Asphalt patching cost per square foot: per ton, per patch, depth and method

Many of the opened patching bids price the mix per ton. Denver's 2025 Street and Alley mill and overlay contract (202579243) listed HBP Patch at 200 tons, with four bids from $191.56 to $248.23 per ton against an engineer's estimate of $225. North Carolina DOT Division 8's Richmond County contract, opened October 28, 2025, listed Patching Existing Pavement at 501 tons, with bids of $295, $295 and $433.95; asphalt binder for plant mix was a separate item, so that price may exclude binder.

To turn a per-ton price into a per-square-foot price, you need the depth. Compacted hot mix at 145 lb per cubic foot, the density the EstiCube calculators use, is 0.006042 tons per sq ft for each inch, so one ton covers about 165.5 sq ft at 1 in, 82.8 sq ft at 2 in and 55.2 sq ft at 3 in. At the calculator's $300 per ton in place, that is $1.81 per sq ft per inch.

Per square foot or square yard is how infrared and some full-depth patching are bid. Madison, Wisconsin's Contract 8834, opened May 7, 2026, priced Infrared Seamless Patching at 300 sq ft with bids of $9, $11 and $11 per sq ft. One square yard is 9 sq ft, so a $18 per square yard removal price is $2.00 per sq ft.

Per patch is how the pothole calculator prices scattered holes by size. This guide found no 2022 to 2026 public bid that priced potholes each; the per-patch defaults are the calculator's estimates. The table converts the calculator's $300 per ton to a price per square foot at common depths, before saw cut, removal and mobilization.

For hot mix and cold patch, the material is a volume, so doubling the depth doubles the mix in the same way as doubling the area. In the calculator, 100 sq ft of hot mix is $181 at 1 in and $544 at 3 in before mobilization; cold patch, with its bags rounded up to whole bags and labor priced per sq ft per inch, is $492 and $1,457.

Infrared is different. The calculator prices it at a flat $11 per sq ft, so depth does not change it, and it has no saw cut. Madison's infrared item gives a price per square foot and does not state a depth.

The table shows the patch line for 100 sq ft by depth, before saw cut, removal and the $325 mobilization. Some of these jobs add up to less than the calculator's $400 minimum: the $400 minimum is a floor that sets the price only when the job adds up to less, so 100 sq ft of hot mix at 2 in comes to $400 without mobilization.

A hand patch cleans the hole, tacks it, then places and compacts hot mix; the calculator prices it at $300 per ton in place. A saw-cut, full-depth patch also cuts the edges square and removes the old asphalt: the calculator adds removal at $2.00 per sq ft and saw cutting at $3.00 per linear foot, with the cut length worked out as square patches from the number of patches you enter. Infrared heats the existing surface and is priced at $11 per sq ft. Bagged cold patch is one $19, 50 lb bag per 6 sq ft at 1 in deep, which is the coverage on Quikrete's Asphalt Cold Patch data sheet, plus labor at $1.69 per sq ft per inch.

At the calculator's area defaults, 36 sq ft at 2 in with 12 patches and mobilization, the hand patch is $456 and the saw-cut, full-depth patch $777. Infrared is $721 and bagged cold patch $675, or $996 with saw cut and removal. The table sets them side by side.

Which method costs less depends on the job. For one 100 sq ft patch 3 in deep with mobilization, the hand patch is $869, saw cut and full depth $1,189, infrared $1,425 and bagged cold patch $1,782. Infrared costs more than the saw-cut hot mix patch here. At the 36 sq ft default it costs less ($721 against $777) only because 12 separate patches need 83.1 linear feet of saw cut. One 36 sq ft patch at 2 in is $600 saw cut and full depth against $721 infrared.

By area, at the default prices, bagged cold patch costs more than hot mix for the same area, depth, saw cut and mobilization, unless both jobs sit at the $400 minimum. The bags alone are $3.17 per sq ft per inch, against $1.81 for hot mix in place. Per patch the order flips: a medium cold patch is $102 and a medium hot mix patch $126.

Twelve medium potholes, 2 to 4 sq ft each and about 36 sq ft at the midpoint, cost $2,137 per patch in hot mix with saw-cut edges and mobilization, $59.36 per sq ft. Priced by area at 2 in with saw cut, removal and mobilization, the same 36 sq ft is $777, $21.58 per sq ft. In cold patch it is $1,851 per patch against $996 by area. Infrared without saw cut is $2,459 per patch against $721 by area. The per-patch mode has no depth input, so these comparisons set area mode at 2 in. Area mode stays lower at depths up to 4 in; deeper cold patch can cost more by area, and 36 sq ft at 7 in is $1,870 against $1,851 per patch.

The gap is handling time. Each pothole is cleaned, tacked, filled and compacted on its own, and the crew moves between holes, so a per-patch price carries a fixed cost for every hole. Per-ton and per-square-foot bids come from patching programs where that time is spread over tons of mix. Per patch fits scattered potholes, and per square foot fits a defined area or a long list of holes patched in one push.

One city's figures show the all-in cost of small-area work. The City of Grant's quote analysis for 2026 says it spent approximately $114,000 in 2025 on pothole patching and roadway repairs, which included 355 tons of bituminous mix, about $321 per ton across all of that work. Its 2026 scenario priced one contractor's crew at $825 per crew hour for 120 hours, and the memo says the work is small-area patching and pothole repair without paving machines.

Columbus, Georgia's annual contract for hot asphalt, micro surfacing and general road repair (RFB No. 25-0004) priced hot asphalt in place by tonnage band. For 5 to 10 tons the two bids were $650 and $257.50 per ton; for 10 to 100 tons, $245 and $206; for 1,000 to 5,000 tons, $143 and $114.33. The small band was 4.55 times the large band in one bid and 2.25 times in the other.

Happy Valley, Oregon's 2025 Pothole Repairs (CIP-04-25), a 33-ton program, priced full-depth 2 in hot mix at 11 and 22 tons, with bids of $380 and $700, and $380 and $550, per ton, and 2 in grinding removal over 206 sq yd at $50 and $65 per sq yd ($5.56 and $7.22 per sq ft). Its bids also carried lump sums for mobilization ($5,000 and $7,000) and work zone traffic control ($8,500 and $8,000).

In the calculator the small-job effect comes from the $325 mobilization and the $400 minimum. One saw-cut hot mix patch 2 in deep is $419 at 10 sq ft, $41.90 per sq ft, and $6,330 at 1,000 sq ft, $6.33 per sq ft. The table shows how the price per square foot falls with size for one patch.

Hot mix at $300 per ton in place sits among the patching bids above: Denver's $148.96 and $150 per ton for 100 tons of HBP Patch in its 2026 Street Maintenance Milling Only contract (202683062) and $191.56 to $248.23 in 202579243, NCDOT Richmond County's $295 to $433.95, Columbus's asphalt patching at $206 and $475, Happy Valley's $380 to $700, and Grant's 2025 cost of about $321 per ton. Larger programs run lower, as Columbus's 1,000 to 5,000 ton band shows.

Removal at $2.00 per sq ft is the median of seven bids on McMinnville, Oregon's 2025 Pavement Patching item for 6 in asphalt concrete pavement repair excluding the asphalt, $18 per square yard. Saw cutting at $3.00 per linear foot sits inside the $1.60 to $4.43 that Madison's Contract 8792 (May 8, 2025) drew for 105 linear feet of sawcut asphalt pavement.

Infrared at $11 per sq ft is the median of Madison's three 2026 bids. Cold patch at $19 a bag sits between two retail listings for Quikrete's 50 lb Commercial-Grade Blacktop Patch, $18.99 and $20.49; the 6 sq ft coverage comes from Quikrete's Asphalt Cold Patch data sheet, and this guide could not confirm that the Commercial-Grade bag covers the same. The cold patch labor rate, $1.69 per sq ft per inch, is an estimate that borrows Grant's crew cost for hand patching with hot mix, about $279 per ton, converted by volume. Every rate can be changed in the calculator's pricing section.