Blackstone Valley winters don’t go easy on pavement. Come spring, you can walk down half the driveways in Woonsocket and see exactly what four months of freeze and thaw does to asphalt that wasn’t laid right. Cracked edges. Sections heaving near the garage apron. Surface crumble that’s gotten a little worse every season it’s been put off.
That deterioration isn’t random bad luck. Water finds its way into small cracks, freezes overnight, and physically pushes the pavement apart from underneath. Season after season, small cracks become big ones. An asphalt contractor who knows this region knows how to read that damage and tell you what actually needs to happen.
Masterson Paving is a residential asphalt contractor based in Woonsocket, RI, founded in 2018 by David Gaboury and Eric Matheson. Instead of building toward large commercial contracts the way most asphalt contractors do, they built the business around one thing: getting residential driveways right. Licensed and insured in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, BBB accredited, and verified on Google. Call (508) 918-4352 for a free estimate before another winter takes another inch off your driveway.
Rigid surfaces crack under the kind of ground movement New England produces. Asphalt flexes instead of fracturing, which is a big reason it’s the dominant driveway material in this region. And when the surface eventually wears down, resurfacing over a good base costs a fraction of tearing everything out and starting over.
A few other things worth knowing:
Residential driveways, commercial parking lots, municipal maintenance contracts. The prep standards don’t change based on the size of the job. A single driveway near Social Street gets the same attention to subgrade and drainage as a full commercial lot along the Route 146 corridor.
Most asphalt contractors want to grow into large commercial and municipal work. Masterson Paving made the opposite call from the start: stay focused on residential driveways, run equipment and crews built specifically for that work, and keep overhead low enough to offer competitive pricing without cutting corners on quality.
Licensed and insured in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts, BBB accredited, and a Google verified business. Homeowners off Diamond Hill Road get the same prep standards and crew accountability as anyone along Woonsocket’s Main Street corridor.
Road salt from plows tears through poorly maintained asphalt fast. Spring thaw softens subgrade soils that were never properly compacted, and driveways on older Woonsocket lots feel it first. Every job starts with subgrade evaluation and runs through final grade and drainage before any asphalt goes down.
That kind of local knowledge doesn’t come from an asphalt contractor who bids your job from two states away and sends a crew that’s never worked a Blackstone Valley winter.
Masterson Paving serves homeowners throughout Woonsocket, Cumberland, Lincoln, North Smithfield, Pawtucket, Providence, Blackstone, Bellingham, Attleboro, Franklin, Millville, and surrounding communities.
New driveway or a resurfacing job, whatever the situation, the contractor will come out, take a look, and put together a clear written scope of work with no obligation attached. Woonsocket and the surrounding communities across Rhode Island and Massachusetts are all in the service area.
Call (508) 918-4352 to schedule your free on site estimate with a licensed, insured, Google verified asphalt contractor.
Road salt from plows tears through poorly maintained asphalt fast. Spring thaw softens subgrade soils that were never properly compacted, and driveways on older Woonsocket lots feel it first. Every job starts with subgrade evaluation and runs through final grade and drainage before any asphalt goes down.
That kind of local knowledge doesn’t come from an asphalt contractor who bids your job from two states away and sends a crew that’s never worked a Blackstone Valley winter.
Solid base with surface level cracking? Resurfacing is almost always the right move. But if the pavement is heaving, if you’re seeing alligator cracking across large sections, or the base has failed in spots, full replacement is the better long term investment. The contractor can assess your driveway and give you a straight answer either way, no upsell.
Size of the driveway, current surface condition, and how much prep work the subgrade needs all factor into the price. Written, itemized estimates mean you know exactly what you’re paying for before anything starts.
Start with licensing and insurance in Rhode Island, then ask about active general liability coverage and a real track record of completed local work. Ask specifically how the contractor handles subgrade prep and drainage grading. Contractors who skip those steps hand you a surface that fails faster than it should, and in a New England climate, that usually means faster than you’d expect.
A contractor built around residential driveways uses equipment, crew sizes, and processes suited to that specific job, not commercial gear and a crew sized for parking lots and road work. That focus is what keeps pricing competitive and quality consistent without the overhead of a large commercial paving outfit.
