Aug 18, 2013

Minimize Damages On Parking Lots And Drives Through Asphalt Sealcoating

By Helga Stokes


Pavement preservation is essential for the life of driveways and parking lots. If you construct your pavements and you fail to preserve them, they will wear out fast. You will spend more money in repairs and maintenance. You need to seek for asphalt sealcoating contractors to apply a layer of sealant on the surfaces. The sealant prevents damages, which could be caused by environmental and man-made factors.

When elements like snow and sunlight act on asphalt material, they cause the blacktop to disintegrate fast. Ultraviolet rays harden the asphaltic material making it fragile and easy to break. A sealcoat provides a shielding cover, which prevents the ultraviolet rays from directly heating the surface of pavements. This ensures that the pavement material does not crack easily.

The oxidation causes the material to lose its viscoelasticity properties with time. You may notice a change in color of your driveways and parking lots. As the blacktop dries out, it changes from the beautiful jet-black color to gray. If you notice this change in color, you need to act fast because within a few months, the blacktop surface may develop small cracks, which can advance to big cracking.

Sealcoat products help prevent cracks from forming on pavements. Most of the defects on blacktop and sub base parts of the roads occur due to formation of cracks. When cracks form, they allow water to penetrate and enter the bed of driveways and parking lots. As more water enters the foundation of roads, the aggregate material becomes weak and your road surfaces cannot support heavy loads.

One thing with sealcoats is that they cannot be used to correct cracking defects. Therefore, if your pavements have formed cracks, those defects should first be repaired before the coating is applied. A sealcoat only acts as a preservation procedure and does not cure the problems occurring beneath pavements. If you apply a sealcoat on a cracked asphaltic material, it only masks the defects and soon the problems will continue to occur.

If you have poorly maintained asphaltic pavements, they reflect a bad image of your business. To help create confidence with customers, you can apply a sealcoat on the blacktop to enhance its curb appeal. Stains on asphalt pavements may also be covered with a sealcoat. You can prevent the stains from occurring in the first place by sealing the surface with a sealcoat.

In newly installed pavements, the first sealcoat may be applied after a period of 6 months to one year but this depends on how fast the asphalt material cures. The material has to be given sufficient time to cure before the sealcoat is applied. After the first coating, there are other successive coats, which need to be applied after every 3 to 5 years.

The lifespan of driveways and parking lots can be enhanced by coating the surfaces with sealcoat products. In addition, you spend less amount of money towards the repairs and maintenance of pavements when you apply sealcoats at the right time. This is because you minimize the damages that occur on the roads. By contacting asphalt sealcoating contractors, your roads are maintained in good condition throughout.




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