Durham Parking Lot repairs for Alpaca
One of our favorite lunch restaurants in Durham needed some potholes and badly cracked asphalt so we were thrilled to jump in and perform repairs. When we work for commercial businesses scheduling pavement repairs during low customer traffic is a huge consideration. Luckily for us, this local restaurant isn’t open for breakfast so we were able to get our work finished before the lunch rush.
What caused potholes and asphalt damage in this parking lot?
In this particular case, there are a number of factors at play: The old age of the asphalt and years of weather and sunlight have caused the pavement to become brittle and oxidized. Once asphalt is oxidized it’s more likely it starts to crack from regular vehicle traffic. In small parking lots like Alpaca‘s in south Durham location we often see the base layer of rock underneath the pavement is too thin and that causes the top layer of asphalt to break down faster than areas with much thicker base layers.
Even in the best of circumstances, large garbage trucks and semi-trucks create potholes faster than any other type of vehicle. The average sedan weighs around 2500lbs, vs. a garbage truck that can weigh as much as 50,000lbs!
How did we repair the potholes in this Durham parking lot?
Our process uses an infrared asphalt truck to quickly repair the defective pavement. When the asphalt is headed to 250-300 degrees it becomes pliable again and we can rake the asphalt smooth. Then we add new hot mix asphalt to the damaged area and continue our repair process.
Not only is this type of repair faster than traditional saw cut techniques, it’s a more permanent repair because the heat bond between the old and new asphalt doesn’t leave a space for water and debris to enter the asphalt.
We’d love to hear about your asphalt needs, reach out anytime for a friendly conversation!
