(Example: Small Box Retail being sealcoated with 1st coat squeegee application by hand / 2nd coat applied by spray- May 2012)
(Picture taken- May 2015)
Sealcoating is recognized by many Small & Big Box Retailers as an effective method to extend the life of their asphalt parking lots in their portfolios and delay the large capital expense of milling and paving.
As a seasoned Retail Facility Manager I am confident you have had a bad experience with sealcoating at one time or another. The work may have been done in not optimal application weather, the area may have been opened too soon to traffic, improper traffic control and maintenance of pedestrian ingress / egress may have led to black footprints throughout your sidewalks, sealer may have quickly wore off the surface in your high traffic areas and a host of other issues.
Some of these issues may be from poor project management or an overzealous tenant taking it upon themselves to open the area to traffic too soon, however, probably more than 50% of the time the bad experience is from improper application and inferior products being used.
As a Retail Facility Manager you wear many hats and most likely rely on your parking lot vendor to provide you with recommendations for a long lasting sealcoat application. Unfortunately, many contractors themselves lack the experience to properly specify a sealcoating application, which will be designed for the surface it is being applied to.
For example, there are several different grades of pavement sealer available. There are standard coal tar and asphalt emulsions, which are the bread and butter of the sealcoating industry. However, there are also premium grade pavement sealers which individual manufacturers blend to exceed performance of standard coal tar and asphalt emulsion sealer mix designs. In this authors opinion, the premium grade pavement sealers are better suited for high traffic applications because they perform much better under the business end of a set of Firestone’s and only require recoating every 4-5 years versus 2-3 years with standard pavement sealers.
Example of premium grade pavement sealer include: Gem Seal Poly Tar, Maintenance Inc J-16, Neyra Jennite, Star Seal- Star Seal Supreme, Seal Master PMCTS and Carbonite Steel Guard 65 from Rayner.
Silica sand needs to be mixed with whichever pavement sealer you choose at a minimum of 3 lbs per gallon.
A latex modifier needs to be mixed into standard pavement sealer at a rate of 2% - 5%. Premium grade pavement sealers do not require post mixing of latex modifiers because they are hot blended during the manufacturing process.
Penetrating latex based primers are helpful when the asphalt is extremely gray and oxidized from the sun. The primer provides a good cohesive bond to allow the pavement sealer to bind properly. This author has had success with applying Gem Seal Poly Tar to oxidized asphalt without the application of primer. Example of penetrating primers include: Gem Seal / Southern Emulsions Tarloc MPC, Maintenance Inc Oxi Bond & Neyra Poly Prime.
The application method is just as important as the product. You can apply the best pavement sealer money can buy, however, if it is not applied according to the manufacturers recommendations- the product will most likely fail! One application by spray coat is not going to last more than 6 - 12 months for the entire project with drive lanes and other heavy traffic areas showing wear through in 30 days.
Back in the 80’s during the “Sealcoating Heyday’s” there was a big emphasis in the industry to apply the first coat of pavement sealer by squeegee and the second coat by spray. Back then, the sealcoating industry was a niche business with very little competition. As fly-by-night companies more and more saturated the industry and the barrier of entry became lower to enter the business with cheap starter equipment, companies began offering the more durable squeegee application less and less as they faced downward price pressure.
It is recognized by industry experts nationwide, when applying the first coat of a premium grade pavement sealer by squeegee or broom and the second coat applied by spray with a third spray coat in the high traffic areas- You will receive the longest lasting application in the marketplace!
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