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Petaluma Asphalt Paving serves San Rafael businesses and property owners with commercial asphalt paving, parking lot maintenance, driveway repair, and crack sealing - with the crew experience to handle Marin County hillside lots, aging mid-century driveways, and the wet winter conditions that accelerate pavement wear across the city.
San Rafael has an active commercial corridor along US-101 and a mix of retail, office, and light industrial properties that depend on functional, well-maintained parking lots. Aging commercial lots in this city often date to the same post-war build-out as the surrounding neighborhoods - meaning surfaces that have been through decades of Marin winters. Commercial asphalt paving here means accounting for heavy daily traffic, drainage requirements from hillside runoff, and the clay-based subgrade conditions that run across much of the city.
San Rafael commercial properties with deferred lot maintenance face compounding costs - cracks become potholes, potholes compromise the base, and base failure means replacement instead of repair. A consistent maintenance schedule of crack sealing and sealcoating every two to three years keeps a commercial lot functional for decades longer than letting damage accumulate between major repairs.
Many San Rafael residential driveways were installed in the 1950s and 1960s alongside the homes themselves - which means they are now 60 or 70 years old and showing it. Hillside driveways in areas like Terra Linda or the slopes above downtown face the added challenge of drainage running across the surface and clay soil movement from seasonal wet-dry cycles. Replacement here means getting the grade and drainage right, not just laying fresh material.
San Rafael winters can deliver atmospheric river storms that drop several inches of rain in a day or two - and every open crack in your pavement is a direct path for that water into the clay subbase below. Sealing cracks before the rainy season arrives is the most cost-effective thing a San Rafael property owner can do to prevent winter storm damage from turning a manageable repair into a full replacement.
Potholes and surface failures in San Rafael often appear after winter storm events, when water that worked through cracks during a multi-day rain saturated the clay base and then left a void as the ground dried. We cut failed sections cleanly, address the base condition, and patch with hot-mix asphalt - because a repair that does not fix the base will fail at the same spot by the following winter.
Hillside properties in San Rafael funnel runoff across driveways and parking areas every time it rains, eroding pavement edges and carrying sediment across surfaces. Low-lying areas near the canal in East San Rafael can hold standing water after heavy events. We design drainage grading, channel solutions, and catch basin placements as part of paving projects so water moves off your property rather than across it.
San Rafael is the county seat of Marin County, with a population of around 60,000 and a housing stock that reflects the post-war suburban build-out of the North Bay. A large share of the city was developed between the 1940s and 1970s, which means a significant number of driveways, parking lots, and commercial surfaces in San Rafael are now approaching or past their original design life. Marin County homes are well-maintained because owners have invested heavily in them - but asphalt is often the last thing to get attention, and deferred maintenance here compounds quickly. The combination of steep hillside lots, clay-heavy subgrades, and some of the most intense winter rainstorms in the Bay Area means that pavement in San Rafael faces a harder environment than most North Bay communities.
The hillside terrain is the defining challenge. Properties above the flat valley and canal areas in East San Rafael sit on slopes that drain aggressively during any rainfall. Clay soils on these hillsides absorb water slowly, causing saturation, runoff across paved surfaces, and soil expansion that stresses driveways and retaining walls from below. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, clay soil movement is among the most damaging forces acting on residential pavement in California - and hillside lots with poor drainage compound this damage every wet season. Getting drainage right is not optional in San Rafael; it is the baseline for any paving project that is expected to hold.
Our crew works throughout San Rafael regularly, and we understand the local conditions that affect asphalt paving work here. San Rafael is an incorporated city, so permit requirements for paving and construction work go through the City of San Rafael's Community Development Department - not the county. Commercial parking lot projects, new driveway aprons, and any work that changes drainage patterns may require a city permit, and we coordinate permitting directly for projects that need it. The main arteries we navigate daily are US Route 101 running north-south through the city, and Interstate 580 connecting to the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and the East Bay. Hillside streets in neighborhoods above Terra Linda and near Dominican University can be narrow, and we plan equipment access accordingly before every job.
San Rafael sits at the center of our North Bay service area. Fairfax is a short drive west up Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, and we serve that community's hillside residential properties regularly. To the south, Novato is another Marin County city we cover, with its own mix of commercial corridors and residential neighborhoods that need the same level of service. Customers throughout this part of Marin County will find us responsive and already familiar with the local conditions.
Call us or submit a project request through our contact form. Tell us what you are dealing with - a commercial parking lot that needs work, a residential driveway with cracks and damage, or a hillside drainage problem. We reply within one business day to schedule a site visit.
We visit the property, measure the site, check the base condition, and evaluate drainage. For commercial projects we also assess access for equipment and estimate any scheduling constraints from parking lot use. The written estimate covers everything - no additions after the job starts. We address cost questions at this stage so there are no surprises.
We prepare the subgrade and base before any surface material goes down - especially on hillside sites where drainage and soil conditions require careful grading. Paving follows base preparation, with compaction passes and surface thickness matched to the traffic load and the site conditions we found on the ground.
When work is complete we clean up the site and walk you through the curing window - typically 24 hours before light traffic and 48 hours before heavier vehicles. For commercial properties we provide a recommended maintenance schedule so your lot stays in good condition year over year rather than returning to the same damage pattern.
We serve San Rafael and all of Marin County. Call us or submit your project details - we reply within one business day and provide a written estimate with no obligation.
(707) 210-9827San Rafael is the county seat of Marin County and the largest city in the county, with a population of around 60,000. The city sits in the North Bay just north of San Francisco, connected to the wider Bay Area by US Route 101 and Interstate 580, which crosses the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to the East Bay. The city has a range of distinct neighborhoods - Terra Linda sits in a northern valley and has a more suburban residential feel, while the areas near downtown and Mission San Rafael Archangel are older, denser, and closer to Marin County's civic and cultural institutions. The Marin Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in the city and serves as both a functioning government complex and a recognized architectural landmark.
The hillside neighborhoods above downtown and near Dominican University are characterized by steep lots, winding narrow streets, and properties built between the 1940s and 1970s with original driveways and retaining walls that are now decades old. East San Rafael near the canal and bay sits at low elevation and has different drainage challenges - soft ground, slow drainage, and proximity to the waterfront. Both contexts demand contractors who understand the terrain and do not apply a one-size approach to pavement work. We serve the whole city and we also cover neighboring Fairfax to the west and Novato to the north, so customers throughout Marin County are within our regular coverage area.
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Learn MoreCall Petaluma Asphalt Paving for a written estimate on commercial paving, driveway repair, or parking lot maintenance in San Rafael. We reply within one business day.