How do Potholes Form in Your Asphalt Parking Lot?

How do Potholes Form in Your Asphalt Parking Lot?

What causes potholes to form in your asphalt parking lot?

Taking care of an asphalt parking lot on your property can be frustrating without a proper repair and maintenance plan in place. There are many assorted issues a busy parking lot can face. Of all the issues you may struggle with on your parking lot, potholes may be the most disruptive. To prevent and repair potholes, you need to know how they form in the first place.

How Do Potholes Form?

Though your instinct may be to say that heavy vehicles or hard impacts cause potholes, you’d only be half right. Potholes begin with the same trouble that causes most problems that require Asphalt Repair.

If your asphalt has cracks, any cracks at all and of any size, then water will seep into the asphalt subgrade. When water gets under your asphalt’s primary top layer, it will remain there indefinitely. Eventually temperatures drop enough for that water to cool, and the water begins to expand. This expansion results in the under layers of your asphalt pushing against the upper layers, causing extensive cracking, material loss, and eventually potholes.

Essentially, the process of how potholes form is as follows:

  • Cracks, void spaces, or other weaknesses allow water intrusion into the under layers of your asphalt
  • The water will settle
  • The trapped water causes structural weakness and builds pressure against the upper layers, causing more cracks and a weakening of the asphalt material bonds
  • General wear, tear, and traffic further weaken the asphalt and pull material from the pavement, resulting in potholes

How Do You Prevent Potholes?

There are many “quick fix” methods out there, including cheap pothole repair kits and patches. However, we don’t recommend these for one very big reason: putting a patch on the problem doesn’t resolve what’s causing your potholes! By simply patching a hole, you’re leaving water underneath your sub-layer. This means not only did you not truly fix the pothole, but you’ve also guaranteed that you’ll be seeing more of them in the very near future! To effectively handle a pothole, you need to speak with a parking lot repair contractor.

If possible, it’s best to simply prevent potholes from forming in the first place. Prevention is quite easy, as general recommended pavement maintenance is the best means of stopping potholes. To prevent potholes, be sure to:

  • Enlist a pavement contractor for crack fill services any time you notice cracking on your pavement
  • Keep up a consistent pavement cleaning program with your own in-house maintenance or janitorial teams
  • Be sure to have your asphalt parking lot sealcoated

Pothole Repair and Parking Lot Maintenance in Tampa form ACPLM

If you need experienced asphalt pavement contractors, turn to ACPLM. Our team of pavement specialists have years of experience and utilize top-class products and technology in order to provide prompt, effective pothole repair and asphalt repair services. Not only can we repair your pavement, but we can also provide a full range of parking lot maintenance services that will prevent potholes, cracking, and fading on your lot.

Schedule a no-cost consultation with ACPLM today so you never have to ask “how do potholes form” ever again.

ACPLM Webmaster

With over 50 years of combined industry experience, the pros at ACPLM are experts at what they do. Our full service concrete repair and pavement services range from complete installation to minor maintenance projects and everything in between. Call 888-959-9637 today to speak with one of our trusted advisers.