CAM SERVICES SPRING UPDATE:
Make maintaining your parking lot part of your yearly budget to avoid future failure of your asphalt surfaces.
Most pavement defects don't happen over night, and it would be no surprise to any facility manager, maintenance professional, landlord, or property manager that a crack that seemed insignificant a few years ago has now grown to a cluster of cracks, and is poised to develop into a significant pothole over the upcoming rainy season. Soon, as the first rains arrive, facilities departments everywhere will be searching for the funds to repair the emerging liabilities now scattered across their parking lots. This is just a reality of aging asphalt, right? Wrong. Most significant defects that plague our asphalt surfaces are avoidable with a well thought out maintenance plan.
This photo is the perfect example of a neglected area becoming unmanageable. This area is located at the entrance of a heavily trafficked parking area. When new asphalt is laid on failing asphalt, the defects of the original surface will eventually reflect through. What does this mean? Well, as evident in the photo, the new asphalt will eventually become compromised, delaminate from the old asphalt, and leave a scenario such as the one represented above. This area will now require a full depth repair, and the repair will have to be much more extensive than what is visible in order to correct the issue. How can this be avoided?
Sealing cracks or patching the area when they first appear is the most effective way to avoid clusters of cracks from forming in the asphalt, especially heavily trafficked areas such as entrances, exits, and drive lanes. This photo depicts an apartment complex with a maintenance plan that involves crack sealing every year, especially before the rainy season. Their maintenance program affords them the ability to be reactive to cracking which without sealing could lead to a more extensive problem in the future. Once a crack forms, if left unaddressed, it will grow in size substantially over time, especially in the rainy months.
Most don't realize the toll that the weather, sunlight, traffic, and other elements have on asphalt surfaces. Even a recently paved parking lot or roadway can begin to be affected. The parking lot in this photo was paved less than a year ago. Although the surface area still looks good, it is already vulnerable to the destructive powers of human traffic and nature. A good contractor would recommend sealcoating this parking lot before the end of the first year of its life. Why Sealcoat a parking lot that still looks new?
Sealcoating this lot in the first year was the most important decision the board of this church made in the parking lots entire life cycle. Many view sealcoating as simply applying a paint job. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sealcoat reintroduces the most important components of the asphalt back onto the area of the parking lot that is most affected by traffic and weather; the surface. Developing and implementing a sealcoating program will dramatically extend the life cycle of the parking lot. Does crack sealing and sealcoating mean that potholes won't occur?
No, not exactly. It is definitely still important to put aside funds to deal with the unexpected. Potholes and damaged areas can occur from a variety of external factors such as extremely heavy rains, Hurricanes, heavy objects being dropped or staged on asphalt, or repairs done by outside agencies such as utility companies. These instances cannot always be avoided and over time some asphalt defects may arise naturally.
Lastly, sometimes a simple re-striping of a parking lot can make all the difference. Striping is essential when sealcoating or making major repairs in parking areas, but it can also be effective as a maintenance item as well. Keeping the flow of traffic and having clearly defined parking stalls can help to mitigate potential liabilities associated with accidents within the parking lot. Striping also makes everything look great.
A well designed maintenance plan can certainly make managing your parking lot less costly over a longer period of time. In addition, maintaining the asphalt on a yearly basis can help reduce cost when major repairs or reconstruction is necessary. A better maintained parking lot lends itself to more options when the need to do a capital improvement project presents itself.
407-488-8078 CAM Services