Does your commercial or industrial business have a significant amount of asphalt pavement on its property? Perhaps you have an outdoor lot where you store materials or equipment. Asphalt pavement requires regular care and maintenance in order to extend its lifespan. To that end, here are some tips to help preserve and maintain the asphalt pavement within your commercial property.
Pay Attention to Weight and Loads
Your asphalt cannot take on an unlimited amount of weight. If you have a lot of heavy vehicles or equipment on your property and a lot of heavy materials to move around with that equipment, be mindful of how much weight you are putting onto the asphalt at any given time. Asphalt pavement with too much weight on it could develop cracks or other damage. This will become even more likely if the structural fitness of the asphalt is already at risk due to existing cracks.
Be Careful With Gasoline, Oil and Chemicals
Your heavy equipment or vehicles likely use gasoline, oil, or other chemicals while getting the job done. If you need to change the oil or work with chemicals, try and do this off of the asphalt or put down some type of protective covering on the ground before work begins. If your asphalt has even small cracks in it, a chemical or oil spill could cause the substance to seep down into the asphalt. This will result in further weakening of the asphalt once the foreign substance gets down deep into the material.
Consider Protection From UV Rays
If your asphalt lot sees a good bit of sunlight during the day, you may want to consider some type of protection from the sun's UV rays. Prolonged exposure to UV rays can cause asphalt to deteriorate faster, especially if the rays can get through any existing cracks in the asphalt to do damage to the layer underneath. You could have a contractor put down a special coating or even paint your asphalt in order to provide some measure of protection from the sun.
Watch Out for Drainage Issues
Asphalt pavement that does not allow water to drain properly is going to have problems in short order. Standing water can damage asphalt and also attract pests. If your asphalt is not allowing water to run off immediately and properly during a rainstorm, you'll want to get this addressed quickly.
Get a Regular Inspection and Sealcoat
For best results, you should contact a professional contractor about asphalt maintenance at least once a year. The contractor can conduct a full inspection and also put down a fresh sealcoat in order to close over any existing cracks for another year.
For more info about asphalt maintenance, contact a local professional.