Your business or organization has a big investment to make. Paving a parking lot is a necessity to making a good impression for your customers and protecting their vehicles from damage in an unpaved lot. It has to be done, but how do you make it last?
Protect your investment by following a few simple suggestions:
WEEDS – With weeds, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Weeds are insidious things that a more powerful than they seem, reaching up to erode the sides of your lot and breaking it down over time. In the weedy months, be sure to periodically inspect the sides of your lot and remove any grass or weeds that are beginning to grow.
DEBRIS – Sticks and stones do more than break bones. They also cause problems for your paved lot. When trash, leaves, rocks, sticks and other items lay on the surface of your pavement, they create uneven areas ripe for the collection of water. Standing water causes the surface to begin to breakdown. Once water reaches the under layers of the surface, you’ve got the potential for cracking and holes.
JUST SAY NO TO CRACKS – It’s good advice for more than just plumbers! Cracks may not seem like a big deal, but it’s the beginning of the end for your pavement. Cracks that aren’t taken care of in a timely fashion become bigger cracks that allow water and vegetation in and break up the surface of your once beautiful lot. Not all cracks have to be sealed, but doing a regular check-up and taking care of the cracks bigger than 1/4 inch will save you from more mostly repairs later on.
OIL SPILLS – With all those vehicles in and out, you’re likely to have a oil dripping or spilling onto the surface of your pavement. Oil can wreak havoc on the surface of your lot – at it’s least creating ugly stains and at worst weakening the surface itself. There are various methods to clean oil or fuel off of your parking lot or driveway. Allstate has written a blog post on the subject – How to Remove Oil From a Driveway.
ROTATE THE CROPS – As farmers in the Great Plains learned from the Dust Bowl in the 1920s, surfaces get worn out from repeated use. Rotating crops – or parking spaces – helps to keep them productive. A well-maintained parking lot can last 30 years, but it requires some effort. After a long time of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the same patterns, wear appears in those areas. If you rotate, restripe and change the layout of the parking lot to redirect the traffic, you spare those worn areas to make the wear more even. You might even find a better layout that allows more spaces.
NO STANDING AROUND – Make sure your drainage is working properly and there is no standing water wearing down your surfaces and seeping through to the sub base. Remove any debris blocking drainage areas.
SEALCOAT – Your driveway or paved lot should be sealcoated every 2 years on average. When a quality product is applied properly, sealcoating provides a layer of protection to block out elements, including damage from UV rays. Interested in knowing more about sealcoating, check out this article from SealMaster, whose products are used by Southern Maryland Paving & Sealcoating.
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