The Cost of Delaying Parking Lot Maintenance
If you look at the manual that came with your car, you will find several pages of information on various maintenance procedures. The auto manufacturer did not include a maintenance schedule simply to drum up additional business for dealers or private mechanics. Instead, the maintenance schedule is intended to help you reduce your repair costs, obtain a longer life for your vehicle, and feel more secure that you will arrive at your destination without a major mechanical failure. The procedures recommended by your parking lot maintenance contractor are important for similar reasons.
If I Ignore My Parking Lot Maintenance, What Could Happen?
All asphalt paving contractors know that a pavement receiving proper maintenance will suffer less damage that will require costly paving repairs or the premature reconstruction of the pavement. Periodic sealcoating, routine parking lot cleaning, and similar asphalt paving maintenance procedures can help minimize or prevent pavement damage. Neglected pavements are more likely to develop wide, deep, long cracks that will permit a great deal of water to penetrate beneath the surface of the pavement. Once this water reaches the base layers, erosion will occur, leaving the base unstable and reducing its weight-bearing capabilities. The pavement can subside in areas where base erosion has occurred, and massive potholes can develop very rapidly. Alligator cracking is another common type of damage that is usually caused by a weakened, destabilized base. Parking lot maintenance companies typically recommend a fresh application of sealcoating every two years or so. Even with sealcoating, gas, oil, brake fluid, and other petrochemical automotive fluids should be cleaned every six months. Routine sweepings should also be part of your pavement maintenance program. However, depending on factors specific to your pavement, the interval between sweepings can range from 12 hours to 30 days, so you will need to ask your parking lot maintenance company to recommend the best schedule for your needs. Proactive paving maintenance can reduce the number and severity of cracks, but it is very likely that your pavement will eventually develop some cracks. Asphalt paving contractors usually recommend repairing any cracks that are more than about a half of an inch in either depth or width as soon as they are identified. The best way to ensure that significant cracks are identified early is to have your pavement maintenance contractor conduct a thorough inspection of your parking lot every spring and every fall.
Is It Possible to Quantify the ROI for Parking Lot Maintenance?
Although paving contractors have known for decades that proactive maintenance and timely asphalt repair would save clients a substantial amount of money, it has always been difficult to assign an immutable number to the return on investment. Parking lots come in all sizes, and they can serve a variety of purposes. However, numerous studies of typical parking lots supporting various mixtures of vehicles have shown that spending $1 on paving maintenance saves a minimum of $4 in asphalt repair costs down the road. In many cases, the savings were as much as $10 per $1 spent on maintenance. In one widely published case study involving a small parking lot, paving repairs and maintenance procedures that would have cost approximately $6,000 were delayed for just three years. At the end of the three years, the damage had become irreparable, so the entire parking lot had to be reconstructed at a cost of around $35,000.
Contact Asphalt Care Services When You Need Help With Your Paving Needs
Asphalt Care Services is a respected parking lot maintenance company serving clients in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Indian River, Sebastian, Vero Beach, Stuart, Port St. Lucie, Okeechobee, Fort Pierce, and Hobe Sound. We offer an extensive range of paving services, including asphalt maintenance, asphalt repair, parking lot striping, asphalt paving, thermoplastic markings, speed bump installation, sealcoating, concrete bumpers, and traffic signage. We have a professionally trained staff with the ability to handle jobs of all sizes and who share our commitment to exceptional results at competitive rates. To request a free quote, you can call 772-888-2840, email [email protected], or submit the online form.
