Seal And Coat - When You Should Sealcoat
New Pavements
New pavements should be seal coated after about 1 year. Usually, six months is sufficient. It is extremely important not to seal coat too early. This is because fresh asphalt pavement still contains a large amount of light oils that will eventually evaporate and wash away from the pavement. These oils make fresh asphalt very soft and flexible. If these oils are not given a chance to properly cure and evaporate, the seal coat will trap these oils in your pavement, causing permanent soft conditions that could lead to premature cracking and less resistance to abuse. You should however, sealcoat in time so that not all of these oils are allowed to evaporate. This will lock-in the oils in your pavement and give your pavement the flexibility it needs to avoid cracking.
Existing Pavement
The rate at which you seal coat your driveway or parking lot greatly depends on several factors. These factors include, a visual observation of its current condition, the amount of traffic the pavement is subjected to, your climate, the type of chemicals that may assault your pavement and the abuse it is subjected to. Usually, 2-5 years is a fairly accurate rate at which it should be done. After about 5 years, you should definitely seal coat. High traffic commercial locations may need to reseal after about 2-3 years. For residential locations, about every 3 years or so is average, depending on traffic and other conditions.
You should sealcoat your driveway when you notice the bare aggregate of the asphalt showing through the old sealcoat. This is usually first scene on high traffic areas.
Temperatures & Weather
Seal Coating should only be performed when temperatures do not drop bellow 50-55 at night. This is to ensure the sealer has the right conditions to cure. The seal coat should be applied from sunrise/early morning when temperatures are at least 55 and rising. It can be done into late afternoon, but it is best not to do it in the late evening or at night. No rain, showers or fog should be predicted for at least 24-48 hours to ensure the sealer has an adequate time to dry. The sealing season varies depending on your climate and geographical location.
Don't Seal Coat Too Often
While seal coating is extremely important to provide protection and extend the life of your pavement, as with anything, over-doing it can cause problems. It is extremely important not to do it every year. There is no reason why seal coating should be performed every year, except in extremely rare cases where the pavement is subjected to an extremely high amount of traffic and wear (for example, the road way of a large apartment complex subjected to 100's of cars per day). The reason why sealing the pavement of your driveway or parking lot too often is bad, is because you are applying and caking the sealer on faster than it can wear off. This eventually builds up layers upon layers of sealer, that can crack and peal and appear very unattractive. When this happens, the common "solution" is to add more sealer on top of the already too thick sealer to cover up and fill in the areas where it has pealed, cracked, chipped and flaked. This however, only provides a temporary solution and actually just continues adding to the problem. For this reason, it is best to wait till the sealer is almost gone and you can start to see the bare asphalt aggregate showing through.
|
