Asphalt Paving in Kensington, MD
Family-owned driveway paving, sealcoating, and repair for Kensington homeowners since 1988.
Kensington Driveway Paving, Local Since 1988
Kensington is one of Montgomery County’s original railroad suburbs — a planned garden community that has been holding onto its Victorian identity for over 130 years without much effort, because the identity was built into the streets from the beginning. Brainard Warner, a Washington financier, purchased land south of the B&O Railroad’s Knowles Station in 1890 and designed Kensington as a summer retreat for Washington’s elite, modeled on London’s Kensington Gardens. By 1894 it was incorporated as a town. By 1980 its historic core was on the National Register of Historic Places.
The land itself goes back much further. The property that became Kensington was originally part of a 4,220-acre grant called Joseph’s Park, awarded to William Joseph in 1689. Daniel Carroll — one of only five men to sign both the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution — later owned the land before selling parcels to local farmers. The Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad came through in 1873, bisecting the Knowles farm, and the train station that opened at Knowles Station in 1891 is still standing on Howard Avenue, still carrying MARC Brunswick Line commuters into Washington every weekday.
The homes in Kensington’s historic district are large Victorian houses with wraparound porches, stained-glass windows, and curving brick sidewalks that most suburban neighborhoods built after 1950 never had to begin with. The driveways that come with those homes carry age in proportion to the houses — and the root systems from the mature oaks and maples that line every street in the historic district have had just as long to work their way underneath them.
We’ve been paving in Kensington since 1988 and are based in Gaithersburg, about 20 minutes north.
What We Do in Kensington
Driveway Paving and Replacement
Kensington’s historic district streets are narrow and the lots are large, which creates tight equipment access challenges. The mature tree canopy that lines every block is part of what makes Kensington worth preserving, which means working around root systems rather than through them. We remove the old surface, rebuild the base properly, and pave new — within the constraints that a historic tree-lined neighborhood demands.
Driveway Widening and Extensions
Custom home builders working in Kensington sometimes need a driveway built from scratch on a lot that’s being redeveloped, or an extension added to an existing approach. New construction driveway work requires the same foundation as any quality asphalt job — compacted gravel base, base asphalt, tack coat, and topping — built right the first time so the surface matches the permanence of the home it serves.
Sealcoating
Kensington’s heavy tree canopy keeps driveways shaded through much of the day and damp well after rain has dried in open neighborhoods. That sustained moisture accelerates the oxidation that breaks down asphalt binder over time. Sealing on the right schedule is what keeps that process from running ahead of the surface before the driveway is ready for a resurface.
Crack Filling and Patching
The mature oaks and maples that define Kensington’s streetscape run root systems under every driveway in the historic district. Root heave and freeze-thaw cycling work together here — root pressure lifts the surface while winter cycling cracks it laterally. We fill with heated rubberized sealant where the damage is still surface-level and cut out and rebuild where the base has shifted underneath.
Resurfacing and Overlay
When the base is still sound but the surface has cracked and worn, a resurface extends the driveway’s life without the disruption of a full tear-out. We mill the transitions at the street, garage, and walkway so the new layer meets every edge flush, tack coat the existing surface, and machine-lay fresh asphalt.
Culvert Pipe Replacement
Some of Kensington’s oldest properties have drainage pipes under their driveways that have been in the ground since the B&O came through. When those pipes fail the driveway above them collapses, and no surface repair holds when the pipe is still failing underneath. Montgomery County requires a permit for culvert work. We handle the full job — excavation, pipe, base rebuild, and repaving.
New Driveway Construction for Patrick K. Keating & Company on East Stanhope Road
Kensington, MD — Completed July 2025
What We Found
Patrick K. Keating & Company is an award-winning custom home builder based in Garrett Park, operating across Kensington, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, and Washington, D.C. We’ve been paving driveways on their job sites for about 20 years. The project on East Stanhope Road in Kensington was a full driveway replacement on a property being redeveloped — 1,350 square feet of old asphalt removed and replaced with a new surface built to match the quality of the home being constructed.
What We Did
We removed the existing asphalt driveway and hauled it away. We machine-laid 3 inches of base asphalt and power rolled with a 3- to 5-ton roller. We applied a tack coating so the two layers would bond as one structure. We machine-laid 2 inches of topping asphalt and power rolled to a smooth, consistent finish. All edges were banked at a 45-degree angle and the job site was cleaned before leaving. One-year workmanship warranty included.
The Result
A clean, properly built 1,350 square foot driveway ready for the home Patrick K. Keating & Company was delivering to their client — built the same way we build every driveway, whether the customer is a homeowner or a custom builder we’ve worked with for two decades.
Finished driveway on East Stanhope Road — stone border edging, modern custom home, mature tree line
Side view — fresh surface meeting stone walkway, landscaped hillside behind
Fresh asphalt flush to the garage apron — glass-panel doors, clean transition, no lips or seams
Why Kensington Driveways Are Different
Kensington’s historic district is one of the densest concentrations of mature trees in Montgomery County — an entire neighborhood built around the idea that the streets should be shaded and the canopy should be maintained. That canopy is what makes Kensington look the way it does, and it’s also what makes driveway work here different from neighborhoods with more open exposure. Root systems from trees that have been growing for 80 to 100 years run under almost every driveway in the historic district. Moisture that the canopy traps on the surface after rain is what accelerates oxidation. Tight street widths and large lots make equipment access a real constraint that a crew unfamiliar with the neighborhood will handle badly.
The age range of the housing stock adds another dimension. A Victorian home from the 1890s, a Craftsman from the 1920s, and a mid-century rancher from the 1950s can all sit on the same block in Kensington — each with a driveway at a different point in its life cycle and a different base condition underneath.
Kensington Neighborhoods and Landmarks
Kensington’s historic core runs along Howard Avenue, which was the first commercial street in town — the area around the B&O station at Knowles Station was where business happened from the moment the train started stopping in 1891. Today Howard Avenue is better known as Antique Row — the DC metropolitan area’s largest and oldest antiquing district, with dozens of independently owned shops on Howard Avenue, Armory Avenue, and Fawcett Street. The Kensington Railroad Station, designed by architect Ephraim Francis Baldwin and opened in 1891 in the Stick Style, still stands at Howard Avenue and still serves MARC Brunswick Line commuters. The Saturday farmers market is held in the station parking lot through the growing season.
Warner Circle Special Park preserves the former estate of founder Brainard Warner — 4.5 acres with his original Queen Anne home, carriage houses, and open grounds. The Noyes Library for Young Children, built in 1893 by Brainard Warner and Crosby Noyes, is one of the nation’s first libraries dedicated entirely to youth. The Washington D.C. Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is visible from I-495 just east of Kensington — a white marble landmark that has defined the town’s skyline since 1974.
Kensington’s residential neighborhoods range from the tree-lined streets of the historic district near Antique Row to larger-lot communities further up the hill toward Connecticut Avenue.
Chevy Chase View, where Glenrose Street and Franklin Street run, is one of the most sought-after pockets in the area — large wooded lots, brick colonials, and homes that back up toward Rock Creek Park. Silver Creek Middle School, rebuilt from the ground up as a brand new 174,500-square-foot facility on Saul Road, anchors that side of Kensington. Across Connecticut Avenue and up Beach Drive, Rock Creek Hills encompasses Bexhill Drive and the surrounding streets — mid-century brick homes on generous lots directly adjacent to the Rock Creek Trail and Beach Drive, where the road closes to cars on weekends for cyclists and pedestrians. Holy Redeemer Catholic School, a PreK-8 parish school founded in 1950, and the Academy of the Holy Cross, an all-girls Catholic college prep high school on Strathmore Avenue, serve the broader area.
Rock Creek Park and the Beach Drive Bike Path are about half a mile from Kensington’s town center. The Rock Creek Trail runs 14 miles from the DC line north to Lake Needwood in Rockville, passing through the western edge of Kensington. Other established neighborhoods include Parkwood, Ken-Gar, Kensington Heights, and McKenney Hills. Walter Johnson High School and North Bethesda Middle serve students from much of the zip code.
Don’t see your street listed? We serve all of Kensington. Call and we’ll come take a look.
Own or manage a commercial property in Kensington? Visit our Montgomery County commercial page.
Why Kensington Homeowners Call Us
Same owner, same crew since 1988. Jim Stanley founded this company, and his son Mike runs it today. Jim or Mike is on every single job — not a salesman, not a project manager you never see again after the estimate. Our crew has been with us for years. These are experienced guys who know what they’re doing, and we don’t rotate them out or sub the work to whoever’s available that week. You get the same faces from estimate to completion.
We own our equipment. Our trucks, our paver, our roller — all ours. Not rented by the day, not borrowed from another crew. We show up ready, every time.
Highest rated on Google with verified reviews from your Montgomery County neighbors. Not bought, not incentivized — real people who hired us and took the time to write about it. Look us up before you decide.
Google Guaranteed, MHIC licensed, fully insured. We passed Google’s background check and screening. MHIC #01-66672 means we’re licensed by the State of Maryland. Both are on the record.
We don’t push unnecessary work. When Patrick K. Keating & Company calls us for a job site, they know what they’re getting — the same quality they’ve seen on every project we’ve done together over 20 years. That’s what every Kensington homeowner gets too.
We know Kensington. The Victorian streetscape and the root systems underneath every block of it. The tight access on narrow historic streets. The range of housing eras and the range of driveway conditions that come with them. We’ve been paving here since 1988 and we’re not going anywhere.
