Cobb sits across the Chattahoochee from Atlanta, with Kennesaw Mountain in the middle of it and Lake Allatoona at the top. Marietta, Smyrna, Kennesaw, Acworth, Austell, Powder Springs and the large unincorporated stretch between them. Here is what matters about Cobb for an asphalt drive or lot, and who you deal with when a job reaches the road.
By the county's own figures Cobb has more than 760,000 residents, third most of any county in Georgia. It is split between its cities, among them Acworth, Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs and Smyrna, and a large unincorporated area whose roads belong to the county. That split decides who you talk to about an apron, so it comes up again below.
The Atlanta Regional Commission describes the Chattahoochee as the border between Cobb and Atlanta and Fulton to the east. More than 9,000 acres of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area lie along it, and Lake Allatoona, over 12,000 acres, sits at the county's northern edge.
Between Marietta and Kennesaw the ground rises to Kennesaw Mountain, which the National Park Service puts at 1,808 feet, a monadnock standing about 700 feet above the land around it, with Little Kennesaw beside it. The 2,965 acre battlefield park around it marks the fighting of June and July 1864.
The neighbourhoods on the slopes around it, and on the ridges running down toward the river, are where Cobb's steep drives are. Steep asphalt has its own habits. Sealer has to be worked so it does not run toward the street before it sets. Water arrives at the bottom of the drive fast and carries whatever it picked up with it, so the low end and the apron are where the surface breaks first. And a car climbing a steep drive spins its wheels on the same two lines every morning, which wears a fresh coat faster there than anywhere else. None of that is a reason not to seal. It is a reason to look at the bottom of the drive before quoting the top.
Census figures from the 2024 five year survey put the median Cobb home at 1990. Marietta's median is 1987, Smyrna's 1990 and Kennesaw's 1998, the youngest of the three. A house from around 1990 with its original asphalt drive has a surface more than thirty years old. Some of those drives have been looked after and only need a coat. Some have been patched once too often, and have a soft spot by the garage, a web of cracks where the car sits, and a slumped edge along the lawn. Those need repair first, or an overlay, and you will be told which.
In Cobb the answer to "who do I ask about my apron" depends on whose road your driveway meets:
Smyrna, Acworth and Powder Springs keep their own rules as well. We did not find pages clear enough to summarise them here, so an apron there gets checked with the city first.
Cobb County's business licence office states that anyone doing business needs an Occupation Tax Certificate for each location in the county, and that 1099 independent contractors must hold their own. Kennesaw requires a licence of a business operating in the city limits or generating revenue there. Whoever you hire in Cobb, it is a fair thing to ask about.
Sealing asphalt drives, with the hot crack filling and small patches counted in the one square foot price. Rebuilding the low end of a sloped drive where the clay has gone soft. Overlays and full replacements where the surface is past saving, done by a local independent paving contractor under whichever permit the road owner asks for. And lots around Cumberland, the Marietta square and the office parks along the interstates, sealed and restriped in sections so the business stays open.
A Marietta mailing address does not mean the City of Marietta. Plenty of East Cobb is unincorporated, so its roads are Cobb County's, and an apron there goes through Cobb DOT.
That is where the water ends up, and where it soaks the clay under the asphalt. The fix is a rebuilt section on stone at the low end, sometimes with a drain, and then a seal.
Yes. The stadium opened in April 2017 off I-75 and I-285, and the offices, apartments and shops around it are well inside our area.
No. Send the address and it is measured like any other.
Over the river: Fulton County. Further east: DeKalb and Gwinnett. Communities and managed property: HOAs and property managers.
