8 Asphalt Maintenance Tips for Winter

The winter season can have extremely damaging effects on your parking lot and driveway asphalt, unless you promptly adhere to four specific asphalt maintenance tips. After all, the last thing you want at the end of the winter season is to be blindsided by an unexpected and expensive asphalt repair. Proper asphalt maintenance should begin at least a few months before the cold weather commences. In fact, you should start looking for small damages or cracks in your asphalt some time during the end of summer or beginning of autumn because at that point, the precipitation levels are still low enough to allow for any necessary repairs before winter hits.

8 Asphalt Maintenance Tips for Winter

Here are four asphalt driveway maintenance tips to prevent the harmful elements of winter from perforating your asphalt and causing costly repairs later on.

Repair Cracks Ahead of Time

Make sure to preemptively inspect your asphalt parking lot or driveway for damages, such as cracks, before the harsh weather begins. Keep in mind that small cracks may seem harmless at first, but with enough exposure to the elements combined with regular everyday use, they can rapidly expand and become more serious issues. Waiting too long to repair cracks could prove to be detrimental to the substrate of your asphalt. Eventually, precipitation will percolate into the cracks causing erosion and immense damage to the substrate below the surface, which could lead to crocodile cracking. Repairing cracks upon first sight will help you to avoid costlier upkeep in the future.

Seal Your Investment

Adding sealant in the dry season, which is typically the summertime, will facilitate in maintaining your asphalt parking lot or driveway and increase its longevity. You should apply sealant at least once every two to three years to refresh the look of your asphalt and rejuvenate its protective layer against the elements. This will help to maintain the strength of the foundation of your asphalt and keep it strong and help it last for years to come.

Remove Snow as Often as Possible

Snow removal is extremely important to the proper maintenance of parking lot and driveway asphalt because, as snow piles up, it contributes to hazardous driving conditions on your property. Not only does snow turn into ice, which makes the grounds slippery for vehicles and pedestrians alike, but it also hinders visibility by covering fading parking space markings, no-parking zones, and emergency exits in your parking lot. Professionally removing the snow from your parking lot regularly will ensure the asphalt is properly preserved, and it will also reduce the chances of any major incidents occurring on your property for which you may be held accountable.

Use Safe De-Icing Agents

Many people use rock salt to offset slippery conditions on their asphalt, but this is a major blunder when it comes to maintaining your asphalt. In fact, the rock salt may actually be doing more harm than good because rock salt is highly corrosive and it can damage your asphalt externally. A better, less-damaging alternative is potassium chloride.

Perform Asphalt Repairs Before Winter Starts

The best time to perform asphalt maintenance in the GTA is before the first major or minor snowfall of winter hits. Late summer and early autumn are ideal times of year to implement any necessary repairs because the temperatures are still warm enough to allow for proper procurement without interruption from heavy precipitation. Don’t procrastinate when it comes to repairing your asphalt because the longer you wait, the worse the problem will become, and it’ll end up costing you a lot more in the long run to repair it. Even small crack formations can turn into potholes by the end of winter. As water seeps through these cracks, it’ll eventually freeze and expand due to the cold temperatures and this expansion places a great deal of pressure on the surrounding asphalt and causes erosion. Eventually, this erosion will weaken the structural integrity of your asphalt to the point where repairs won’t suffice, and you’ll be forced to replace it either partially or entirely.

Clean Up and Remove All Debris

As part of your plan to implement effective and strong asphalt damage preventative measures, you should actively remove all debris, leaves, dirt, and standing water from your asphalt on a regular basis. While it’s advised that you do this all year-round, you should pay special attention to the condition of your asphalt and amount of litter on it right before winter begins because once the first snowfall hits and the ground freezes, that debris will become trapped under the ice and stick to the surface of your asphalt. This can have potentially harmful effects on both the environment and your asphalt parking lot or driveway. If this is a particular concern for you, then you can contact a reputable professional asphalt maintenance service in your area to remove the debris for you and perform routine inspections throughout the year.

Check for and Remove Standing Water

When it comes to costly and detrimental damages to an asphalt parking lot or driveway, standing water is one of the worst offenders. It’s usually a result of indents or depressions in certain parts of your pavement that are caused by a great deal of pressure that’s applied on a regular basis either by heavy vehicles or machinery on your property. If left untreated, these depressions will inevitably form into cracks and potholes, which will wreak havoc on the substrate beneath the surface. As an increasing amount of standing water collects in these indents over time, it’ll penetrate the surface of the water and exponentially contribute to the damages.

Repair Potholes

As mentioned, potholes are usually caused by smaller crack formations that have been left untouched. Over time and with continued use of the asphalt pavement along with the entrance of external elements such as dirt, debris, and water; these cracks expand and form into large potholes. These potholes should be repaired immediately before the cold winter months because they could be a liability issue for you as the property owner. Potholes pose a great danger for pedestrians and drivers and the last thing you want to happen is for someone to become injured on your property due to your negligence. With regular asphalt road maintenance, you can avoid all of these unnecessary problems.

Contact Sure-Seal Pavement Maintenance Inc. in the GTA

Your search for “asphalt maintenance near me” can now come to an end. Sure-Seal Pavement Maintenance Inc. has over 20 years of experience in asphalt paving and repairs. Not only do we specialize in asphalt road maintenance and installation, but we also offer an industry-leading seven-year structural and product warranty and we stand by the quality and durability of our services, ensuring that it will last for years to come. For a free consultation, please call our number at 416-410-3705 or if you’re in Toronto, call 416-410-3705.