7 Pothole Repair Methods Ranked by How Long They Last (2026)

Every pothole you fill looks good the day you leave. Six weeks later, the property manager calls, the patch has dished out, and you're back on site for free.

We went through the field data on seven pothole repair methods: a 2024 Rutgers report that compiled data on how long winter-placed patches survived in earlier field studies; Ohio's study of 686 winter patches; a 2025 survey of 50 Minnesota road agencies; and the 2025 and 2026 manuals and specs that crews work from. 

Some fixes hold for four months. One holds for the rest of the pavement's life.

Here's how long each method lasts, what it costs you in crew and production, and where the line sits between patching and repaving.

TL;DR: Pothole Repair Methods Ranked by How Long They Last

Pothole repair methods run on a spectrum, from a two-minute nozzle shot to a dig-out that replaces the base underneath. 

Shortest fix to longest:

1. Spray injection blows tack, aggregate, and emulsion into the hole through a nozzle, with no rolling afterward.
2. Throw-and-roll drops cold mix into the hole and compacts it under the truck tire.
3. Edge seal finishes a throw-and-roll patch with a tack ribbon and sand across the seam.
4. Semi-permanent patching squares the hole to sound pavement, then compacts against clean vertical edges.
5. Infrared patching reheats the surrounding asphalt so new mix bonds into it without a cold joint.
6. Full-depth patching takes out the asphalt and the failed base, then rebuilds both layers.
7. Mill and overlay grinds off the wearing surface and repaves the area as one job.

Quick Comparison of Pothole Repair Methods

Average surviving life and productivity below come from a 2024 Rutgers report for NJDOT that compiled field data from earlier SHRP and Ohio DOT studies. The lifespans come from patches placed in winter, so treat them as winter numbers, while the productivity figures also include warmer SHRP sites.

The last column adds results from Ohio DOT's winter patching study, the agency answers Minnesota published in 2025, and two trials covered in the Rutgers report, so you can see how far real-world results move from the averages.

Two numbers in that table deserve a second look. Spray injection moves the most material per day and produces the shortest-lived patch. Infrared does the opposite, turning out under a ton a day and still holding after three and a half years.

How We Ranked These Pothole Repair Methods

We ranked these pothole repair methods on documented average surviving life from field studies. Where a method had no published survival figure, we placed it against the method it modifies.

Production and crew size are listed under each method, because a repair that outlasts the competition at one ton a day can still lose money on a route with forty call-outs.

Your callback rate settles the argument on your own lots. Contractors who log every repair against the job it came from can see which method holds on which surface, and that kind of project tracking turns a guess into a pricing decision.

Most crews never build that history. Patch work slots in between real projects, the hours vanish into a general maintenance bucket, and nobody finds out the same three lots ate forty crew hours last season. 

Ask three foremen which patch holds up best on a heavy-truck lot, and you'll get three answers with no data behind any of them. That blind spot is a large part of the argument for moving off spreadsheets.

Why Potholes Keep Coming Back After You Patch Them

A patched pothole comes back for three main reasons:

• Water is still in the pavement. Potholes form when water gets in, freezes and expands, and traffic finishes the job, so filling the hole does nothing about the water still moving below.
• The cause sits below the surface. Washington State's maintenance manual says that when potholes cluster in one area, crews should suspect drainage, pavement strength, or the base and subgrade before blaming the surface.
• The hole wasn't prepped. Blowers, brooms, and wire brushes clear loose material and standing water before anything goes in. Washing the area down defeats the purpose, since you're adding the exact thing that caused the failure.

The long game is keeping water out before potholes form at all. Crack sealing closes working cracks with a flexible material that moves with the pavement through the freeze-thaw season, and that is where the money hides on a maintenance account.

Sealing a quarter mile of cracks in October costs your customer far less than three emergency patch calls in March, and it fills a slow month on your own schedule.

Non-working cracks call for a different treatment, and picking the right crack filler for those covers the rest of the surface. Both sell better in October than a pothole repair does in February, when the customer is already frustrated and comparing your number against whoever answered the phone first.

The condition data gives you the opening. ASCE's 2025 report card puts 39 percent of major US roads in poor or mediocre condition, with deteriorated and congested roads costing the average driver more than $1,400 a year in vehicle costs and lost time.

Property managers rarely plan around that on their own, so framing it falls to you. A written maintenance schedule attached to your proposal turns a one-off patch call into recurring work.

What Makes One Patch Outlast Another

Beyond prep and the repair method, three variables decide patch life:

Material drives both cost and patch life

Prices compiled in that 2024 report put hot mix at about $84 a ton, bulk cold mix at about $111, spray injection material at about $203, and bagged cold patch at about $232, before shipping. 

The cheapest material on the list is hot mix, and the most expensive is the one crews grab for winter emergencies. Run each hole's length, width, and depth through the free asphalt tonnage calculator to get the tons each patch needs, then multiply by those per-ton prices for a material cost.

Compaction separates a patch from a pile of aggregate

Minnesota's 2025 survey of local agencies found that throw-and-go work placed without compaction, especially in wet or dirty holes, often fails within days or weeks, and that agencies regularly reported those patches blowing out or popping loose. Two extra minutes per hole barely move your daily production.

Season sets the ceiling

Winter placements carry a shorter life expectancy than spring work, because the base stays frozen and more freeze-thaw cycles are coming. Indiana's 2026 specifications set 60°F as the minimum for the thinnest hot-mix lifts and 45°F and 32°F for thicker lifts, allowing colder placement only when crews still hit the required density, and rule out a frozen subgrade entirely. 

Ohio's study found that snow within two days of patching led to poor performance for some methods and materials. Cold mix in January is a safety repair, and pricing it as anything more invites a callback.

Which Patch Material Lasts Longest

Material choice can double or halve a patch's life with the same crew and the same method. Ohio's 2022 study tracked how long each material and method combination survived on local roads.

• Premium cold mix: UPM and HEI-WAY were the standout performers. On residential streets, UPM averaged 24+ months when compacted with a roller and 20 months under truck tires. An Illinois study reached the same conclusion: "Proprietary cold mixes perform much better than nonproprietary mixes. Even at the higher cost, it is worth using proprietary cold mixes to get a longer performance out of these high-quality materials." Our roundup of the best cold patch asphalt compares the options.
• Other cold mixes: Results vary even among branded products. Perma-Patch averaged 9.5 to 11 months on the same Ohio residential streets, and one Minnesota county says cold mix "typically lasts less than a year."
• Hot mix: Its life depends on the compaction equipment. On Ohio arterials, hot mix patches lasted 12.5 months with a roller and only 4 months with a hand tamper, and the researchers concluded that hot mix "should only be used for patching when a roller is available." Minnesota counties report hot-mix repairs lasting anywhere from 2 to 8 years.
• Recycled mix: Rutgers and NJDOT found that hot mix carrying 30 percent reclaimed asphalt pavement matched or beat traditional hot mix when the hole was preheated first, so the asphalt millings sitting in your yard may have a place in your patching program.

1. Spray Injection: The Shortest Average, the Widest Range

Spray injection uses a single nozzle to blow debris out, coat the hole with emulsion, and fire aggregate and binder in together. No shovels, no rolling, and one operator can run the unit.

Best for: high-volume patch routes and municipal contracts where you're paid on holes closed per day.

How it works

The operator clears water and debris with the application nozzle, sprays a tack coat of emulsion across the sides and bottom, then blows the asphalt and aggregate mixture in until the hole is full.

A dry aggregate cover coat finishes the patch and keeps tires from picking material up. The lane opens as soon as the equipment clears.

How long it lasts

About 16 weeks on average for winter placements, the shortest in the Rutgers data set. Newer results run much longer: in Ohio's field trials, two spray mixes lasted 24+ months on arterial roads while a third lasted only 4.5 months, and Isanti County, Minnesota reports its Durapatcher spray repairs lasting 3 to 5 years. 

The mix and the operator decide which number you get, and there is no compaction step to cover a mistake.

What it costs you to run

One operator on a self-contained unit, two on a trailer setup, which keeps the crew small. Equipment cost is the highest of the cold-mix methods, and material runs about $203 a ton, so the unit only earns its keep at volume.

Pros

• Highest average production rate in the Rutgers data
• Small crew, which frees workers for other jobs
• Immediate reopening with no cure time
• One nozzle handles cleaning, tack, and fill

Cons

• Shortest documented average life
• Equipment investment only pays back at steady volume
• Loose cover aggregate scatters under traffic
• Results swing hard on operator skill

2. Throw-and-Roll: The Emergency Standard

Throw-and-roll drops cold mix into the hole and compacts it with the tires of the truck that carried the material. It remains one of the most widely used methods because it is quick and needs no special equipment.

Best for: emergency call-outs, winter work, and safety complaints you need cleared today.

How it works

Two workers pull up, shovel mix into the pothole, and drive the truck across it four to eight times. The finished patch should sit about an eighth of an inch above the surrounding surface so traffic settles it flush.

Then the crew moves to the next hole. No saw, no compactor, no cure time.

How long it lasts

About 20 weeks on average, which beats spray injection and lands well short of anything with a prepared edge. Skip the compaction pass, and that number drops to days or weeks.

What it costs you to run

Two workers plus whatever traffic control the site needs, with a material truck and cones as the entire equipment list. Bulk cold mix runs around $111 a ton and bagged product more than doubles that, which matters on a winter route burning through pallets.

Pros

• Goes down in freezing weather when asphalt plants are closed
• No specialized equipment to buy, finance, or store
• Opens to traffic immediately
• Easy to train a new hire on in one shift

Cons

• Fails early when crews skip the compaction pass
• Leaves an unsealed edge that lets water back in
• Bagged material carries the highest cost per ton
• Reads as a cheap fix to customers who watch the work

3. Edge Seal: Throw-and-Roll With a Water Barrier

Edge seal adds a ribbon of asphaltic tack material around the seam of a throw-and-roll patch once the area dries, with sand over the top to stop tracking. That's the whole difference.

Best for: older pavement with heavy cracking around the hole, where the surrounding surface is part of the problem.

How it works

The crew places and compacts the patch the same way they would with throw-and-roll, then returns once the repair has dried to lay tack across both the patch edge and the pavement beside it.

That ribbon blocks water at the seam and glues loose pieces of surrounding pavement together, which gives the patch better support than it started with.

How long it lasts

Longer than plain throw-and-roll on distressed pavement, and edge-seal patches had the highest survival rates at the Illinois, New Mexico, and Texas test sites. Production drops only slightly, from 5.6 tons a day to 5.0.

What it costs you to run

The same two workers and traffic control as throw-and-roll, plus a pass for tack and sand. On a route with scattered call-outs, that second mobilization is most of the added cost.

Pros

• Cheap upgrade over standard throw-and-roll
• Blocks the water path behind most patch failures
• Stabilizes cracked pavement around the repair
• No new equipment required

Cons

• Requires a second visit after the area dries
• Pointless on pavement that's still in good shape
• Tracking risk if the sand layer goes on thin
• Hard to bill separately on a small repair

4. Semi-Permanent Patching: The Saw-Cut Standard

Semi-permanent patching squares the hole back to sound pavement, then fills and compacts it properly. FHWA's pothole repair manual calls it one of the best repairs short of full-depth removal and replacement.

Best for: spring and summer repairs on lots where the base is still solid.

How it works

The crew cleans and dries the hole, then squares the sides with a saw or small mill until vertical edges sit in sound material. Tack goes on every cut face before the mix does.

Cold mix, or hot mix kept workable in an asphalt hot box, goes in next, and a plate compactor or single-drum roller compacts against those clean edges. Holes deeper than six inches get filled in lifts so each layer compacts properly.

How long it lasts

About 34 weeks on average, the longest winter average of any method without a heater, and well short of infrared. That figure comes from cold mix; when you patch with hot mix, compact it while it stays above 200 degrees.

What it costs you to run

Four workers is the optimum crew: two clearing debris and squaring edges, two placing and compacting behind them. Productivity drops to 2.5 tons a day, less than half the throw-and-roll rate, so the schedule has to plan for fewer and better repairs.

Pros

• Longest winter average of any method without a heater
• Clean vertical edges give you real compaction
• Tack on every cut face bonds the patch to sound pavement
• Looks professional to the customer paying for it

Cons

• Needs twice the crew of throw-and-roll
• Under half the daily production
• Saw and compactor add equipment cost
• Poor fit for frozen base in deep winter

5. Infrared Patching: The Blended Joint Fix

Infrared heating warms the existing asphalt until it's workable, then crews rake in new mix and compact the whole area as one piece. Rutgers researchers tested infrared against microwave preheating and chose infrared for their test-section repairs because it heats pothole surfaces fast.

Best for: surface-level failures, utility cut repairs, and customers who care what the finished work looks like.

How it works

A heater unit warms the repair area and a few inches past its edges until the top layer softens.

The crew scarifies the heated asphalt, pulls out failed material, adds hot mix or reclaimed material with a rejuvenator, then compacts across the entire heated zone. The result blends into the surrounding surface with no visible edge.

How long it lasts

More than 188 weeks, the longest survival the report records. In a 2014 Ohio DOT trial on holes drilled into the pavement for the test, 14 of 15 infrared patches were still in service after three and a half years, against 2 of 15 spray-injection patches placed under the same conditions.

Preheating is what buys that life. It strengthens the bond between the patch and the pavement around it, which removes the cold joint that normally fails first.

A Minnesota field test, summarized in the 2024 Rutgers report, shows what goes wrong when the heat is uneven. Crews patched two potholes with an infrared unit on October 30, 2012, and within three weeks the repairs had de-bonded from the pavement underneath and started raveling. The researchers partly blamed the temperature gap between the hot surface and the cooler asphalt below it.

What it costs you to run

Production is the catch, at roughly 0.9 tons a day. That's under a sixth of what a throw-and-roll crew moves, and crews in the study had trouble igniting the heater, which slowed repairs further.

Two workers can run the method, though Ohio DOT usually puts four on the job to keep the heater moving.

Pros

• Best documented durability of any surface repair
• Eliminates the cold joint that fails first
• Reuses existing material and cuts hauling
• Finished repair blends into the surface

Cons

• Lowest production rate on the list by a wide margin
• Heater can be hard to ignite on site
• Fixes nothing wrong below the surface
• Requires hot mix or reclaimed material on the truck

6. Full-Depth Patching: Rebuilding What Failed

Full-depth patching removes the asphalt and the failed base underneath, then rebuilds both layers. Washington State's 2025 manual says pothole repairs will generally be full-depth patches and warns crews to confirm the repair reaches full depth.

Best for: alligator cracking, failed subgrade, utility trench settlement, and any hole you've already patched twice.

How it works

The crew marks and saw-cuts clean vertical boundaries, breaks out the pavement and the affected base layers, then places and compacts new aggregate base before tacking the faces and paving in lifts.

The boundary is where crews lose this repair. WSDOT's guidance says the repair area has to extend past the visible distress into sound material, or the damage typically comes back.

How long it lasts

As long as the pavement around it, when the base work is done right. This is the only patching method on the list that repairs the base under the hole.

What it costs you to run

The most expensive patching method there is. You're pulling a saw, a breaker or skid steer, a haul truck, compaction equipment, and hot mix for what might be a single repair, so mobilization dominates the bid on small jobs.

Pros

• Stops the same hole from coming back
• Service life matches the surrounding pavement
• The only defensible repair over failed base
• Sets up future overlay work properly

Cons

• Highest cost per repair by a wide margin
• Needs equipment many crews have to rent
• Lane or lot closure runs long
• Hard sell against a cheaper patch quote

7. Mill and Overlay: When Patching Stops Making Sense

Mill and overlay grinds off the failed surface layer and lays new asphalt across the whole area. Past a certain density of holes, patching them one at a time costs more than resurfacing.

Best for: lots where potholes have stopped appearing one at a time, and the base is still sound.

How it works

A milling machine removes the top inches of distressed asphalt, the crew cleans and tacks the surface, then a paver lays new mix, and rollers compact it.

Failed spots get dug out and rebuilt before the overlay goes down, so the patching methods above still show up inside this job. The milled material comes off as reclaimed asphalt pavement you can stockpile or sell.

How long it lasts

The longest of any option here, because you're replacing the wearing surface. The base underneath sets the ceiling, which is why a pavement condition assessment comes first. Overlaying a lot with a failing base buys a season or two and an unhappy customer.

What it costs you to run

Priced by the square yard as a paving project, with milling, trucking, paving, and rolling all in the number. This is a real project on a real schedule, and it needs a full estimate the way any paving job does. Plug the overlay's tonnage into the asphalt trucking calculator to see how many trucks it takes.

Pros

• Resets the surface for a decade-scale service life
• Removes the patchwork appearance customers complain about
• Produces reclaimed material you can reuse or sell
• Turns a maintenance call into a project-sized contract

Cons

• Capital and crew commitment far beyond patching
• Useless over a base that has already failed
• Requires extended site closure
• Takes longer to estimate and sell than a patch

What Four Pothole Repair Methods Cost Per Week of Service

A patch that costs twice as much can still be the cheaper repair if it lasts four times as long. To compare methods on equal terms, we took the crew, equipment, material, and production figures from the 2024 Rutgers report and divided the cost of each ton placed by how many weeks the patch survived.

Our math uses the report's assumptions, with material prices before shipping:

• Labor: $190 a day per worker and $323 per supervisor, at Ohio wages
• Patching day: four hours
• Cold mix: $111 a ton (bulk) for throw-and-roll and semi-permanent
• Spray material: $203 a ton
• Hot mix for infrared: $84 a ton

Infrared costs the most per ton and the least per week. At about $2,136 a ton placed, it needs a long life to pay off, and a patch that survives more than 188 weeks spreads that cost thin. 

Over a five-year analysis with bulk cold mix, the Rutgers team put the break-even at about 91 weeks against NJDOT's 12-week estimate for throw-and-roll and around 150 weeks against the 20-week average, so infrared clears both.

Spray injection's cost swings with its lifespan. On the winter data, it's the most expensive per week. If a patch lasts 24 months or more, as the best Ohio spray mixes did, the same $436 a ton works out to roughly $4 a week. 

Ohio's report advises using spray injection on residential streets only where patches need to last at least 18 months, and on arterials where they need to last at least a year.

A roller only pays on long-term repairs. Ohio found the roller version of throw-and-roll lasted longer but cost more in crew and equipment, so it recommends that method only "when the patches are expected to last at least one year."

Agency numbers give you a floor for pricing. Dallas spent $397,410.79 to repair 22,732 potholes in fiscal 2024 and says the average pothole costs about $16.75, counting a pothole as a 3-by-3-foot hole. 

Fort Worth puts its cost at about $35 per square yard. Wisconsin DOT's FY2025 average unit prices show patching costing more per ton than regular paving, at $140.26 for asphaltic surface patching against $110.09 for asphaltic surface. A contractor's price also has to cover mobilization, traffic control, and margin.

Pothole Repair Checklist for Crews

Minnesota's 2025 guidance lays out the steps that make a patch last. Use them as the standard for every permanent repair:

1. Mark the repair area with a simple shape and straight edges.
2. Cut vertical edges around the marked area.
3. Clean and dry the hole to remove dust, debris, loose material, and moisture.
4. Tack all edges.
5. Place deep holes in more than one lift.
6. Compact hot mix before it drops below 200°F.
7. Leave the patch about 1/8 inch high.
8. Track each repair's size, type, cost, and survival against the job, so you can see which patches come back.

Concrete Pothole Repair Methods

Concrete damage gets a partial-depth or full-depth patch. FHWA says "Partial-depth repairs should be limited to the top one-third of the pavement," so more serious damage generally calls for a full-depth repair through the slab.

Temperature limits apply here too. FHWA says "Normal set concrete should not be used when the air temperature is below 40° F," so cold-weather jobs call for a different mix or a later date.

Done right, concrete patches outlast most asphalt patches. FHWA's National Highway Institute says properly built partial-depth patches can last 10 to 15 years. NJDOT's 2024 concrete research found three rapid-set repair formulations that didn't crack during 10 months of outdoor exposure in New Jersey, and adding 1 percent PVA fibers significantly reduced crack width.

How to Choose the Right Pothole Repair Method

Start with the base, because everything else follows from it. Pull a core or dig a test hole where the pavement keeps failing, and if the material underneath is wet, contaminated, or crumbling, no surface method will hold.

That's a dig-out, and quoting anything cheaper sets you up for a callback you eat.

Season narrows the field next. Frozen base and closed asphalt plants push you toward cold mix whether you like it or not, and the honest move is telling the customer up front that a January patch is a safety repair with a spring follow-up attached.

Contractors who set that expectation get the spring work. Contractors who oversell a winter patch get an angry phone call in April.

Then run the method against your call volume. Spray injection units and infrared heaters sit at opposite ends of the production range, and both need the right kind of workload to earn their keep. Forty scattered call-outs a month and a hundred holes on one campus are different businesses.

Price the work off margin. Adding a flat percentage on top of your costs feels simple, and it quietly leaves money on the table for the repairs carrying the most risk. Build each pothole repair method as its own line item with real labor hours, material, and equipment time behind it, then set the price from the margin you need on that job type. An asphalt labor calculator turns each repair's area, depth, crew size, and tons per hour into crew hours and total labor hours.

How to Sell Planned Pothole Repair to Property Managers

One Minnesota county has handed most of its patching to contractors. In the Minnesota survey, Itasca County said: "We have had bad reviews from the public and commissioners, so have pretty much exclusively switched to contracting out all patches unless they are really small." 

The same county's advice: "Contracting the work to get a paver on site gives the best quality."

Planned repairs cost less than emergency ones. TRIP's January 2026 report notes that every $1 of deferred road maintenance adds $4 to $5 in future repairs, and Indiana DOT says $1 spent on chip or crack sealing can save $6 to $14 later. That gap is the strongest argument for booking crack sealing and patch work on a schedule.

Potholes are a liability line item. AAA estimated that 44 million US drivers paid for pothole damage in 2022, at an average of $406 per repair. 

On an accessible route, the 2010 ADA Standards (sections 403.4 and 303.4) require any change in level over half an inch to be ramped, so a pothole between the accessible parking and the entrance is a compliance problem as well as a damage claim.

Run Your Pothole Work Like the Rest of Your Projects

OneCrew is a platform built specifically for commercial asphalt and concrete paving contractors running project-based work, and it keeps pothole repair work connected from the first site call to the final invoice so every hole, crew hour, and spring follow-up ties back to a job with a real number behind it. 

Here's what OneCrew covers:

• Price each repair method on its own margin target: OneCrew's estimating tools let you draw the repair area on satellite maps, or drop fixed-size patch rectangles, to auto-calculate tonnage, materials, and trucks, with default margins so every estimate starts at your target price. Job costing then tracks margin by service, so you can see which repair method actually pays.
• Put the spring follow-up on the calendar the same day you schedule the winter patch: OneCrew's scheduling feature assigns crew members and equipment to each service and splits multi-phase jobs across weeks, so the January safety repair and its April permanent fix land on the same job record and nobody has to remember the return trip.
• Give your crew the repair spec, the site address, and the base condition notes before they load the truck: The field management tools push mobile work orders, job details, and directions to the job site to crew phones and pull time, placed quantities, and job site photos back to the office as each repair closes out.
• Document the repair method and its expected lifespan in the proposal so nobody disputes the warranty in April: OneCrew's proposal feature generates professional, branded proposals directly from your estimate.
• Know which lots you've returned to three times so the next quote is for a mill and overlay, not a fourth patch: OneCrew's CRM keeps every property manager, past repair, and project record in one searchable place.
• Invoice the same day the crew fills the last hole and sync it to QuickBooks: OneCrew's invoicing tools generate invoices from the line items already in the platform and sync invoicing and payment data with QuickBooks Online.

Book a free demo and see how OneCrew estimates, schedules, and invoices every one of these pothole repair methods, from takeoff to final payment.

FAQs

1. What is the longest-lasting pothole repair method?

Mill and overlay lasts the longest of the pothole repair methods when the base is sound, because it replaces the whole wearing surface. For a single hole, full-depth patching lasts longest because it rebuilds the failed base along with the surface. Among surface repairs, infrared patching leads by a wide margin, with 93 percent of test patches still in service after three and a half years.

2. How long does a cold patch last on a pothole?

Cold patch throw-and-roll repairs placed in winter last about 20 weeks on average, though premium cold mixes lasted 14 to 24+ months on Ohio residential streets. Patches placed in wet or dirty holes without a compaction pass frequently fail within days or weeks.

3. Can you repair potholes in winter?

Yes, you can repair potholes in winter using cold mix with throw-and-roll or spray injection. Both start as safety repairs that restore drivability until warmer weather allows a saw-cut patch or a full-depth repair, though the best mixes held for about two years in Ohio's winter trials.

4. What is the difference between throw-and-roll and semi-permanent pothole repair?

The main difference between throw-and-roll and semi-permanent repair is edge preparation. Throw-and-roll fills the hole as-is and averages about 20 weeks, while semi-permanent squares the sides to sound pavement first and averages about 34 weeks for winter placements.

5. When should you stop patching potholes and repave?

Stop patching and quote a mill and overlay once potholes have spread across the lot, you're returning to the same spots repeatedly, and a test hole shows the base is still sound. If the base has failed, dig it out and rebuild it first, since clustered failures often point to drainage, pavement strength, or base problems an overlay can't fix.

6. How much does pothole repair cost?

Pothole repair costs public agencies about $17 per 3-by-3-foot pothole in Dallas and about $35 a square yard in Fort Worth, before a contractor adds travel, setup, and margin.

7. What temperature is too cold to patch a pothole?

Under Indiana's 2026 specs, hot mix needs at least 32°F for the heaviest lifts, 45°F for mid-weight lifts, and 60°F for the thinnest, and it never goes on a frozen subgrade. Colder placement is allowed only if the finished patch still reaches the specified density. Below those limits, patch with cold mix to keep the surface drivable and schedule hot mix for spring. Concrete has its own 40°F floor for normal-set mixes.

8. What is the most affordable way to fill a pothole?

Throw-and-roll with bulk cold mix costs the least up front, at about $317 a ton placed by our math from the 2024 Rutgers figures. Over the patch's life, infrared costs the least, at about $11 or less per ton per week of service, because the winter averages put it at more than 188 weeks against throw-and-roll's 20. Those figures cover the four methods with published crew data.