Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Crack Sealing Asphalt Pavement


Maintaining a commercial facilities parking lot is important to the safety of your buildings' visitors and important to the overall appearance of your business. No one wants to pick their way through a pothole filled parking lot to go shopping. Businesses with weeds growing through the asphalt, standing water or crumbling pavement appear to be un-kept and mismanaged. Your parking lot is the first impression your customers get when it comes to your business. It's important to properly maintain the area by sealing cracks and making asphalt repairs as needed.

Why Does Asphalt Crack?

There are several reasons for cracks in the asphalt. First, asphalt cracks are more prevalent in dry weather. When the ground under the asphalt dries, it can cause the asphalt to pull apart and cracks can occur in your asphalt pavement.

Trees are also a cause of some asphalt cracks. Overtime, the roots of the trees will grow under the asphalt as they seek out moisture. It's normally moist under asphalt, so they are attracted to this area. As the root removes the moisture, the pavement can separate as in the first example. Also, roots can cause bulges in the asphalt pavement if they grow in an upward fashion. To avoid this from happening, the planning of landscape area and trees should be in conjunction with the planning and paving of your parking area.

Applying Crack Sealer

Ask your paving company to take a look at any cracks you have in your parking lot. Sometimes, after a little rain the cracks may close a bit and become almost unnoticeable; however, if this isn't the cause, your paving contractor can apply a crack sealer. A crack sealer should be applied to cracks before sealcoating to prevent them from growing and further damaging your asphalt parking lot.

To keep your asphalt parking lot and driveway in pristine condition, asphalt cracks should be filled and asphalt repairs be made very year. Additionally, your parking lot should be seal coated every two to three years. Sealcoating will help protect the asphalt from the harmful effects of the weather as well the damaging effects of petroleum-based products like gasoline and oil.

As we just discussed, if asphalt is not property seal coated or, not sealed at all, cracks can start forming in the asphalt. If the cracks are not managed and filled every year, this can then lead to potholes making it necessary to perform an asphalt repair.


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