FAQs
What is seal coating?
A black liquid material made up of clays and polymers used to help protect your existing pavement, and its current condition, with the goal to prolong the life of asphalt surfaces.
There are different methods of application. It can be applied by broom, squeegee, or most commonly spray. Our mixing procedures, applications, and additives meet or exceed manufacturers’ specifications which are in line with federal spec applications. We generally recommend sealcoating new pavement approximately 1-2 years after the initial installation. Irons pavement uses and applies Coal Tar emulsified sealers on a regular basis.
From small driveways to large distribution centers or office and apartment complexes, Irons pavement is dedicated to providing and applying our sealcoat materials honestly and effectively. Many applicators will heavily “cut” their sealcoat products with water to extend its application SF, limit or leave out recommended additives (such as latex or durability additives) which come at an extra cost to the applicator, in order to help their profit margins. Irons pavement has only operated on referrals for years and mix and apply our products to manufacturers specifications for the best application within budget.
If requested we can provide diluted or sub-standard products but do not recommend this approach.
What is oil primer?
A latex liquid applied over heavily saturated oil damaged asphalt to help sealcoat adhere to the surface. Otherwise, the sealcoat will likely not stick to a slick oil surface and will either crack and peel or “potato chip” up from the surface following the application and drying.
Surface preparation is a standard approach to clean the asphalt surface prior to sealcoating. It typically involves blowing off the pavement surface to clear it of loose sand debris with commercial-grade walk-behind blowers in combination with minimal isolated push brooming. Additional cleaning, sweeping, or even pressure washing may be required or needed to help the sealer adhere to the pavement surface. Standard surface preparation will not correct or clean years of the neglected pavement surface.
In some cases, a 3rd coat application option will provide the ability for more material to be applied to specific areas (mainly in aprons around corners, or heavily trafficked drive lanes) and is intended to provide for more protection of the asphalt binders in your existing pavement for longer-term wear. It is common for the sealer to appear to wear at the same rate a 2 coat application but is generally due to the sealer wearing off the polished or raised aggregates in the asphalt mix.
A 3rd coat application will help prolong the life of the sealcoat in these areas to allow for slightly longer wear towards the end of sealcoats lifespan. It is possible to even apply the 3rd coat application to the drive lanes and turn radiuses weeks or months after the standard 2 coat application to freshen up the appearance of your newly sealed surface. A 3rd coat is generally not needed in the parking stalls due to the lack of amount of traffic the parking stalls have compared to the widely used drive lanes and turn areas.
How is Squeegee or Broom coat applications done?
Typically done on the 1st coat of application to provide a heavier amount of sealer or for slightly better crack filling abilities when compared to a 1st coat spray application. Costs vary with each process and pavement condition but it is normal to say that a customer could expect to receive roughly 1 to 2 times the amount of material for each coat applied by either broom or squeegee application. So if a sealcoat specification called for a 1st coat squeegee application and a 2nd coat spray application, overall that application would receive roughly 2-1/2 to 3 coats worth of spray application in comparison to a standard 2 coat spray specification.
Striping applications consist of various scopes, layouts, configurations, and approaches. We provide assistance and professional applications for standard parking, ADA compliance parking, or based on typical and city standard guidelines or to your approved plans and drawings while only using high-traffic water-based latex paints for durability. We do not water down our paint so you get the most out of your new or restripe application.
Most standard parking stalls are measured at 9ft wide with ADA compliance widths based on state guidelines fall at 12ft wide with 5ft wide access aisles but its not uncommon to see non-standard widths or varying sizes of stalls.
We also layout new or restripe cross-walks, stop-bars, lane division lines, arrows, and stencils. We stripe all the above based on whether you want or need your parking lot to match the way it is currently or if you desire a new layout. We carry varying sizes of stencils (numerical or alphabetical), as well as common sized and shape arrows to help you identify and mark your parking stalls or roadways. The blacking out of existing lines may be required if not recommended if you plan to adjust your parking configurations to a new design or layout. This will help prolong the “bleed-through” of the existing colors or lines under the new paint lines.
We provide and install ADA compliance signage along with various other parking or non-DOT compliance roadway signage such as “stop”, “compact”, or custom signs and posts.
We provide and install preformed thermoplastic tape per manufactures specifications and city standards and apply it to your pavement surface for stop-bars, lane division lines and cross-walks.
How do you deal with repairs?
It is common to repair exiting potholes by cutting and patching damaged areas with a saw, removing the debris, tacking the edges, and installing hot mix asphalt to help prolong your overall pavement surface life or prior to sealcoat applications. The cut is generally made just beyond (6”-1ft) outside of the immediate damage to help ensure edge structure.
A cheaper but more budget friendly approach to cutting and patching is to clean out the potholes of loose debris and fill them with hot mix. This provides the same concept approach but is likely to show quicker deterioration in the long run if the pavement does not have an apparent edge to tie-into.
NOTE: Most new asphalt is NOT sealed over to prevent the sealcoat from damaging the new pavement while it cures or to prevent the sealer from delaminating from the new pavement. New asphalt will generally be black in appearance for approximately 1 year until it has oxidized from sun, water and tire abrasion.
Concrete repair and patchwork. Irons pavement provides concrete sidewalk grinding to help eliminate raised sidewalk or access trip-hazards as well as trowel grade crack fillers for larger concrete cracks or gaps. We provide small concrete repairs or concrete replacements to sidewalks or flatwork on a limited size and quantity basis but we have a network of vendors for slightly larger projects. We typically do not install curbing or new construction projects. You will be better off reaching out directly to concrete providers for those types of projects. Please call for inquiries.
Asphalt crack sealing is typically done to help prolong the life of pavement by providing either a “cold-pour” filler applied with a small squeegee or Hot tar crack sealer applied by lance or continuously heated melting box to help limit water intrusion through open grade cracks where it seeps through the base course and over time softens the overall base structure for your pavement surfaces, eventually leading to further cracking and damage of pavement that creates potholes.
It is common to apply the crack seal to the inverted center drive lane when water is intended to drain from the catch basin to the catch basin box. In situations where heavy cracking has occurred due to pavement overuse or soft base, you may notice larger cracking areas or sections – the cost alternative to seal these areas is with a slightly thicker material applied by squeegee called an “alligator” crack seal. it is called this as the cracking occurring in the parking lot is generally described to be similar in appearance to an alligators back.