Well, it’s that time of year again… school is back in session, leaves are changing color and falling to the ground, and football season has kicked off (go Eagles!).But it’s also that time to plan ahead for the winter.
As we here at APCON often say, your parking lot is a “welcome mat” to visitors to your company’s premises.
And if your parking lot is in disrepair, it shows your customers, guests, and employees that you aren’t keeping them in mind when they have to dodge potholes or trip on uneven sidwalks in your company’s parking lot.
If you have any problem spots in your parking lot, we suggest that NOW is the best time to take care of them, before winter comes and makes them worse, and also makes it much more difficult or impossible to have them fixed until spring arrives, when more amenable weather conditions allow for the work to be completed.
Associated Paving Contractors can handle the following preventative maintenance needs for you leading up to the winter weather season:
- Crack Filling: By filling cracks, you prevent water from getting underneath your pavement, which can then freeze, expand, and cause the cracks to grow even more or create other foundation problems.
- Pothole Repair: Like cracks in asphalt, ice can cause potholes to worsen, but they can also expand when snow plows or shovels clear snow from the pavement or when cars continuously pass over them. Properly filling potholes will prevent them from enlarging during the winter, ultimately helping to minimize walking and driving hazards.
- Line & Curb Striping: As winter approaches, your parking lot lines and curbs can become harder to see when there is precipitation covering them and as nights get longer. If your striping is faded, you risk cars running over curbs, parking improperly, or not seeing directional signs on the ground. Fresh paint will also help to make your site look more welcoming.
- Seal Coating: Fresh seal coating can help extend the life of your blacktop by keeping water from seeping into the asphalt, causing it to break down more quickly. Not only will seal coating help extend the life of asphalt that is currently in good condition, it will also provide a dark, fresh look, serving as an ideal welcome mat for your company’s visitors.
As touched on above, it is important that if you are considering doing any parking lot maintenance in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area, you should take care of it ASAP. For starters, as leaves fall, it makes jobs such as seal coating that much more difficult to do properly, and as the temperature drops, it becomes prohibitive to properly work with asphalt and related products since they need to be warm enough to cure. And let’s not forget that in 2011 it snowed right before Halloween!
The moral of this story: Putting off your parking lot maintenance needs until next year could be detrimental to the lifespan of your pavement, and could also increase the danger of any hazardous areas.
To talk with a representative of APCON about your parking lot’s maintenance needs, please contact us today at 215-672-8000 or info@assocpaving.com.
Thank you and enjoy the start of Fall!
