Best sealcoating practices to keep your commercial parking lot in the best condition.
Your parking lot is one of the first points of contact your customers have with your business. This interaction can determine your future interactions with your customers. A well maintained, clean, and evenly paved parking lot assures your customers that you value their experience and appreciate their patronage in your business. To ensure that your parking lot maintains its glamour, you should conduct the routine sealcoating maintenance to protect it from deterioration.
Tips for Successful Sealcoating
While sealcoating has been an essential part of asphalt parking lot maintenance programs for the last few decades, it is important to understand how best sealcoating works, how to choose the right sealcoating material, and determining when to sealcoat.
How sealcoating works
Sealcoating is the protective barrier between the asphalt surface of your parking and destructive elements such as wind, gasoline, ultraviolet rays, and oils. Sealcoating protects properties of the asphalt to prolong the life and preserve your parking lot’s functional properties.
Despite the sealcoating method used, it is important to complete the process of cleaning and patching the entire asphalt surface with a liquid sealer that forms an impermeable barrier once it dries. The asphalt beneath the sealcoat is protected from the destructive elements that degrade and harden the asphalt causing it to crack and crumble. This form of protection helps you save on maintenance costs for an entire asphalt repair.
The right sealcoating materials
While choosing the right sealcoating materials for your commercial parking lot, there are three categories that you should consider based on your parking lot’s design, current condition, and traffic patterns.
Refined Tar-based sealcoating
This coating contains TR-12, a highly refined coal tar usually produced when coal is being converted to coke for metallurgy. RT-12 comprises of numerous stable chemicals that remain unchanged by destructive elements of sunlight, salts, and petrochemicals. RTS is highly reliable since it is considered the workhorse of the industry. Its properties and components are fully delineated to serve your long term coating needs.
Specialty resins
This type of coating contains performance properties similar to those found in RTS. It is highly resistant to destruction arising from weathering, ultraviolet rays, petrochemicals, and salts. The unique thing about this coating is that the technology of specialty resins is specific to each customer’s needs.
Asphalt Emulsion-Based (AE)
These coatings are petroleum-based and are usually made from hot asphalt or pre-emulsified asphalt. AE based coatings work very well in maintaining the surface integrity of asphalt parking lots and prevent the asphalt from cracking. Nevertheless, the AE sealcoating lacks resistance to most of the destructive elements such as petrochemicals and salts; hence, its performance is usually fortified with chemicals and specialty rubber polymers.
How often should you sealcoat?
The optimal time is usually one to two years after the initial asphalt application on your parking lot to allow for proper cure and wear of the surface. Thereafter, it is recommended to have your parking lot seal coated every three to four years. The type of components you select will help your contractor determine the number of coatings required for your parking lot.
Contact ACPLM to Schedule the Best Sealcoating Services in Tampa
Sealcoating improves the safety, appearance, and quality of your parking lot. By having a clean and smooth parking lot, you change the nature of your business to attract a higher customer base as they are assured of their safety against liability and compliance issues. For more information about the best sealcoating practices, call ACPLM today at 813-633-0548.
