FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SEALCOATING

After one year you need to seal coat your asphalt after installation.  After one year the oils on the surface of the new asphalt have dried up enough to allow for seal coating.  Many people wait until the asphalt is several years old and turning gray before they decide to seal coat it.  By waiting this long a lot of aging and drying out of the binder or glue that holds the sand and aggregate together has taken place and the damage done to that point from oxidization cannot be reversed.  You want to slow that aging process down as soon as possible.

The sealcoat goes on a chocolate brown and dries black.  It will usually take foot traffic in 3 hours but we ask you to keep your tires off for 24 hours.  In certain situation we can get you back on your asphalt sooner if being off it for 24 hours creates a problem for you.

Sealer manufacturers and asphalt contractors agree that asphalt should be sealed every two to three years.  It all depends on the amount of traffic your asphalt is subject to.  In some circumstances we have had seal jobs last 5 years plus.  Older driveways may require more maintenance, especially if the asphalt has gone gray.  Graying indicates the surface is oxidizing and losing the binder or the glue that holds the aggregate in the asphalt.  On new installed driveways we recommend putting one coat of sealer on the asphalt one year after installation, another coat the next year and then one coat every 3 years for the remainder of its life.  On commercial parking lots we recommend one or two coats depending on traffic levels every two years for the life of the asphalt.

Over time, sealer can build up and eventually peel.  This can be a sign of over sealing the asphalt.  Before resealing your asphalt you want to let the previous sealer wear off to a certain degree before sealing again.  If you seal your asphalt every 3 years you should not have a problem with peeling caused from over sealing.  Peeling can also be caused by water problems under the surface of the asphalt, water pumping up from underneath can cause peeling.  When asphalt begins peeling, our employees do their best to scrape down the surface as much as possible before resealing.

Both Coal Tar Emulsion and Asphalt Emulsion asphalt sealers prefer the sun to dry and make that strong molecular bond to the pavement.  We take extra care to thoroughly scrub off any moss or tree sap in those heavily shaded areas of asphalt to ensure the sealer makes a good bond with the pavement.  We also use an additive in our sealer that will help set up sealer in heavy shaded areas.  However, even taking those extra steps to ensure a good bond, the sealer in heavily shaded areas will still wear off before those areas that have sun exposure.  Unfortunately, this is just the way it is.

Crack seal is made to stay pliable, therefore on a hot day; it is possible for the crack seal to become soft enough that it can be lifted out of the crack, especially if you happen to turn your vehicle tires directly on it.   We use a excellent hot pour crack sealer in W.R. Meadows 3405 and while on a hot day the rubber may get soft enough to leave a tire print or tear a little bit if you stop and turn your tires on it the crack usually remains sealed.  Throughout every year a small percentage of the rubber we put down either gets tore up on a hot day when it is really soft, sinks or re-opens or gets torn up with snowplows during the winter months.  This is simply due to attrition and why we recommend you assess your cracks every spring to see if they need any attention or if new cracks in the pavement developed over the winter.  For many of our customers crack sealing is a yearly maintenance item.  While we do an excellent job with our crack sealing we do not warranty any crack seal work as we would spend a lot of our season chasing down issues that are simply normal yearly wear and tear.

If we’re concerned regarding the weather, we’ll contact you to reschedule to the next available day.  If you’re not home, generally we will go ahead and pick a date for you and leave that information on your voice mail, thereby locking in your spot on the next most available date.  If that day works for you, you don’t have to call us back to confirm.  But if that day does not work for you, you can call us back during normal business hours and we can pick a new date that works better for your schedule.

Absolutely not!  As long as you make sure nothing is on the driveway, and remember to shut off your automatic sprinkler system at least 24 hours before we show up, we can do the work and leave an invoice in your mailbox or email your invoice.  You do not have to take time off from work or reschedule your day in any way to accommodate having your driveway maintenance work completed.

Unfortunately, residential driveways are only scheduled Monday through Friday, leaving our crews available to do commercial properties on the weekend.  If you have a special need that requires a Saturday or Sunday appointment, please let us know and we’ll do what we can to accommodate it.

Resurfacing is adding an additional 2” of asphalt over the existing asphalt surface.  This is more affordable than removing and replacing the entire driveway, and will result in the same appearance.  However, any cracks in the old underlying pavement will work their way through to the new surface eventually.  This is called reflective cracking and it may not show up for several years or it could happen after year one.  The cap itself can be expected to last approximately eight to ten years.  Great Lakes Asphalt Solutions offers resurfacing or complete removal of old pavement and installation of new pavement done in two lifts, a base course layer of 1.75” and a top course layer of 1.75” through one of our sub-contractors or we will just refer you directly to the sub.  Our sub-contractor we work with installs super high quality driveways and we are proud to have them as our sub-contractor.

Although the appearance of your driveway will be greatly improved by sealcoating, it cannot cover imperfections the way resurfacing does.  That would be like expecting to cover wall damage by painting it.  In comparison to resurfacing, sealcoating is inexpensive, will give it a fresh black color, and has the added benefit of helping maintain the life of your driveway by protecting it from the elements.  Sealcoating also does not rejuvenate or reverse the aging process of your asphalt it simply slows down the aging process.

Again, crack seal cannot cover imperfections the way resurfacing does.  Crack seal’s objective is to keep damaging water from getting underneath the driveway surface.  The material is a hot-applied joint sealing compound, which is entirely different from the liquid sealcoat.  Using the crack seal is an inexpensive way to protect the base of your driveway, but it will be noticeable.

Most likely not.  It is our opinion that almost all the sealers you can buy at the big box stores or local hardware stores are considerably inferior products to commercial brand name sealers sold to contractors.  Some of the sealers available in the big box stores boast up to 10 year warranty.  The only way those sealers will last 10 years is if the product stays in the pail.  More often than not those sealers last one year at best before wearing off.  To do a seal coat job yourself you will have to buy not only the sealer but the tools to apply the sealer, most likely ruin a pair of clothes and spend a nice sunny day doing something that will not be very cost effective because you only have access to inferior products that simply will not last.