colored sealer stay cooler?
Yes. It’s much cooler than black sealer on a sunny day.
How many coats did you use?
Two, so the old black didn’t show through.
What damaged it most?
Snow removal, especially the plow service.
Is this an affiliate link?
Yes. The buttons are #ad affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. It costs you nothing extra.
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