Wednesday 30 July 2014

How Asphalt Sealcoating Somerset County Contractors Help Protect Pavements

By Annabelle Holman


Pavements form part of landscaping features in premises and they need to be taken good care of by the owners. Installing driveways and parking lots is a cost investment that deserves every aspect of good care. When you have laid down these pavements, you will have to maintain them over their life. In order to ensure you keep the pavements protected, you should consult asphalt sealcoating Somerset County contractors to apply sealant products on blacktop.

Pavements designed of asphaltic material are susceptible to damage by environmental elements like UV light, water, ice, and snow. When they are laid down, these pavements have good elasticity but as asphaltic material begins curing, it starts to dry and harden. Soon you will find that the blacktop has changed its elasticity and become hardened.

The fading you see on asphaltic parking lots and drives is caused by the UV light. As the sunrays bake the outermost layer of pavements, it makes them fade and dry. They become brittle and start unraveling. The small stones you see on surfaces are caused by binders that are weakening due to sunlight.

The pavements begin to harden and become brittle. With continuous baking by UV light, the outermost part of pavement begins to unravel. It changes it color from the beautiful black hue to grey color. This is among the first signs that indicate you need to sealcoat your drives and parking lots.

While UV light bakes blacktop material and hardens it thus causing cracking, when the cracks occur, they allow water to penetrate inside the sub base payer. Water loosens the material underneath blacktop and the pavements become unstable. With heavy weight, you may experience shifting and movement of sub base layer.

With use of sealants, you ensure that the destructive elements are prevented from acting directly on blacktop. Since the blacktop is as good as the sub base in which it sits on, if you have a weak base, it causes the outermost part of driveways to deteriorate fast. You may have increased formation of depressions and upheavals on pavements.

Applying sealcoats is simply reconditioning the outermost layer of asphaltic pavement. However, the sealcoats should be applied at the right time. Proper timing is needed when applying the products. When you have laid down pavements, you do not apply sealants immediately. The blacktop is still oily and with light hydrocarbons. However, as it cures, the oils dry and it reaches a point where the first sealcoat is applied.

During the winter, the ice and snow forming on roads needs to be unthawed. One way of removing that ice is by using de-icing salts. Asphaltic pavement owners will use such salts in a bid to reduce the formation of more ice on their roads. What they do not realize is that the salts also damage blacktop. You may have pavements damaged easily because of the salts. Gasoline products including the transmission fluids and oils will spill over pavements also damaging them.




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