I'm experiencing my first real winter. Our house has an asphalt driveway about 100' long. I've been shoveling it when the snow gets too deep, but cars going in and out have left 2–3" of densely-packed snow that is very difficult to get up. I got out my metal garden shovel and used that a bit, but it's slow going and is probably damaging the driveway. Is there a better way?
Clear densely-packed snow from driveway
driveway
Related Solutions
You have divots in a concrete driveway.
I'd saw around the divot area, break it all out, and pour concrete, rather than anything to do with asphalt. Drill some holes in the edges and insert steel to tie the patch to the slab.
If following the "quick fix" fill-on-top approach, possibly thinset (tile cement) but trying to do anything with concrete in the winter is fraught with difficulty - you have to heat it up and keep it warm - if it freezes before it cures, it's toast.
My gut says that your quick fix with hot tar is going to be good for 6 months, at most. Additionally, it will complicate doing a good concrete repair later.
I recommend the Chad 5000 (my neighbor's teenage son)
He's self propelled, runs on Mountain Dew, and costs next to nothing.
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Best Answer
An ice chopper with some weight in the business end, such as this one can be very effective; you can use it to scrape the ice/compressed snow up, and if needed, can chop at the tougher stuff. The tradeoff for the extra weight is more physical exertion, but I find that I make much faster progress.