The pothole in the photo is about 1" deep and 1'x1' large. There's no significant cracks, and that part just sunk a little due to water.
I wonder how to properly repair it. The regular pothole repair material like cold patch may not last long, as it cannot easily peel off due to the depth.
Any suggestions?
To get a repair that will last with cold patch, you first chisel the hole out so there are no feather edges on the patch-to-be, then patch the nicely square-edged deeper hole.
After a couple of months to off-gas, preferably during nice hot dry weather if possible, hit it with driveway sealer (extending well beyond the patch) to seal up the joints from further water ingress.
I recently made a similar repair on my driveway. Rather than cold patch, I begged a pail of hot top from a company doing a driveway on my block. (If you showed up with a pail of Gatorade you might grease that request.)
I used a sledge hammer and wood block to pack and flatten it in place. It was nice and gooey and held well over a Minnesota winter so far.
If you're left to using cold patch, clean first, consider a bonding agent, and pack it well. I think most failures are due to it being left too loose or having a dirty surface under the patch. You can probably use a length of lumber and your car's weight for packing.
You might even consider warming the cold patch material. If you have a backyard fire ring you could lay some over coals in a metal pan.
You can use a cold patch material like Aquaphalt 4.0 or Latex-ite QuickPatch, which are both water-activated patching materials. You'll probably want to feather the edges afterward with something like Latex-ite Trowel Patch to get a smooth edge.
The regular pothole repair material like cold patch [$20 50-lb bag QPR from lowes/depot] may not last long, as it can easily peel off due to the depth.
if you just try to plop QPR on top of the depression then yes the edges will abrade and erode, and look just as unsightly as the depression itself. But used properly QPR or the like is very durable once it sets.
properly applying in your case given your pic, would be to rent a street saw from united rentals, and cut the entire depression out (which looks bigger than 1 square foot? Such that you have nice sharp 90° cores from flat driveway into the hole, then you fill that with asphalt which would then be durable and look good. Depending on the size of the clean rectangular hole you need to cut to remove the depression, bags of QPR driveway patch of similar you might need too many in which case you get the town or a driveway repair business to come with a dump truck load of asphalt to easily fill the hole. Or get quotes for a driveway repair company to do the same.
