If your parking lot is “past the point of no return” and is experiencing severe cracking, alligator cracking, rutting, heaving, pot holes or areas of standing water, it is time to invest in an asphalt overlay. An asphalt overlay usually installs a 2” compacted mat of asphalt with either 3/8” stone or ¼” stone. Depending on the traffic surface, if you have an overlay that needs to be performed on a high traffic parking lots that have to remain open during resurfacing, we may use a ½” mix that uses larger stone in the asphalt to reduce power steering marks and possible shoving of the mix in the turn lanes while it is still tender.

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What is asphalt?

Asphalt concrete, normally known simply as asphalt, is a composite material commonly used for construction of pavement, highways and parking lots. It consists of asphalt binder and mineral aggregate mixed together then laid down in layers and compacted.



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Asphalt Paving Services:

Our approach, how we resurface a parking lot.

The parking lot will be barricaded, directional signage will be erected and the work area will be coned off.

Risers will be added where needed to make utility adjustments.

We will edge mill all joints and limits of construction where the new asphalt will adjoin the old asphalt and any areas where the asphalt adjoins concrete.

We will install a leveling / wedge course to level out any low spots in the parking lot to help facilitate positive drainage.

The asphalt will then be installed with a commercial grade paver and a minimum of (2) two rollers with a minimum of (1) one vibratory roller.

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Quality Control:

There is a quality control technician on site during the entire paving operation from the time the barricades are erected until the time the barricades are broken down. The quality control technician has several responsibilities on the job to include: overall safety of the job site, traffic control of the job site, truck placement for tri-axles that are delivering the asphalt, monitoring material yields and collecting material tickets from the asphalt plant, and checking grades. The QCT works closely with the paving superintendent to insure that the project goes smoothly and is completed as per the submitted specifications.

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Pavement Milling:

We offer pavement milling and profiling. We have the capacity to mill an entire parking lot or you can elect to only profile to correct drainage.

Parking Lot being milled prior to resurfacing.

Chipping the edges that are not accessible to the milling machine.

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Additional Services To Extend The Life Of Your Overlay:

Important Note:

Most asphalt overlays are installed improperly and usually do not last 2 years before the cracks resurface into the new asphalt. This is not the fault of the property manager, but rather the contractor. Some contractors, being full aware of the additional services available to strengthen an overlay do not recommend them because they become involved in local or national “price-wars” and do not want their bid to be higher than the other bidders. For instance, if you install a 2” average overlay over alligator cracked pavement or large cracks, those same cracks will reflect back through the new overlay at a rate of 1” per year on average. In effect, after 2 years, your new parking lot will resemble the same crack patterns and areas of deficiencies that the old parking lot had. How would you feel if you just spent $150,000.00 to overlay a parking lot and in 2 years it looks the same as it did prior? You would probably be pretty frustrated. The truth of the matter is that there are several technologies and processes that are available to prevent this from happening; however, finding a contractor who will recommend them will be similar to finding a needle in a haystack.

The Math is simple: 100,000 sq ft parking lot overlay

• Overlay the parking lot without making the necessary upgrades and in 2 years you parking lot will need to be overlaid again. $100,000.00 parking lot, 2 year service life (Cost Per Year / Per Sq Ft: $0.50)
• Crack Seal and Install a Geotextile Crack Retardent Fabric. Service life extended to 15 years. (Cost Per Year / Per Sq Ft: $0.07)
• Do you see why spending an additional $0.20 sq ft up front will save $0.43 sq ft over a 15 yr period?

Crack Sealing:

At minimum, a parking lot needs to be crack sealed prior to installing an asphalt overlay to at least defer the cracking for 3 – 5 years.

Crack sealing installed prior to the asphalt overlay.

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Geotextile Paving Fabric:

A geotextile paving fabric is the single most cost effective preparation item that can be installed. Studies by the Federal Highway Administration have shown that a geotextile fabric installed prior to resurfacing can reduce reflective cracking by 80% over the life span of a 15 year overlay. For less than $0.25 sq ft, invested in the beginning, you can help extend the life of your overlay to 15 – 20 years with-out the pavement re-cracking. The fabric also provided a moisture barrier to prevent water from pumping to the surface from hydrostatic pressure. Depending on the severity of alligator cracked areas, heaving and rutting, you may want to address the areas with either full depth reclamation (4” – 6” ) and install Binder Asphalt (3/4” stone) prior to installing the fabric or if budgets are tight, mill down 2” and install 2” of Binder asphalt (3/4”) stone.

Paving fabric being installed


Paving fabric installed over alligator cracked pavement