For any commercial business, the parking lot is crucial for establishing a positive impression on customers’ minds. It is essential for maintaining car safety, with an average lifespan of 10-20 years with proper maintenance.
Unfortunately, its maintenance is often overlooked in favour of general building maintenance. However, a well-maintained parking lot is crucial for enhancing your business’s functionality, aesthetics, accessibility, safety, and branding.
Here are Proper maintenance tips for this surface.
What is parking lot maintenance?
Parking lot maintenance usually involves regularly monitoring and repairing your asphalt or concrete parking lot. It is the practice of keeping an eye on, fixing, and maintaining your parking lot. If done correctly, your lot can be kept in excellent aesthetically and functional condition at the most economical price.
Parking lots experience a lot of wear and tear. They are exposed to weather, traffic, and heavy machinery, which can cause damage and degradation.
Parking Lot Maintenance Tips
Follow these maintenance tips to prevent damage to your parking space and prevent extensive damage.
Regular Inspection of Lot
To keep your parking lot in good condition, it is crucial to thoroughly inspect the space after heavy rainfall or snowfall to identify any significant issues. Standing water or harsh weather conditions can damage your asphalt parking lot. Maintaining a record of cracks, potholes, or faded markings is beneficial. If you cannot perform a visual inspection, it is good to seek the assistance of a professional to analyze the situation.
Maintain Drainage System
Prolonged standing water on the parking lot surface might damage the asphalt surface. After strong storms, proper drainage enables water to drain away from the parking lot. It is necessary to routinely inspect the drainage systems for obstructions and debris buildup.
Clean Sweeps
The frequent cleaning of the lot removes the dirt and debris that accumulates over time. An excessive amount of dirt provides the ideal environment for standing water, which weakens the surface and starts to seep into the substrate, further degrading it. Sweeping also allows you to find potential new issues.
Fill and Seal the Cracks
Cracks are unavoidable due to weather conditions and heavy use. Although small cracks don’t always mean the surface is doomed, they nevertheless need to be fixed immediately. Filling and sealing small cracks is simpler than attempting to eradicate a large one.
The asphalt can keep breaking down the moment water starts to leak into even the smallest gaps. The water in fractures will freeze and grow during freeze-thaw cycles in the colder months, creating an exponentially wider fracture. For repairing these fissures, a sustainable PAH-free sealer made from renewable soybean oil is perfect.
Utilize Sealcoating
Seal coating must done by professionals when pavement starts to crumble or break. Actually, you need to have taken care of this a few months after your pavement was first put in. This should endure for three to five years before seal coating needs to be done again. The nice thing about this is that it will help shield the lot from oxidation, oil spills, and cracks while also helping to restore its appearance. This can make your parking lot appear brand new when used with a parking lot patch.
Similarly, asphalt restoration services for extensive parking lot asphalt restoration can be considered to address severe damage and ensure long-term durability.
