Tackling asphalt maintenance: There’s no ‘pot’ in the hole

OK … got your atten­tion yet?

As real estate and property owners and property managers, it is your obligation to maintain the integrity and condition of your parking lots, not only for “curb appeal” and possible rental space, but also for the value of the real estate investment. Deferred mainte­nance of asphalt ends up being a disaster later in time. From an asphalt maintenance com­pany’s perspective, as the old saying goes, “Pay me now, or pay me lots more later.” It is no different than telling your dentist that even though you have a cavity in a tooth, do not fill it now – and then lose your entire tooth in a couple of years, due to lack of effort, money or desire to remedy the problem when it first became apparent.

Webster’s Dictionary dis­closes that the word “pothole” originated in approximately 1926. The primary definitions are: “(1) a sizable rounded often water-filled depression in land; (2) a pot-shaped hole in a road surface.” So, you see, there is no cannabis in “potholes”!

Potholes are created when pavement or material beneath it, called base, subbase, or subgrade, cannot support the weight of traffic. Likewise, there is always water associated with the creation of potholes, as described above.

Proper asphalt maintenance includes sev­eral efforts, and some amount of money. You must maintain it, like your teeth, your vehi­cles, your houses, etc., or you will pay dearly later. The primary things needed to be done on a regular basis (either every year, or every other year, or sometimes a bit longer) are the fol­lowing:

1. Crack-fill cracks every year – otherwise, they get much worse, and then they can ruin an entire asphalt surface, over time.

2. Fix potholes every time they appear, and do not delay! Otherwise, as in cracking, they will cause the entire asphalt surface around them to dete­riorate to a condition known as “alligatoring” (which looks like alligator skin – asphalt crack­ing up everywhere).

3. Seal coat every two or three years to increase the lifespan of your asphalt.

For surface blemishes only, use infrared patching, which is a giant heater-like device that heats up only the top inch or so of asphalt and replaces it with replacement asphalt. This is a superficial fix, and does not address pothole problems or subgrade issues. It is widely overused because it is cheap­er than a proper “repair-and-replace” method of repairing potholes or larger alligatored or cracked areas, but it will last only temporarily when improperly used in such situ­ations.

In warm weather, the proper “fix” for a pothole is to have the hole cleaned and dried, and “sawcut” for clean edges, then having new hot-mix asphalt used to fill the hole. This is a permanent repair. In cold weath­er, the hole can be cleaned out and “cold-mix” asphalt can be installed to temporarily fill the whole, until it is warm enough (in the ground) for a proper hot-mix repair. Another new alternative, and there are a couple of products now being created, is to use a product like EZ STREET cold asphalt, which is a special cold mix that can be used in any temperatures to permanent­ly fix the potholes or cracks. These products are a bit more “pricey” at first blush, but they save money in the long run, in that they eliminate the need for two repairs on one hole (i.e., first cold mix, then later replaced by hot mix in warmer weather).

by H. Wayne Leiser