Cojo is headquartered in Hood River, OR. We provide asphalt paving services across Hood River County -- new paving, repair, pothole patching, driveway work, sealcoating, parking lot striping, and excavation site prep -- with crews and equipment based locally. This overview lays out our full service offering in the gorge, the conditions that drive scope decisions, and the budget ranges to plan against. For statewide pricing context, see our Oregon paving cost guide.
About Cojo and Why Local Matters in the Gorge
Cojo Services LLC was established in 2009, and we've been a licensed Oregon contractor (CCB licensed and insured) the whole time. Our owner, our yard, and our crews are all in Hood River. That has a few practical implications for property owners in the gorge:
- Same-day mobilization is realistic for most jobs inside the 50-mile radius.
- We know which fall east-wind weeks to avoid for pour scheduling.
- We've worked on most of the commercial corridors in town and can speak to past projects on request.
- Travel cost is effectively zero for Hood River jobs and we line it out as such rather than padding the unit rate.
A contractor coming up from Portland for a Hood River job is hauling crew, equipment, and overhead 60-plus miles each way. That has to be paid for somewhere. We don't.
Services We Offer in Hood River
Five service categories cover most Hood River asphalt work.
- New paving: driveways, parking lots, private roads, orchard-frontage commercial drives. Includes excavation, base prep, hot-mix placement, finish rolling.
- Repair and patching: pothole repair, crack sealing, alligator-crack patching, edge-spall repair, full-depth section replacement.
- Driveway work: new asphalt driveways, resurfacing, repair, and apron coordination with Hood River County permitting.
- Sealcoating: maintenance application to extend asphalt life. See Hood River sealcoating for cadence and spec.
- Parking lot striping: layout design, restriping, ADA-compliant accessible stalls and ramps. See Hood River parking lot striping for layout standards.
We also handle site-prep excavation for new driveways and lots; see driveway excavation in Hood River for that work.
Gorge Conditions That Drive Scope
Hood River sits at the west end of the Columbia River Gorge in the transition zone between wet Cascade climate and dry eastern shadow. Annual rainfall runs 30 to 35 inches, summers are warm and breezy, and winters bring 25 to 35 freeze-thaw cycles -- harder than the Willamette Valley, softer than Klamath Falls.
Conditions specific to Hood River:
- Columbia Basalt sub-base: structurally excellent where it's near the surface, often within 12 to 24 inches in Hood River. Filled lots near the waterfront or on bench cuts in the Heights have variable compaction and may need core-testing.
- Gorge east wind: sustained 30 to 50 mph east winds for days at a stretch, especially in winter and early spring. We monitor the forecast and stage placement around wind events to keep fines on the mat.
- Hood River County stormwater rules: projects near the Hood River main stem, the waterfront, or orchard-frontage riparian zones can trigger detention or treatment work.
- Tourism schedule: summer and weekends are peak traffic for waterfront and Heights retail lots. We sequence around that.
- Orchard-frontage residential: upper valley driveways need drainage detail that accounts for spring snowmelt off Mount Hood.
A real contractor brings these up during the site walk. We always do.
Industry Baseline Range
| Project Type | Cost Per Sq Ft | Typical Total Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Residential driveway (2-car) | $2.00 to $10.00 | $2,000 to $15,000+ |
| Driveway resurfacing (overlay) | $1.50 to $5.00 | $1,500 to $8,000+ |
| Small commercial lot | $2.00 to $10.00 | $8,000 to $60,000+ |
| Mill-and-overlay (commercial) | $3.00 to $7.00 | $30,000 to $150,000+ |
| Full replacement (commercial) | $4.00 to $10.00 | $40,000 to $200,000+ |
| Mobilization (local) | line item | $0 to $500 |
Current Market Reality
The baseline assumes a flat lot, sound base, easy access, and no drainage or ADA upgrades. Pre-2010 Hood River commercial lots typically need ADA curb-ramp and stall updates with any restripe. Heavy-truck zones at the airport-industrial corridor need a thicker structural section. Waterfront and orchard-frontage lots in mapped flood plains can trigger stormwater work. Mobilization is effectively zero for our home market, but a Portland-based bidder running zero mobilization is hiding the travel in the unit rate. For broader Oregon pricing context, see our Oregon paving cost guide.
Scheduling Around Hood River Operations
Asphalt placement needs temperatures above 50 degrees F and dry conditions, which puts the gorge working window at roughly April through October. Sealcoating wants 60 degrees F overnight, placing that work mid-May through mid-September. Striping follows paving on the same mobilization.
For commercial work on the waterfront or in the Heights, we sequence around tourism and retail hours. For airport-industrial corridor work, we sequence around tenant operations and dock-door schedules. For residential driveways, we typically schedule a single-day pour with two to three days of cure before vehicles return.
Gorge wind is the wildcard. We monitor the east-wind forecast and pull pours during high-wind events to protect the mat. That sometimes pushes a single-day pour into a two-day plan; we communicate that up front rather than letting the wind cause a quality problem.
Permits, Inspections, and Documentation
Hood River and Hood River County permitting varies by scope. New driveways with apron work in the public right-of-way typically need a city apron permit. Commercial work that materially changes impervious area or drainage triggers a stormwater review and may need a sediment-and-erosion control plan, especially for waterfront sites, lots in the Hood River main-stem riparian zone, or orchard-frontage properties. Historic-district downtown lots sometimes have additional aesthetic-review requirements. As a local contractor, we know the planning department personally and we handle the permit pull and inspection coordination as part of the project scope rather than passing it back to the property owner.
For commercial property managers, we provide a closeout package at project end: as-built drawings if drainage was modified, photographic records of base prep and sub-base before placement, structural-section specs, sealcoat and striping spec sheets, and a one-page warranty summary. The package supports refinance, sale, and insurance-renewal needs. Our standard package goes out by email within five business days of substantial completion.
Why Hood River Property Owners Choose Cojo
We've been the local Oregon asphalt contractor in Hood River since 2009. We run our own crews and equipment, we name our hot-mix supplier on the bid, and we walk every site before quoting. If you're planning a 2026 driveway, commercial lot, waterfront pad, or airport-industrial property, call our Hood River office. For maintenance after the work is done, see our Hood River sealcoating page and our asphalt maintenance program.