Asphalt is a porous material, susceptible to oxidation from the sun and damage from water penetrating beneath the surface of the asphalt. Also chemicals such as gasoline, diesel fuel, oil, antifreeze and even salt. Asphalt pavement will also ravel away after time. Seal coating not only makes your pavement look new, it protects it from [...]
All pavements require maintenance. Preventive maintenance is the less expensive, early detection and repair of minor defects, before major corrective action is necessary. A parking lot is an investment, as is a building, just as a building must be maintained, so must a parking lot/area.
Asphalt is more cost effective than concrete, also less expensive to repair. It usually does not need to be removed, it can easily be resurfaced. Asphalt is designed to flex with slight settlements.
Asphalt pavements have a lower life cycle cost. The initial cost of asphalt pavement construction is usually less than concrete. But, in addition to construction cost, an increasingly important factor is construction time. More area can be covered with asphalt pavement than with concrete in a period of time. Also, asphalt repairs are less expensive.
Asphalt is generally 2-3" thick, however it can be as thick as 4"+ depending on what kind of stresses you will put on the pavement. Pavement that is 3+" or thicker should be installed in multiple lifts/layers.
An overlay is the resurfacing of existing pavement. Existing asphalt or concrete pavements can be overlaid with hot mix asphalt with excellent results. Before paving, existing pavement should be checked for any repairs needed, cleaned of all loose debris and tacked for successful adhesion.
Prime coat is an application of low viscosity asphalt to a stone base course in preparation to asphalt pavement. The prime coat is used to harden the base course and to provide adhesion between the base course and the asphalt pavement.
A few examples are as followed: A milling machine is typically used to remove the surface material of existing pavement and the area is cleaned of loose debris on an overlay project. Distributor tanks are used to apply prime coats and/or tack coats. Dump trucks are used to transport hot mix asphalt material from the [...]
Binder (also known as basecoat) and Topcoat are types of asphalt paving material, made from hot asphalt cement and aggregate. Depending on the specified use the percentages and sizes of aggregate vary. Typically a “Binder” Course also known as the load bearing coarse contains mostly 3/4” aggregate (The stone in the asphalt is larger), and [...]
Your asphalt will be the most susceptible to damage for the first 6-12 months after it is installed. Most issues are merely cosmetic in nature (slight surface scuffing from wheels turning sharply or minor indentations from sharp objects), and will fade over the next few weeks as the asphalt continues to cure. Avoid spilling any [...]