Pave the Way: A Website About All Things Pavement

Repairing Or Repaving? Which One Does My Parking Lot Need?

The parking lot at your business can give a first impression of your business to people that have never been there before. If the parking lot is in rough shape, you may want to talk to a paving contractor to see if you can repair the parking lot or if repaving is necessary. 

Cracks and Small Holes

When the weather changes from warm to cold rapidly, the asphalt on your parking lot can expand and contract. Sometimes small cracks will appear in the pavement as a result, and over time they will get worse if you do not deal with them. The simple solution is to use some asphalt crack sealer and fill the cracks to seal the surface of the pavement.

While it doesn't always fix the lot permanently, it can buy you some time to decide what to do with the parking lot. Many times the repair will last all year, but you can reapply sealer to the cracks if you need to so that you have the time you need to determine the best course of action for your parking area. 

Potholes

Potholes on the surface of the parking lot are repairable, but the repair often does not last for the long term. Most of the time, even if you fill the pothole first then patch the pavement, the potholes reappear eventually. If you have to repair a pothole, fill the hole with good, clean fill, and some gravel to help with drainage. 

Compact or tamp the soil and gravel in so that the patch material has solid ground under it. The new asphalt can go over the fill and brought up until it is level with the surface of the parking lot. Over time, the patch may shrink and create a low spot. 

Repaving

If the parking lot has a lot of damage, the surface can be ground off the lot, and then new asphalt put down over the area that is ready. The new asphalt will replace most of the thickness of the old asphalt, but without the deformities at the surface. The paving company will more than likely do the lot in sections to keep the disruptions and inconvenience to customers to a minimum. 

Once the lot has been resurfaced, you may want to talk to the contractor about coming once a year to maintain the parking area and apply seal coat to the surface to extend the life of the parking area. Putting a good coat of seal coat over the surface of the lot in the fall will help preserve the asphalt and seal out the weather. Reach out to a company like Branche Industries to learn more.