Commercial Asphalt – FAQ’s, Installation, Repairs and More
Curb appeal is not an exception to residential properties; it is similarly vital for a business. This is because the outside of your facility gives the first impression to customers. As a commercial facility manager or business owner, it is your responsibility to maintain many structures and systems in and around your properties, ensuring they are in good condition.
The nature and visibility of your business driveways, walkways, and parking lots are essential. Whether you run a retail center, worship centers, hospital, school, etc., maintaining the parking lot or driveway pavement is hugely significant.
So, why is commercial asphalt paving and maintenance necessary for your property?
It enhances the curb appeal, reduces the likelihood of unintended accidents, and can significantly impact the perception of your business. Well-maintained outdoor surfaces demonstrate that you esteem your customers and their safety, besides curb appeal and showing the pride you have in your business.
Beyond aesthetics, commercial paving services provide various advantages. Hence, it would be best to consider its benefits when updating your exterior surfaces or installing a new one. There must, after all, be a valid explanation why so many companies have asphalt surfaces.
Services offered by commercial asphalt companies
Whether your company wants to install a commercial parking lot, build an extra lot across the street, or are proposing repaving an existing one, you should consider commercial paving services.
As your business expands, you need to install freshly paved surfaces around your newly built buildings, and that requires just the right process to ensure the asphalt’s longevity and durability.
So, what are the services offered by commercial asphalt companies?
Constructing new driveways and parking lots for commercial customers is one of the services that expert paving contractors are known primarily for. Besides, they also offer:
- Repairs of asphalt pavement
- Resurfacing the asphalt pavement
- Preventative maintenance of the asphalt pavement
- seal coating the asphalt surface
A poorly constructed asphalt pavement would have a very brief life. Commercial pavements must be able to handle the projected traffic weight and volume. If the paving contractor does not correctly build the pavement, premature cracking, potholes, subsidence, and other issues may occur in as little as one year.
Constructing new driveways and parking lots
A solid, well-paced, and durable driveway or parking lot is an important element for any business or home. Commercial paving companies often consider several factors when carrying out asphalt paving, ensuring that it is perfectly installed, saving both time and money. Because a poorly installed asphalt can lead to early damage, resulting in the need to repair the pavement far too quickly.
For instance, parking lots around airport runways or commercial buildings accommodate quite different traffic and loads than your driveway at home or typical retail parking lot. Requirements will differ regarding the stone base depth, wearing course density, and binder depth, depending on the type of traffic a particular surface can handle.
Repairs of asphalt pavement
Crack sealing, pothole repair, and patching are things for your usual commercial asphalt maintenance to-do list. And to ensure excellent outcomes, these services are best carried out by expert paving contractors. Not only do cracks in your asphalt pavement along with potholes and raveling decrease your property’s value and render them unattractive, but they are also a safety hazard and trigger problems for visitors.
Any incidents like damage, slip, and fall or damage to the car may lead to an unexpected lawsuit.
You can avoid that by having periodic asphalt repairs made to your surface by professional asphalt maintenance contractors who will keep your parking lot clean, appealing, and in good shape, using the best available materials. They have a strategy that your budget can go along with.
Resurfacing the asphalt pavement
Suppose your business has been based in the same building for several years. In that case, it is evident that your paved surfaces require some professional intervention, and it could be time for a complete resurfacing project. Resurfacing an asphalt pavement can lead to improving driving conditions and road appearance. Also, several work crews need to be involved, and traffic controls need to be followed.
Resurfacing should only be undertaken when the existing asphalt is free of asphalt failures. Instead of fixing the problem, resurfacing a damaged asphalt pavement is merely putting a “band-aid” on the issue. It would help if you covered any small cracks with appropriate material before resurfacing the pavement.
Commercial asphalt paving contractors can perform any resurfacing project of any magnitude with their trained workforce and modern equipment fleet.
Preventative maintenance of the asphalt pavement
Asphalt pavement maintenance is vital for the protection of vehicles, their tires, and the surface itself. It is a perfect way of ensuring the pavement’s long existence. As a result, over the years, asphalt preventive maintenance has provided momentum. The protection of road surface from environmental issues, including water intrusion through cracks and fissures into the base, alongside oxidation of the pavement’s upper surface, will significantly contribute to the life of the pavement system.
Preventive maintenance is not adequate for pavement that shows structural problems or vulnerabilities. Professional pavement maintenance contractors can offer reliable advice for the upkeep of your paving properties.
Sealcoating the asphalt surface
Asphalt seal coating is utilized to repair the asphalt surface by filling any voids or tiny holes. The liquid agent is used mainly for sealing cracks and is not identical to the asphalt binder. Sealcoating asphalt shields the surface of a parking lot or driveway from oxidation and degradation from oil, gas, and salt. It also mitigates the need for repairs to the asphalt by weathering the surface, which effectively prevents water from seeping through cracks.
Your asphalt pavement will begin to unravel, and potholes form if not perfectly sealed.
The crack sealing technique protects your asphalt paving against different elements of the weather. Water will pass through your asphalt if you do not promptly seal the tiny cracks, resulting in asphalt oxidation and solidification. It can also lead to wider cracks that may need filling processes if that happens.
We recommend that you use the services of professional commercial asphalt repair companies to maintain your asphalt pavement.
The different types of asphalt installations
The different ways of asphalt installation include:
- Remove an existing asphalt pavement and pave on the soil
- Remove the existing asphalt pavement and install an aggregate base
- Paving over an existing asphalt pavement (the wrong way)
- Allowing the base to settle (the right way)
- Hurrying to put on asphalt
Installation of asphalt pavement is a complex operation that renders most homeowners and business owners unsure how to go about it! You may find it difficult to install asphalt yourself, but learning the process will ensure that it is done correctly by your hired contractor. There are several ways to have an asphalt driveway installed. You can attempt to go through it yourself or rely on a reputable installation company. But in all, the installation quality will rely on who you pick.
We highlighted below the different ways (both wrong and right ways) contractors install an asphalt pavement:
Remove the existing asphalt pavement and install an aggregate base.
The preferred process is to install a new aggregate base. Any of the hot asphalt mixes are partly replaced by an aggregate stone base. Then a 6 to 8 inches aggregate would typically be placed under 3 inches of asphalt.
Remove an existing asphalt pavement and pave on the soil.
With this asphalt installation option, the current pavement is removed wholly. After that, 4-6 inches of hot asphalt mix is placed right on top of the soil. This option is quick and less costly, but it is less reliable.
Paving over an existing asphalt pavement (the wrong way)
Some commercial asphalt paving contractors recommend that you pave your new asphalt parking lot or driveway over the current ones, as it saves time and may theoretically reduce the cost. This is an awful idea, though, as the construction of asphalt pavement over an uneven surface declines its foundation. The removal of all the existing driveways, parking lots until installation is worth the time and effort.
Allowing the base to settle (the right way)
There is a base underneath every correctly installed asphalt pavement, commonly built of soil and crushed rock. This base is essential for drainage besides all other construction-related issues. The base requires lots of time to settle to be able to pave asphalt over it. It is imperative to allow this time for proper installation.
Hurrying to put on asphalt
Installing the highest proportion of asphalt pavement is a priority for certain contractors because it significantly increases their profit margins. This usually contributes to poor installation jobs that wouldn’t last. Suppose your contractor fails to allow the base time to settle and hurries to install the asphalt surface immediately. In that case, he or she prioritizes profits over the efficiency of your installation project.
Repair and resurfacing services
Keeping your asphalt pavement in good shape is critical. Because a broken pavement is challenging to drive over or walk on, when your asphalt pavement starts to deteriorate and requires fixing or resurfacing, you should get in a competent contractor to address the problems.
Professional commercial asphalt paving contractors offer repair and resurfacing services. They also ensure that you have a catch basin in your parking lot or driveway when the weather changes, ensuring improved drainage so that water does not pool up.
If the underlying foundation is structurally sound and the surface is deteriorated or badly eroded, resurfacing is required. If you find a depressive grade and or wide parts of alligator regions on your asphalt pavement, it is time to resurface your pavement. There are various reasons for these failures, but water penetration through unsealed or poorly sealed cracks, high traffic volumes, irrigation system runoff, and heavy traffic loads are the most common.
Furthermore, when an area of pavement begins to develop potholes, patching is a standard solution to remedy the issue. Potholes develop when water percolates into the pavement via uncovered or poorly sealed cracks. It extends and expands the crack as the water freezes, creating a hole as the ice beneath the pavement melts.
Professional paving companies offer these much-required services for commercial properties, including parking lots, driveways, roadways for business parks, shopping centers, and apartment buildings.
The benefits of commercial asphalt paving
Asphalt paving has tremendous benefits for commercial properties and communities that will save your business time, hassle, and money. And if you are considering employing an asphalt paving contractor, the below advantages will help you in your decision.
- If properly installed, it saves you money in the long run
- It improves drainage systems
- It can be installed easily and quickly, saving you time
- It only requires low maintenance expenses to elongate asphalt lifespan
- It is a flexible solution, extending its lifespan and improves ease of repairs
- It is multi-use
- You can add a shining finish
- It offers a high-quality first impression
The difference between commercial asphalt companies and residential asphalt companies
Whether you want to pave your parking lot, driveway, activity area, etc., you need to do some homework on the service provider. Also, work on the feedback from reputable sources, third party evaluations, and recommendations when choosing a reliable asphalt paving company for both commercial and residential projects.
In general, reputable asphalt paving contractors with a strong record of happy customers do not market themselves commercially or residential-only. That’s because the business of constructing commercial parking lots and driveways is very related, so most can do both. Undoubtedly, a commercial parking lot contractor can install a standard driveway. A residential driveway contractor can also build a quality parking lot.
The two projects are not interchangeable. There is a distinction in the depth and drainage style. You can consider it a supportive system of the pavement’s surface, which needs to be removed from soft spots. So, paving contractors will analyze the layer and often compact it by driving a complete, heavy truck over it or adding clay or disintegrated granite to strengthen up the area.
To be explicit, the equipment a paving contractor will use to build commercial driveways is the same as what they will use for a residential project. But in both cases, what counts is the quality of the job.
Pros of commercial asphalt paving company
A commercial paving company with several years of experience operating in a particular area has the capacity and expertise to adapt to the unique needs and environmental demands of the geographical region in which they operate. They recognize that every location has a specific set of weather conditions and patterns that can affect your asphalt parking lot or driveway’s overall quality and durability. Whether you are installing cold or hot asphalt mix, the aggregate must be produced and installed as per your location’s particular environmental needs, ensuring a high-quality outcome with a little need for repairs.
Conclusion
If you are planning an asphalt paving project for your commercial property, it is imperative to employ an experienced pavement construction company for the best result. Although a DIY method is sometimes suitable, it is best to get in a professional contractor, guaranteeing the needed durability and flexibility. They are experts in the field of pavement and can recommend the best solution for your pavement needs.
