Fulton County runs a long way from end to end, and the driveways change with it. Prewar houses on narrow city lots in Atlanta, the subdivisions of Sandy Springs and Roswell, and the newest drives in the county up in Milton. This page covers the part of Fulton we work in, what the housing and the river valley mean for asphalt, and how each city handles the strip at the curb.
Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Johns Creek, Alpharetta and Milton, and the neighbourhoods in between. Parts of Atlanta sit in DeKalb rather than Fulton, and that page is here: DeKalb County. If your address is not on the list, send it anyway.
The Chattahoochee cuts diagonally across Fulton from the northeast to the southwest, and for much of its length it is the county's edge. Fulton took its present shape on 1 January 1932, when Milton and Campbell counties were merged into it, which is why it stretches so far north and south of the city.
The river corridor follows the Brevard Fault Zone, the line the National Park Service describes as the boundary between the Appalachians and the Piedmont, and the ground along it is gneiss and quartzite under a skin of red clay. For a driveway that means two things. Lots near the river and its creeks are often on a slope, and plenty of drives climb or drop to the house. And the clay under them is the kind that holds water after a storm, which is where a sloped drive tends to fail: at the bottom, where the runoff ends up.
The US Census Bureau's 2024 five year survey puts the median home in Fulton County at 1993. The cities around it tell the more useful story.
Age alone does not decide anything. A 1950s drive that was rebuilt ten years ago can be in better shape than a 2005 drive that never had a crack filled. It is a guide to what to look for, not a verdict.
Sealing and crack filling stay on your side of the sidewalk. Rebuilding an apron, moving a curb cut or repairing the public sidewalk does not, and the rules for that strip are set city by city. From each city's own pages:
Whoever does the apron pulls the permit, and the quote says so. Fees move, so the current one goes on your quote rather than on this page.
Sealcoating of asphalt drives with the crack filling and small patches included, which is most of what a 1980s or 1990s drive in good shape needs. Repairs for the soft spot at the bottom of a sloped drive and the broken edge by the street. Paving, from an overlay to a full rebuild, under the permits above. And lots and private streets for offices, churches, apartment communities and associations, covered on the parking lot page and the property managers page.
Yes, but it rarely looks right. A seal line down the middle of a shared drive shows for years. Most neighbours split one job, and it is quoted that way if you ask.
It changes the preparation more than the coat. Runoff on a steep drive carries grit and leaves to the bottom, which is also where the base softens first, so that end gets the closest look before anything is priced.
Possibly not. A drive in its first few years often still beads water and has no grit on the surface. The five minute tests will tell you, and so will we.
Yes. Work in the public right-of-way there needs the city's permit, and it is part of the paving quote.
Across the river: Cobb County. To the east: DeKalb and Gwinnett.
