
Parking Lot Repair is an Investment in First Impressions!
Your parking lot is the first impression any new visitor or potential customer will receive when arriving at your property. Its functionality, condition, and aesthetic appeal are each an important component to the conscious and subconscious evaluation their brain is producing with each second of time, each metre driven, and each step taken when they exit their car and head for your entrance. It takes just one tenth of a second to judge and to form a first impression. One of two things are likely going through your mind right now: 1. Whew, I’m glad I decided to re-seal the parking lot again this year, or 2. Uh oh, I better call in some experts to help me fix the problems. The good news is that parking lot repair can be flexible, staged over time, and if you stay on top of it, the investment in maintenance will not only keep the property looking fantastic, but it will reduce your pavement life cycle costs by about 50 per cent!
Where
Should I Start?
It’s always best to begin with some education and light research, to help you
ask better questions and ensure a thorough Request for Proposal (
RFP) process. Let’s start with some definitions to
get you comfortable with the basics and their industry terms:
Asphalt
– A mixture of rock,
asphalt cement, petroleum adhesive, and gravel.
Alligator
Cracking or Crocodile Cracking – Only about six per
cent of the asphalt aggregate is made of up adhesive. As such,
oxidation, moisture exposure, or oil and fuel deposits can dissolve the adhesive
over time. The remaining materials, mostly stone, become dry, brittle and
susceptible to single line cracking. If left unrepaired they eventually form a
network of cracks that resembles the scaling pattern of reptiles – hence the
nickname alligator/crocodile cracking. These severe cracking systems will
eventually lead to pavement fatigue failure at the base – causing sinking,
undulations or worse.
Asphalt Crack Routing –In order to properly repair moisture cracks in your parking lot, each crack is
opened with a routing machine and cleaned out. The newly formed reservoir is
then filled with material that effectively bonds to the edges and seals out
moisture.
Asphalt Seal Coating– A periodic sealing application that protects the top layer of asphalt and
most importantly adhesive, from the sun’s UV rays, moisture, and high volume
traffic wear and debris. These seal coatings are generally high performing polymer
modified refined tar emulsion products.
Catch Basin Repair – Storm sewers
and drains provide additional cause for repairs, and special considerations
when fixing the drain or surrounding surface area. Due to the excessive flow of
water in this region, it is imperative that seems and seals are perfect, and
the top layer is compacted to 95 per cent density. For these same reasons, it
is highly recommended to seal coat these regions every three to four years on
average.
Milling
and Paving – Depending upon the depth of cracking, the top asphalt
layer(s) are milled, ground up, and removed for recycling. Base layers are
rolled and compacted before the replacement layers are then filled and
finished.
Line
striping – After resurfacing applications are completed, parking lot
line markings are applied for directional and space management according to each city's
by-laws.
Now
that you know the basics, call up the top vendor and negotiate the best deal
possible!