As a homeowner, your tasks to keep your property's condition well-maintained must be done throughout the year and all four seasons. During winter, it is storm and ice repair, and in summer there can be pest problems and pavement remediation. Here are some methods you can use as a homeowner to protect and repair your pavement to keep it long-lasting and durable for your needs.
Complete DIY Repairs
The asphalt pavement installed upon your property as a driveway or parking area can give you years and decades of service. It is necessary for you to complete the right repairs when they are needed in order to extend the asphalt's life as much as possible. For this reason, keep a watchful eye on your asphalt's surface condition for signs of damage so that you can make the smaller repairs yourself whenever possible. Then, pass along the larger and more intensive repairs for a professional asphalt crew to complete the job properly.
When cracks form upon the surface of your asphalt, it is a sign that the pavement is drying out from weather and the sun's rays. You can fill them with a liquid asphalt emulsion filler for thin cracks and a cold patch mixture found in bags for the larger cracks. Be sure you compact the cold mixture into the crack with a compactor or with the end of a four-by-four wooden post. If you don't fill the cracks when they first form, they will enlarge and cause more serious damage to the pavement.
Protect the Surface
After you have completed any repairs to cracks, you can seal the repairs and your pavement surface along with restoring the flexibility to your asphalt pavement with a sealcoating treatment. A sealcoating treatment needs to be poured and smoothed onto a cleaned and prepared surface so that it fully adheres.
As an additional protection method, don't allow any vehicle fluids to fall upon your pavement if you are completing vehicle repairs on your driveway. Many vehicle fluids will break down the asphalt's binders and cause it to soften and fail. If you do experience a vehicle fluid spill, clean as much up as possible with a layer of kitty litter on the spill, and then remove the remaining residue with an asphalt degreaser cleaner.
Hire Professional Experience
When your asphalt experiences extreme damage, such as cracking, sinking, unraveling, and other types of extensive damage, it is best to call in a professional asphalt crew to repair the damage. They can inspect your pavement to determine if there is an underlying problem that is causing the damage and fix it so that when they install the asphalt repair, it will not fail.