Judson Burdon

There’s something oddly overlooked about parking lots. You cross them every day, sometimes without thinking, but as someone responsible for managing one, you know they’re not just blank slabs of asphalt. They’re places where people and vehicles intersect, sometimes chaotically. And when pedestrian safety isn’t baked into your lot’s design and maintenance, things can go wrong fast.

Whether you’re managing a retail center, a healthcare facility, or a multi-use commercial space, pedestrian parking lot safety should be a top priority. Let’s walk through what that means in practical terms, no jargon, just real steps you can take to make your parking lot safer and smarter.

Snow has started to fall in many parts of the country. But when the initial excitement of making snow angels and snowmen wears off, property owners will start to worry about how to remove snow from their parking lots and driveways without damaging the sealcoating underneath.

Whether you are a professional who works on parking lots for a living and you have years of experience in the business, or you are just getting started, you want to make sure that you have the surface of the parking lot completely prepared before you do any work on it including crack filling, seal coating, and parking lot line painting.

You’ve got a pothole that needs to be repaired. Maybe it’s in a residential driveway, or it could be in the middle of a business’s parking lot. Either way, the job’s clear: patch the damage and do it right.
But here’s the question that comes up every time: cold patch or hot mix?
It’s not a small decision. The materials you choose can affect the durability of the repair, how fast the job gets done, and how happy your client is six months down the road.
Let’s take a closer look at cold patch vs hot asphalt, including what each one brings to the table, when to use them, and how to avoid the most common mistakes people make with both.

Every successful business adds more tools to keep growing: online companies add software, factories add more sophisticated machines. Asphalt maintenance companies can do the same thing: by getting the right tools at the right time, you’ll be able to do more work for less labor cost, in a shorter time frame, and that’s how you will grow your business. Where to start?

The public is increasingly going to court for injuries in commercial parking lots. These personal injury cases can devastate businesses financially, and almost every one of these lawsuits is preventable even if the parking lot is old.

Sealcoating Tips

Asphalt sealcoating equipment comes in such a wide selection it can be hard to single out what you actually need. The simplest way to choose is to think through the steps of the job and which seal coat machine will work best for you. A do it yourselfer will have simpler needs than a property manager or a business owner, but the job remains the same. Here is your blacktop maintenance check list.

Sealcoating is one of the most important measures a property manager can take to maintain the long-term health of an asphalt surface. It creates a barrier that will protect the blacktop from constant threats. The job doesn’t end once the sealer has stopped spraying, though. To reap the full benefits of complete asphalt maintenance, there are several additional steps you should take after you’re done sealcoating.

When you first started out in the asphalt business, you probably were fine just using the smaller drums and totes for your sealers.   You had time (and the patience!) to drive to sealer plants, transfer, fill, clean, and maintain the containers.  However, as we all know, the fastest path to success is to leverage efficiency.  If you want your business to grow, you will need to make sure that the equipment that you are using is growing along with it. You are not going to have an easy time covering the parking lot of a sports center or a shopping mall if you only have small drums.

Crack sealers are a godsend to asphalt owners everywhere. Without it, pavement cracks would expand as the elements take their toll on the asphalt and result in bigger potholes. These potholes need to be repaired, and that could be very costly for you. And if worse comes to worst, you have to repave the damaged area entirely.

But what is the best crack sealer in the market? We checked out four different crack sealer brands to see which product lasts longer, dries fastest, and allows you to save more money. Check it out below.