When you need a pavement that is safe, economical, durable, and attractive, asphalt meets all of your requirements. However, these benefits of asphalt paving will be diminished if it is neglected. There is one particular warning sign that could indicate that you need to give your asphalt pavement a little assistance if you want to obtain the four benefits mentioned above, and that is standing water.
How Does Standing Water Affect the Safety of an Asphalt Pavement?
Potentially, there are three ways that standing water can negatively affect the safety of your pavement.
1. Pools of water can conceal potholes and cracks that could cause pedestrians to trip or sprain an ankle. If the damage is sufficiently severe, vehicles can suffer damage to their tires or suspension systems. Bicyclists could take a nasty fall or damage their bikes.
2. Asphalt contractors know that sealcoating is an excellent way to increase traction on the pavements they install. However, if enough cars drive through the standing water, their weight can cause the sealcoating to wear away prematurely in that spot, increasing the chances that water will penetrate beneath the surface of the pavement.
3. Whether water enters through an open crack or is forced into the pavement’s pores by vehicles passing over damaged sealcoating, your pavement can incur structural damage. The water can erode the foundation as well as the underlying soil. Your pavement loses its resiliency, so it begins to crack or sag.
What Impact Does Standing Water Have on the Economical Cost of an Asphalt Parking Lot?
Although local asphalt paving companies can build a parking lot for less than the price of a comparable concrete lot, it is not an expense that you want to pay more often than you must. Standing water can inflict enough damage to prevent your pavement from reaching its full life expectancy. Furthermore, as it is deteriorating, it will need to be repaired more frequently just to keep it usable, and each parking lot repair may become more expensive due to the increasing extent of the damage.
How Does Standing Water Affect the Durability of an Asphalt Pavement?
As any experienced paving contractor can attest, anything that increases the risk of water penetration also increases the risk of structural damage. A destabilized or eroded foundation will not be able to provide the proper support for the pavement, and this can lead to subsidence, alligator cracking, and sinkholes. In a relatively short time, these types of damage can make it more cost-effective to have a parking lot paving company rebuild your pavement than to continue paying for frequent and costly repairs.
How Does Standing Water Affect the Appearance of an Asphalt Parking Lot or Other Pavement?
Standing water affects the aesthetics of your pavement in two ways.
1. Puddles of water make your pavement look blotchy and unattractive. If the standing water also contains dirt or mud from runoff, the puddles are even less attractive.
2. Standing water increases your need for repairs. Although asphalt companies know that it is better to make the necessary repairs, the more that you make, the more you decrease the visual appeal of your pavement. Your pavement can begin to resemble a chessboard if there are patches scattered across its surface, and a network of repaired cracks can also decrease the pavement’s aesthetics.
The Surface Masters is an experienced, well-respected Atlanta paving company with an exemplary reputation for customer service, workmanship, and professionalism. We provide clients in the Atlanta metropolitan area with a variety of services, including asphalt paving, parking lot repair, sealcoating, concrete curbing and flatwork, parking lot striping, asphalt resurfacing, and pavement markings. Contact us for a free quote by submitting our request form online, calling 770-250-6392, or emailing Info@TheSurfaceMasters.com.
