Improve The Quality Of Asphalt Pavements By Using Asphalt Sealcoating

By Cornelia White


Proper maintenance of asphaltic pavements is essential if you have to prolong their lifespan. Asphaltic material is durable and lasts for many years. However, if preventive maintenance is not put into practice properly, it can give room for the asphaltic blacktop to deteriorate fast. Using asphalt sealcoating helps in preserving the quality of your asphaltic pavements. The coat helps protect the surface from effects of sunlight and rainwater.

To prevent things like ultraviolet rays from causing damage on blacktop, you need to coat the surface with a protective layer. Sealcoats offer a weatherproof membrane, which prevents rainwater, sunshine, and gasoline products as well as salts from directly acting on blacktop material. The moment you lay down asphalt pavement, the sun begins to act on the material.

The color changes from the original jet black to grey and this occurs due to oxidizing process. The molecules oxidize with time as they seek for equilibrium state, which apparently is only achieved when the life of the product ends. When the oxidation process stops, it means an equilibrium state of the asphalt material has been attained and therefore the asphaltic blacktop cannot last anymore.

Moreover, water also causes damages on driveways and parking lot surfaces. The cracks may be caused by ultraviolet rays and effects of heavy traffic, something that allows water to enter inside the surface. The traffic moving over roads creates pressure, which may lead to shifting of blacktop material. If the material shifts, it forms cracks that allow water to enter.

The blacktop develops cracks because the material is unable to contract and expand evenly and uniformly. Sealcoat products offer a protective layer on pavements. The layer is weatherproof and prevents the damages caused by weather elements like rainwater and sunshine. When it is applied on top of blacktop, it prevents ultraviolet rays from reaching and heating the asphaltic material directly.

It may take several months or up to a year before the surface cures properly. It is only after this curing that you will apply the sealcoat. After the first coating, you will have to maintain a routine coating after every 2 to 5 years depending on how the previous coat performs and lasts. Using the coating also prevent damages caused by things like salts.

If however, you fail to take precautionary measures, and do not sealcoat the surfaces, then the small cracks continue widening. As cracks widely, water finds its way inside the subbase layer, and this is when you begin to deal with large problems. A sealcoat helps restore the beautiful black color of pavements. When asphaltic pavement material fades, it turns grey and looks unattractive.

Soon the sealer material wears out and exposes surfaces of roads to the effects of sunlight and water. The asphalt sealcoating procedure should be applied in the right time, and when the asphalt material has cured properly. In addition, the sealant products should not be applied on surfaces that have defects like cracks except for the very tiny and hairline cracks where a sealcoat can be used to restore them. Otherwise, any other defects have to be repaired before the coat is applied.




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