The Effects of Winter

Wintertime conditions can cause a fair amount of damage to the paved surfaces of parking lots and other land improvements. For example, if the asphalt has cracks and crevices, water can seep into them. When freezing temperatures cause that water to freeze, it expands the cracks and crevices as it turns into ice, thus making the damage that much worse. Similarly, water can contain a wide range of contaminants, meaning that mere exposure to moisture can cause asphalt to deteriorate.

As a result, if you have a parking lot, you need to be prepared for the damage caused by winter. Furthermore, you need to be prepared to get it ready for spring as soon as possible so that your business can continue making full use of its function.

How Can You Get Your Parking Lot Ready for Spring?

Here are some steps that can be used to get your parking lot ready for spring once the snow has thawed:

• You need to start by making sure that the cracks, crevices, and other imperfections in your parking lot are cleaned out. Once you have done so, you should use an asphalt filler to make them level with the rest of the paved surface. If the imperfections are particularly deep, you might need to fill them with gravel before finishing the job with cold mix asphalt.
• Once you have eliminated the imperfections in your paved surfaces, you need to make sure that they are cleaned of vehicle oil as well as other contaminants clinging to them. After all, asphalt tends to react poorly to such substances, meaning that cleaning it off can do much to extend its useful lifespan. Something that is particularly important if you don’t want to pay for either repair or replacement costs in no time at all.
• Then, you should make sure that your paved surfaces are sealed properly if they need it. This is important because the sealer creates a protective barrier between the asphalt and all of the environmental effects that can speed up its rate of deterioration, making the sealing a small price to pay for much bigger savings down the line.
• Finally, get the parking lot’s lines and other markings repainted since paint tends not to fare much better than paved surfaces when exposed to wintertime conditions for prolonged periods of time. By doing so, you can make sure that everyone will know how your parking lot is supposed to be laid out, thus ensuring efficient and effective flow of traffic both coming in and heading out.

Contact Us

If you need assistance with any one of these tasks, please contact us for our parking lot cleaning as well as the rest of our parking lot maintenance services. Since your parking lot is one of the first things that your visitors will see, a clean and well-maintained parking lot can do much for your business’s curb appeal, thus making it that much easier for you to convince potential clients to buy your products and services.