New Jersey Parking Lot Seal Coating

What Is Seal Coating?

Seal coating, or pavement sealing, is the process of applying a protective coating to asphalt-based pavements to provide a layer of protection from the elements: water, oils, and U.V. damage.

Sealcoating is an essential part of any asphalt repair and maintenance plan. Before any sealcoating project, is is important that all crack repairs and any other asphalt maintenance be completed before the sealcoat application begins.

Commercial property owners and managers can agree that pavement sealcoating is a cost-effective maintenance service to their properties, and they are right. Sealcoating ads immense curb appeal, all while protecting your parking lot.

What Are The Benefits Of Seal Coating?

Protecting your asphalt with high-quality sealcoating offers property managers a number of benefits.

Periodic asphalt maintentenance can extend the life of your asphalt up to 30 years. When new asphalt is properly sealcoated within the first year, the surface will experience much less degradation from water, traffic, and UV damage from the sun. Sealcoating also protects against oxidation caused by harsh weather like heavy rain, snow, and ice.

A quick note on what seal coating WON'T do--

Sealcoating an asphalt parking lot that's been neglected for 10-15 years is like putting a small band-aid on a severe wound. It may look fine for a short while, but there won't be any structural value or real protection happening.

What Type Of Materials Are Used? 

• Coal Tar Emulsion Sealer - latex-based and one of the most popular choices when it comes to commercial and industrial parking lots.
• Asphalt Emulsion Sealer - also latex-based and widely used, but a more environmentally friendly (green) alternative to coal tar emulsion sealers; instead of coal tar, emulsified asphalt is mixed in with water, mineral fillers (silica sand, clay, or slate), and other admixtures.
• Acrylic Emulsion Sealer - typically produced in multiple colors and sold as a niche product for sealing and cosmetically enhancing driveways, golf cart paths, or as identifiers to specific parking areas or entrances.

How Is Seal Coat Applied? 

Seal coat is applied directly onto the surface of a (recently cleaned) asphalt pavement. It can be applied using rubber squeegees, brooms, or mechanical spray, often a combination of the aforementioned applications. When it comes to Asphalt Emulsion Sealer, we like squeegees and think they offer the best re: durability.

How Long Does Asphalt Seal Coating Take To Complete?

Most jobs take two coats, which requires 24-48 hours of curing before vehicles are allowed back onto the surface. 

Before a sealcoating job, the asphalt should be cleaned using sweeping methods and/or blowers.

Once the surface is clean, the sealcoat mix is applied at about 60 square feet per gallon per coat.

How Much Does Seal Coating Cost?

Using Coal Tar or Asphalt Emulsion Sealer, the average price to sealcoat your asphalt surface ranges from $0.14 - $0.25 per square foot. A number of factors can affect the sealcoating price:

• Mobilizations: The amount of phases the project can be completed to minimize disruption to your customers / tenants.
• Cleaning & Preparation: How dirty the parking lot is and how much cleaning will be involved using walk behind air blowers and steel wire hand brooms. Pavement sealer requires asphalt to be 100% clean to adhere / perform properly. The amount of oil spots which require preparation and priming with a latex based oil spot primer.
• Layout Of The Parking Lot: Wide, open square asphalt parking lots and interior roadways without a lot of landscape islands, turns and other chopped up areas. When pavement sealer can be applied with a distributor truck spray bar making a 10’ pass at a time versus a hand held spray wand applying sealer in a 3’ pass at a time.
• Size Of The Asphalt Parking Lot To Be Seal Coated: With all things being equal (Clean Parking Lot, 10 miles from office etc) theoretically it takes the same amount of time for a 4-person sealcoating crew to sealcoat a 15,000 sq ft open Burger King parking lot working in sections that is does to sealcoat a 60,000 sq ft closed office building parking lot on a Saturday.

We offer a variety of options for all of your asphalt sealcoating services and asphalt paving needs. For a FREE CONSULTATION please CLICK HERE or visit www.fixasphalt.com today.