Potholes in Fresno are one of a property owner’s biggest fears. Potholes can be an absolute nightmare to have to contend with, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to let things linger a bit before you handle them. The longer that you let a pothole sit on your property, the more area that the hole will consume. And the larger that hole gets, the more expensive it will be to fix.
While there are a variety of things that can lead to potholes forming in a parking lot, like low-quality materials, a poor initial installation, or the parking lot is already decades old, there is one villain that stands above the rest - water. Water seeping through asphalt is the number one reason that potholes show themselves.
Water seeps through small cracks in the asphalt, which leads to compromising the integrity of the supporting ground, the base layers of the asphalt, and oxidization of the top layers. All three of these problems can play a huge role in eroding asphalt pavement on their own. When combined, potholes can form particularly quickly, and can lead to requiring a full lot replacement far earlier than the regular lifespan of a parking lot in or around Fresno.
Since parking lot potholes are such a pain in the neck for property owners and your customers alike, you might be wondering if there’s a way to prevent potholes from forming in the first place. Luckily, there are a couple things you can do as preventative maintenance that will help keep potholes from showing up - and they’ll leave your lots looking more inviting for far longer than avoiding maintenance.
There are two main things you can do to help prevent potholes from showing up:
Both sealcoating and crack sealing directly address the issue of water seeping through the asphalt and into your lot’s base layers. These services help to maintain the integrity of your drivable surfaces and should be part of your site’s regular maintenance.
Please note that the size of a hole in your asphalt surface doesn’t matter - you should have it repaired as soon as possible. A three-inch hole can turn into a two-foot tire-swallowing menace in as little as a couple of weeks. It’s imperative that you act fast with asphalt repair, or you could end up with a very costly repair or potentially having to pay for damages caused to your customers’ vehicles. Creative Asphalt Inc is your Fresno Asphalt Repair specialist, call us with any questions or concerns today!
For those lots that already have potholes popping up, Creative Asphalt is here for all your pothole repair needs. We offer a variety of methods to fill and seal problematic potholes, and we can usually have the process fully done in one day’s work. The methods we offer include cold patching, hot patching, and infrared patching.
Often referred to as “throw and go” or “throw and roll” patching, a cold patch is only a temporary solution as far as pothole repair is concerned. Cold patch asphalt repair is done by filling in a pothole with an unheated asphalt aggregate and either purposefully tamped down flat or left as-is and left to be tamped by vehicles that drive on the lot.
Cold patching is a good option if you have a sizeable pothole in an area that sees a lot of traffic, but it should not be seen as a permanent fix.
While hot patching potholes in your asphalt parking lot demands more labor and equipment than cold patches, these actually are a permanent fix for potholes. Hot patching also offers a smoother driving experience than cold patch repairs.
Hot patches are done by cutting the hole into a rectangle that removes any unsound pavement in the site. This may be much larger than the pothole itself as base layers can be damaged far beyond what’s visible. Debris and water are then taken from the space, and a bonding agent gets spread to the sides of the cut rectangle. The hole is then filled with asphalt and packed down with a roller or compactor.
Infrared pothole repair is another permanent solution to achieve your asphalt mending needs.
For infrared repairs, the pothole gets cleaned free of debris and loose aggregate and a heating device is placed over the pothole site to soften the existing asphalt around the damaged area. Once warmed enough, the asphalt gets loosened with a rake. This then gets supplemented with additional asphalt to bring the hole to level with the surrounding space and then compacted as needed.
