Asphalt Seal Coating and Maintenance - Find out What you are Getting!

Asphalt Seal Coating and Maintenance

Find out What you are Getting!

Spring’s rolling around again, the grass is getting green, the leaves are budding from the trees and the seal coating and pavement maintenance people are out in full force, looking for your business.

Being in the pavement maintenance and marking business for over 29 years, I’ve had a lot of people that asked me “Is it really worth it? Seal coating you know.”  Well, that is really a wide-open question, and one that I can answer a variety of ways. Now if you’re calling up your local seal coating contractor, or have someone knocking on your door, asking you to seal coat your driveway, you need to be educated about this process.

Oh I know, nothing to this, go down to your local hardware store and buy the product, and they will tell you everything you need to know about it. Or you can call the local contractor and get some estimates, look at who is the cheapest and sign that contract. Well, maybe, maybe not! Remember that old saying let the buyer beware? Or you get what you pay for? Well it is no different in the world of seal coating and pavement maintenance.

I guess you really need to know a little bit about asphalt before you make a decision about whether to do any pavement maintenance or seal coating. First, do you even know what holds the asphalt together or what’s in the product?

Asphalt is made of aggregate, stone and bituminous, or in common terminology a type of tar. Well really these terms have been simplified so that anyone can understand them. See the asphalt is just the finished product. There is a lot more that goes into paving then simply putting the asphalt down. You need to have a good stone base, something that allows water to drain away from it, something that is solid. The depth and type of the base depends a lot on what kind of traffic you’re going to be driving across the asphalt surface.

Once you have your stone base, then they apply the asphalt. Asphalt may be put down in various layers if you’re trying to build a base for heavier traffic, again all dependent on what your intended use may be. After all that is completed, you should have a nice paved area. Then you wait! Yes you heard me - wait, wait, wait! You see, most seal coating manufacturers recommend that you do not seal coat new asphalt for at least a year. And remember you don’t need to seal coat every year, even if that guy comes around and wants to do it every year. Parking lots should be done on a rotation of about every 2 to 5 years depending on the traffic volume and winter conditions. Driveways should probably be sealed about every 3 to 5 years.

Now we get into the down and dirty. If the only thing the contractor you’re talking to wants to do is make that asphalt look new again, with a nice coat of sealer, send them packing! If you have cracks, they need to be addressed. Yes, I know somebody is going to tell you, that the seal coating material will fill in the cracks. If the cracks are more than a quarter inch wide and this is what you’re told, you better get your boots out because it’s going to get deep.

You see cracks are the place where water enters the base of your asphalt. This is where water gets in during the winter, freezes and thaws and then causes potholes or bigger cracks. A good reputable pavement maintenance contractor will want to seal those cracks properly and preferably with some kind of hot rubberized crack sealer. And no, it’s not the same as seal coating material. Even if you don’t have enough money to seal coat the driveway you should at least fix the cracks. Yes I know, it will look like there are all these black snakes all over your parking lot or driveway. But the question you need to ask yourself is if I would rather have this look, or be paying thousands of dollars to repave my asphalt surface.

If you have the money you can still seal coat. There are protective factors to seal coating material that extend the life of your asphalt surface. But your first priority should be the cracks. Now with all this being said, there are times when an asphalt surface is so cracked up, that it is beyond the repair of crack sealing and seal coating. For instance if your asphalt surface cracks look like one big spider web, you may be past the point of crack sealing and seal coating. Or at the very least you may need to do some asphalt paving repairs before you seal the remainder of the asphalt surface. But you need to have a reputable person tell you the truth. There are a great deal of reputable people out there.  Just ask questions, and you will find one.

Remember, they should be a licensed contractor. You should not have to pay them before the work is completed, if they can’t buy the material up front, ding, ding, ding a bell should be going off in your head! Check the Better Business Bureau to see if there any complaints about them. Ask for a certificate of insurance, including workers compensation. Always pay with a check or credit card. Don’t give them cash! Get a receipt and get a written contract, that both of you have signed before any work begins.

The Internet provides a lot of opportunities to become educated about what you are purchasing. Seal coating is no different. Like everything else if it is performed correctly and by reputable people, I’m sure you will get a good product. But be wary of that person that wants to promise you the world, because you can’t buy that for free. 

David E. Gemmill - D. E. Gemmill, Inc.

www.degemmill.com

http://degemmill.com/services_pavemaintenance.html

Work Zone Driver Safety: Not just for National Work Zone Awareness Week

"Work Zone Driver Safety: Not Just for National Work Zones in Awareness Week”

By: Colleen Gemmill

     While it is great to have a week dedicated to Work Zone Awareness it is an even greater idea to be aware in work zones every week, every day, and especially every time we drive through a work zone. Why such frequency? We’re talking lives here that’s why.

     According to national statistics a work zone fatality happens every 10 hours and a work zone injury occurs every 13 minutes. Now why wouldn’t everyone want to be aware of their driving while in work zones? 

     Awareness can go a long way when driving in any situation, but becomes vitally important when in a work zone. Speed and inattention are the most common causes of work zone accidents. Why wouldn’t everyone want to be aware every time they drive in a work zone?

     Slow down and be aware in all work zones at all times. You’re lower speed and awareness will go a long way in keeping you from becoming one of the four out of five fatalities that are motorists in work zones.

www.degemmill.com

Sources: Federal Highway administration

“Why are Those Barrels in My Way?”

National Work Zone Awareness Week April 7 - 11

Work Zone Speed, a Costly Mistake

 

“Why are Those Barrels in My Way?”

By: Colleen Gemmill

      It never fails, you’re running late and now you see signs, barrels, and an array of workers you are sure are there only to inconvenience you. Now because of this person holding a sign that says “STOP”, you are certainly going to be late!

      After what feels like an eternity, that annoying person finally turns the sign to “S-L-O-W”! You don’t have time for “slow”, so you speed away in an attempt to make up time. Moments later you regain consciousness and find yourself tangled in a mass of metal.

      You have just become a statistic. You have become one of the 1,124* people injured in a work zone accident.   You have caused one of the 1,661* work zone accidents in the United States.   And to top it off you have caused one of the 21* yearly work zone deaths when your out of control car hit a worker behind the barrier, who then also became 1 of 3* workers killed in work zone accidents.

      While the scenario may be made up the numbers are fact. The fact is, according to the US Dept. of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration, 1,661 accidents occurred in Pennsylvania work zones in 2012. These accidents ended in 21 deaths (3 of which were workers) and 1,124 injuries. All of which could have been prevented.

      So even in the fast paced world we live in, slow down, pay attention and make it through the work zones uninjured, alive and allow those working there to do the same. 

www.degemmill.com

http://degemmill.com/temporary.html

*2012 US Dept. of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration Statistics.

http://www.dot.gov/

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resources/pubstats/

Keep the New Engine, I’ll Take the Railroad

Keep the New Engine, I’ll Take the Railroad

On February 6^th, 2014 Vice President Joe Biden, while giving a speech in Philadelphia PA, compared New York’s LaGuardia airport to a Third World country. His exact quote was “If I blindfolded someone and took them at 2 o’clock in the morning into the airport in Hong Kong and said “where do you think you are? They’d say, this must be America. It’s a modern airport. If I took them blindfolded and took him into LaGuardia Airport in New York, you must think I must be in some Third World country. I’m not joking” Biden said. 

The Vice President was commenting about America’s infrastructure, and how far it has been allowed to deteriorate. He is correct, our infrastructure keeps slipping. Where once we led the world in energy, highways, rails, dams, ports and aviation, we are now being surpassed by other countries. Think about the countries that have high speed rail service to transport commuters, what do we have?  Amtrak.  Really? Is this the best we can do, as the most powerful nation in the world? The other day the Vice President was in Philadelphia for a big press conference touting the new more powerful locomotives. Yes, Amtrak states that they will use less energy and the new “regenerative braking system” will feed energy back into the power grid, which is all wonderful and definitely a positive, don’t get me wrong. But both the Vice President and Amtrak should have stated the cold hard facts like “we are proud of our new locomotives, but we are so far behind other Industrialized Nations. We need to have high speed rail service across the country”. They should have been apologizing for having their heads in the sand for so long that now we need to not only build the infrastructure for the high speed rail, but in order to outpace our competitors we need to develop the next generation equipment and infrastructure that will once again make us a leader in the world”. These are the truths they should have been telling the public.

Which brings me to my next point. I am all for aesthetics, but was the Vice President really talking about improving the components of the infrastructure or the gift wrapping. We have all heard the phrase “you can put lip stick on a pig but it is still a pig”. Well isn’t that what Amtrak did? Let’s put a new shiny train engine on the line and people will think we are improving. Well let me say, not me! Politicians think that by packaging something in a pretty package it will make everything hunky dory. How is that working for our education system? For years we have been spending millions of dollars on new schools. I know, I have performed work on these projects. Education is not about building a better looking and more modern architectural building then your neighbor. I mean, does an entry way, mosaic floor to a school provide more knowledge to our children? Does a football field with artificial turf and a nice school logo give the students the information to develop technology to create a new cure for a disease killing tens of thousands of people a year? Do mahogany stained book shelves teach the average high school graduate to balance a checking account, or learn how to invest in a retirement plan to prepare them financially for the future.  Aesthetics are nice, but they do not solve any real problems. When our so called leaders begin to realize that a nice brick building built at a reasonable price can provide the same ability to learn as a multi-million dollar building then we will begin to head down the path to progression. Remember we are all Americans, we should not be competing to see who has the nicer building. We should be working as a team to compete against the world.

It made me sad that Vice President Biden was so concerned about the perception of an airport. Things that some paint, cleaning and remodeling could solve. Why wasn’t he talking about how we will implement new technology to modernize America’s aviation tracking system. While providing great Wi-Fi and technology based medians in airports and public buildings is important these items, are not something that are going to make these places prettier, per say, but they will help us improve our technology availability to the masses, as long as the systems provide reliable service.

Shouldn’t he have been talking about ways to reduce the cost of building new highways, while planning construction projects so that the improvements are not out dated by the time they have been completed? He should have been asking how we can replace and update our electrical grid system, so it is the most reliable in the world. He should have been asking how we can save and repair our dams, and how we can provide access to our ports so that our goods can be transported in a timelier manner around the world.  He should have stated that all of Washington is failing us, and leaving us further behind our major competitors. And that as each day, month and year that passes without cooperation on a long term plan the greater the chances are that we will not catch the other industrialized countries.

We live in a time where we have great business visionaries who are talking about colonies in space and mining of asteroids and planets for minerals which can lead us to new products and discoveries. We elect leaders to maintain the way of life that America has built. Think about President Eisenhower’s vision of an interstate road system where we could move products and services faster and more efficiently. But as the great leader he was, he even knew that this system would need updating and overhauled in the future, probably from the time he signed the interstate highway bill. No nation can rest on its laurels, just as no business can rest on its past accomplishments. Businesses are constantly innovating, improving and designing the next great product or service. If you are complacent in business, you will eventually fail or become obsolete.

 

Come on Mr. Biden, go back to Washington and sit down with everyone there, put your heads together and figure out how to get us back on track. But don’t send us a nice new shiny locomotive and tells us everything is fine and we will be ok. Send us a blueprint for a new railroad, one that will be faster, safer, more powerful than any other country can muster. That will impress me, then I will be able to say Washington is working for me. But just remember if you and all of our elected officials in Washington can’t figure it out, then just get out of the way and allow private industry to take the reins and rebuild the infrastructure system.  We may not have all of the answers, but I can assure you that this is America and if we don’t have it we will develop the answer to keep moving forward. 

David E. Gemmill

D. E. Gemmill, Inc.

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